Slashdot Mirror
How Do Geeks Exercise?
An anonymous reader writes "I have always been thin but all the sitting in front of the PC is taking its toll now that I'm getting older. I have begun to get a little heavier around the waist. I don't eat a lot but the weight seems to stay on these days. Most of the time I don't have the luxury of just getting out of the house/office. And being an introvert, I'm not enamored of the idea of exercising in full view of *shudder* people. I regularly do press-ups (60 per night) and sit-ups (30 per night) and some fetching and carrying, but that is all and these days it isn't enough. I need a solid and effective routine that will tone all my muscle groups efficiently. Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?"
Bike to work. (Make living close enough to bike a priority.)
Pretty much what the title says. Leave the car at home if you can. If you take public transportation, walking to the bus stop (rushing so you don't miss it =P), running down the stairs of the subway station (not using those fancy high tech automated ones! /cough), and so on, the pounds go away quite fast.
That is if you live somewhere where its possible. I've melted a lot doing that.
Seriously. It's actually pretty nice out there, or at least it was the few times I've had to go out.
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
Wii Fit. If you're a geek looking for a half-way decent workout at home, that'll fit the bill quite nicely.
Hindu push-ups, Hindu squats, back bridge. For more information: http://cbass.com/Furey.htm.
Lemmings are silly; dinosaurs are extinct.
It's even more fun when you have an exercise partner.
You have to get out of the house, but to suit the introvert, you can go where most people can't. You also get to wear PFD as well as and a baggy dry suit to cover up the unsightlyness if you need it in your area.
If you voted for Nader, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!
You very much need aerobic exercise to supplement your muscular-oriented exercise. Aerobic exercise works the heart, lungs, and circulatory system--very critical subsystems.
I'd recommend a treadmill or a bike with a trainer hooked up to it. Have a TV in front of you. After reading a couple books about it, use a heart rate monitor to keep from pushing too hard or too easy.
Try to build up to one hour per day. Don't discontinue your calisthenics. Read about exercise.
They're cool enough to do in front of other people, no matter how bad you are, and you have something to show off to your friends. It's a win-win scenario.
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
I went and picked up a cheap yet sturdy bike ($500.00 Specialized Hard Core Comp), and I take the train to work. from train stations in either direction it's about a 10 minute ride (20 total one way), however I can bike down to farther train stations to get a real benefit from it.
So the next train station from my work is about a 45 minute bike ride away, while the first one is ten.
The one after that is about an hour and a half away, and so on an so forth.
You can do this with bus stops too.
It's uncomfortable at first getting used to the bike, so pick up Mtn Bike shorts (They aren't the spandex ones, they look like regular shorts), and get used to it, then have at it. I love it now, and I royally hate working out in front of people.
Good luck!
If you play it right, it's a workout. You won't get as good scores at the weenies who sit on the couch and twitch the controllers, but who cares?
#1 - Yourself Fitness. PC, PS2, Xbox all options for it (and the ps2 and xbox titles are both compatible with their "upgraded" counterparts).
#2 - Wii Fit. Surprisingly effective if you discipline yourself to doing it. Downside: not as organized.
And now we get to some of the better stuff.
#3 - Find a local swimming pool, strap on a pair of rollerblades, get a bicycle.
#4 - Join a sports league. Your local parks & recreation department is a good start here and can steer you to local team sports if nothing else. This will also help with your "introverted" problem.
#5 - Once you take care of the "introverted" problem... get a girlfriend and do a lot of the world's #1 calorie-burning exercise.
If you live in a city with a rowing club, you could take up one-person sculling. It's non-impact, relaxing, and you get out in the fresh air. Unfortunately, you can't do it in the winter, and it's really difficult to carry the boat to the water on your own, so you have to have some social interaction. The solitude out on the water is nice though.
Get your own treadmill in a basement and out of site and do techie stuff while on it. Videogames that you... *huff, puff* ...that you can get sucked into are the best. I can easily walk miles while staring at a DS or PSP or TV screen with a wireless controller for my console. It doesn't have to be video... *huff, puff* ...doesn't have to be videogames, though. A properly mounted laptop could be used actual work or just... *huff, puff* ...or just for web browsing.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
Ride a bike as much as possible - if you need to run a local errand, hop on the bike. After a few weeks it's easy - often much easier than dealing with a car.
For more regular workouts, 3-4 years ago my girlfriend discovered Yourself Fitness - she hates gyms, is in good shape, but wanted a more structured way to work out at home - like the gym, but in private. Yourself Fitness is an Xbox title - not sure if it runs on Xbox 360 - and is like having a personal aerobics and yoga instructor at home. I was little shy of aerobics in general at first, but once I got into it, learned the various moves without looking like an idiot, I was hooked. In the first year I lost 30 pounds (which was my target) and I felt 1000 times better.
I'm sure similar results could be found with any aerobic exercise, but as someone who hates the gym scene, and for whom time is tight, Yourself Fitness was a godsend.
Both of our old Xboxes are dying, the disc itself is a bit scratched up and sometimes flakey, so we're just hoping for a new release on one of the current consoles. We've got a Wii and Wii Fit too, and like it a lot, but don't think Wii Fit is as convenient - a lot of time just navigating the app, haven't found a really good guided training mode... we use the Wii Fit to break up the routine of Yourself Fitness now and then, and it's a blast too... but at least for us, nowhere near as effective as YF on Xbox - and these days you should be able to pick up both items for $100 or so total.
Is not a heavy activity, helps you to relax, give problems another point of view and enjoy fresh air/view/whatever, even know *shudder* people.
I usually workout at the gym next to work. Honestly if you do push-ups, situps in the morning and night then go running (or biking) every other day the pounds will drop. The diet is the most important though. In order to lose weight the recommend eating around 5 meals a day. Each meal around 500 calories which consists of 40 % carbs, 30 % protein, and 30% healthy fats. This is at every meal. If you don't eat enough your body may begin storing fat to use as energy later on. If you would like more information, I would check out http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/index.html If you have any questions about workouts or diets, the site above has it all. I hope this helps.
Here, I can attest that this routine was what worked while I was with the Marines; there's no reason you couldn't do most of it indoors. Find a doorway in your home where you can hang a pull-up bar. Do the pushups and crunches at the recommended intervals and train up. You might even work in reverse crunches while laying facedown halfway off the bed with your feet secured by a friend.
The only thing you might have to do in public is running. For me, there's no better exercise than running.
http://oneweb.utc.edu/~semperfi/physical.htm
What I meant to say: there is no reason you need to exercise in your house.
This way my left leg/foot gets more exercise when driving an automatic, otherwise a heavy clutch does the trick.
Unless you've got the luxury of a huge amount of space, the only way you're going to come close to exercising all groups is via free weights.
Multi exercise machines don't even come close (more on that later). Treadmills/stationary bikes are great for burning calories which'll do most of your weight loss goals but you're asking about all muscle groups. BOSU balls, steps, jump ropes are all more limited in application. The other great full body exercise, swimming, isn't really an option in the privacy of your own home unless you're rich enough to have a good sized pool.
The problem with free weights, and this comes from being married to a physical therapist who's also an ACE certified personal trainer, is: You're doing it wrong.
Don't feel bad. Just about everyone does. From the Navy guys I've watched prepping for their PRTs by holding a dumbell in one position and flapping their elbows like chickens to those who swing weights and let the momentum carry them through the weak spots to those who only really focus on a few core groups.
This is what a good personal trainer will do for you (and, yes, I hate the idea of paying the meathead ones too). A good one will slow you down and perfect your form: meaning you're actually building the weak points not just swinging past them. A good one will start you on machines (really good for isolating the exact form you need but lousy at exercising all of the supporting groups) and then slowly move you over to free weights (really good at exercising a lot of supporting groups, lousy at teaching you good form). A good one will also teach you a whole range of exercises so you're not just bulking your biceps with no work on your triceps, strengthening abs without matching your lats, working on your upper body with no attention to your chicken legs (yes, you, 95% of guys in gyms).
Look at it this way...
How good of a coder would you be if you never learned from other people's code and never had anyone review yours? Sure, you might be a prodigy and do some cool trick most people have never thought of. More likely, you'll write messy, inefficient code that seems like it works while leaving memory leaks everywhere.
In the same way, you might manage to learn everything about lifting from message boards and videos. More likely, you'll get a fair amount right but still be doing a few gastly things that it never occurs to you they're wrong.
This is why we suck it up, venture in to a gym, find a good trainer (being willing to fire the bad ones until we get that one we vibe with), and learn the technique first... so we can then get it right in our splendid isolation.
Neither will weights, if your goal is to lose pounds. Weight training is good for what it's good for, but it's not the best option for burning calories. And burning calories is what it sounds like this guy needs.
If someone has not patented it already, I put the Idea of an aerobic keyboard and aerobic editor into the public domain! An aerobic keyboard's keys are huge, can be activated by arms an feet and require large leg and arm movements to press them. Such a keyboard will allow a geek to continue to edit while doing his exercises!
Of course specialized editors will be used to take advantage of the aerobic keyboard. I can hardly wait till emacs is modified for the aerobic keyboard, but I expect some atheists will want to use vi.
How do I publish this idea so no one else can patent it? Or is there prior art?
Tai Chi is essentially a form of Kung Fu slowed down to maximize the exercise potential and lessen the strain on your body.
Once you have learned the essential 108 movements (its all one long cycle that puts you back where you are started, but is learned as 108 or so individual moves), you have a routine that will exercise pretty much every muscle in your body, looks cool, and requires no equipment to perform in, any stretch of ground/grass/parkinglot with a roughly 15x15 ft area free would probably do.
Its been very popular in China for centuries and obviously works quite well, given the number of old people you see doing it in droves there.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Rock climbing/bouldering has dual benefits:
1. It's a slow endurance/strength excercise
2. It excercises your hands/wrists, which counteracts RSI
Get a climbing partner/group and hit the closest climbing gym. Go easy at first, and remember that the legs should be doing most of the lifting. Go easy on the hands too, you don't want to sprain anything :) Any RSI from typing/office labour should go away, and you will become comfortable enough to start doing more exertive excercises such as weight lifting or cardio.
But maybe you should try to exercise outside a bit. I would count myself as an introvert, and I run and bike regularly. If you make time to get out early in the morning or go out in the country, you can ride or run when or where most people aren't out. Maybe instead of trying to avoid exercising outside, you should just go ahead and try it. You may find that it isn't as uncomfortable a situation as you think.
Russian kettlebells are really great! I had never been physically active, yet at 50 I got a trainer who taught me how to use them. Unlike regular weightlifting, kettlebells (like a cannon ball, only with a handle) increase your strength AND your balance and flexibility. Highly recommended.
I agree here. 30 minutes at 8mph (4 miles). Burns approx 450-500 calories. Then some sit ups and push ups. Top it off with 20 minutes of stairs. About an hour to an hour and a half and you've burnt approx 600-800 calories. Keeping weight down is simply a matter of burning more calories than you consume. If you begin to look at everything you eat as calories you'll need to burn (ie, 5 more minutes on the treadmill), you'll know what and when to cut things from your diet.
So you're an introvert. Big deal! Exercise in front of people anyway.
Look, no one's going to make fun of you for going to the gym; in fact, they are more likely to make fun of someone who needs exercise and doesn't go to the gym.
The gym isn't Counter-Strike. No one cares if you're an exercise n00b. In fact, in my experience if you screw up at the gym, someone who knows what they're doing will show you the proper way to exercise so you don't injure yourself.
If you can afford it, and if you really care about your fitness and attractiveness, there is no reason not to go to the gym.
the MOST effective exercise is the exercise you don't even know you are doing. park the car at the far end when you go to the shopping centre, walk to the corner store. these all add up.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Just want to put another nod out there for crossfit, I'm going to a crossfit gym but if you're the introvert type and can handle being extra careful to observe good proper form on your own, doing the WOD (workout of the day - scaled to your fitness level) will give you a good all around workout over time.
I watched most of the theory vids before deciding to try it out:
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html#Clips
I'd recommend starting with the video "intro to intensity"
l4h
How come nobody has mentioned this one yet? I mean, come on! It has fitness tips as well as diet since you really need both to get the pounds off.
Hacker Diet
Tonights forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning
What turned me on to regular, healthful exercise was to have the right gadget. I worked for an outfit that makes consumer-grade heart rate monitors, so I got to keep one for myself while I wrote out the documentation.
I was very impressed with this gadget. It did wonders for getting me off my duff and tracking my exercise.
Seriously. It's the toys, guys. Having a little bleeping widget on my wrist made a huge difference.
So, even though I don't work for them any more, I'll totally shill for the Polar F11 HRM. It figured out an appropriate exercise schedule for me, it monitors the intensity of my workouts to keep me on target, and it tracks my progress over months. It's geared toward cardio, so it really excels at aerobic stuff like cross-country simulators and standing bikes. The pounds just melt away, though, and I'm toning up nicely.
If you're interested in getting one, I recommend going to your local gym to see if they have a partnership with Polar, because the personal trainers there will help you learn how to use the thing to maximum effectiveness. The thing is pretty simple to use anyway, though.
Okay. Done.
There are no drugs that can fully fix this, though metformin can help if your syndrome is advanced. You mainly have to adopt an atkins-like diet which avoids anything that spikes your glucose level over 140 mg/dl. That will cut out just about all bread, pasta, potatoes, and other starches. But in my case the gout was also a consideration, so I'm highly motivated to stick to it.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?
I literally just got back from a cycling workout - for me this means thrashing around town for an hour during the evening/night. OK, so it isn't in the privacy of the home, but regular cyclists know too well that nobody pays much attention to them :)
Cycling is familiar territory for geeks since it involves a machine that's easy to tweak and upgrade components for performance and a lot of technology surrounds it. Cycling also suits introverts since it doesn't require much human interaction or a gym.
I did Karate for several years until I moved and couldn't find my style taught in my new location.
It's a great workout, but more than that, it's actually *engaging*, unlike endless hours on the treadmill or pounding pavement, both of which I find incredibly tedious (despite being a runner in high school).
That said, weight gain has a lot to do with diet as well. If you're curious about the biology of nutrition and how your body reacts to different foods, I'd highly recommend Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It's a dense but very interesting read.
I bought a home treadmill about two years ago for about $500, and I really like it. I've mostly been using it for regular workouts until recently, when I injured my ankle and have to take it easier. So I made a detachable 'desktop' mod that fits over the arms, that will hold a laptop, mouse and bookstand. I can type or browse the web just fine while walking at 2.5 mph -- very satisfying!
Oh, and I got the idea from the 'walkstation' recently -- a professionally made treadmill and adjustable workstation. Looked great, but at $6000 it was a little rich for my blood.
Until the start of 2008 I was about 90 lbs overweight and morbidly obese. Throughout the year I have lost 70 lbs, and I am on my way to having a healthy BMI.
Here are my thoughts:
You don't have to go to a gym, but it really helps to have access to nice array of equipment. Get over your fear of going to the gym. No one gives a crap about you --except for when you may be using equipment they want to use. If you want to avoid socializing, wear headphones or go during off hours. If you are afraid of the locker room (that's normal it takes sometime to get used to), then don't use it.
Now on to to the technical stuff: You need to do a moderate to strenuous aerobic activity at least ~30 minutes a day 3 days a week (5 is better) for the rest of your life. I like to run, row, hike up mountains and occasionally use the elliptical machine. This is necessary for good cardiovascular health, and will help you in your later years. It will also as a side effect help you loose weight.
You need to do some basic weight training. You seem to favor body weight exercises, keep doing push ups, try increasing the reps, or difficulty by doing them on an incline. Learn to do pullups/dips also. Finally buy a few dumbbells, going up to 35-40 lbs in weight. Learn to do basic curls, and some presses. Later on read some fitness books, or go to a couple of fitness blogs to learn how to do lifts and presses that work your big muscle groups --think squats, and dead lifts. Doing this won't make you a huge muscle guy (believe me the gains are not that great) but you'll be happy with your increased strength. It will also help to keep you from looking flabby.
One more thing. The key to loosing weight is your diet. Good weight loss is slow, and steady. Cut 500-1000 calories from your diet, and you'll loose 2 lbs a week. However, you need to combine it with exercise or you'll have to keep "dieting" for the rest of your life to maintain your weight. That won't happen, so creating a nice caloric deficit through working out 3-5 times a day will help you maintain a healthy weight once you've reached it.
Personally, I go to a gym. But then, I live in a small town so I don't see very many *people*. Incidentally, I've always gone to a gym, even when I lived in a slightly larger town of Philadelphia.
The key to the middle parts is: it's the last fat to go.
You don't say how old you are, but the fact is you're getting older and your metabolism continues to slow each year. You can combat that by moving (aka exercise) and eating. Yes, eating. If you don't take in enough calories - the right calories - your body will react by storing what it can, usually in your middle. Unfortunately, your middle is the last place you lose from.
Muscles burn calories. You can increase your resting metabolic rate by building muscle. Just having more muscle mass == more calories burned sitting on your butt. It's a vicious cycle though, if you don't maintain the muscle (aka exercise) you'll lose it through catabolism (body breaks it down for energy).
There's a godzillion things you can do at home, but the easiest way to start is with push-ups and sit-ups. Buy an exercise ball, one of those big funny-looking rubber balls. There are dozens of different exercises you can do with those. They're cheap and they're extremely versatile. You don't necessarily need weights if you're a beginner, or even intermediate. You just need to use your body as the weight and do _something_ to trick your body into building some muscle mass. (You won't build a ton just doing pushups, but you'd be suprised how quickly it works) Consistency is key - 3 times per week on the "weights". You need a day in-between to allow your body to recover and actually build the muscle.
This one goes without saying: Eat healthy!
If you have the means, i.e. space and money, get a treadmill. Use it 30 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week.
The bottom line is, you have to burn calories and build some muscle. The only way to do either one is to _move_ a lot.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Get a good book on Yoga and practice at your own. Or, gather up some courage to go to a Yoga session and learn.
After the doctor told me that unless I started to exercise more, I was going to have to go on blood pressure medication (at age 25), I started cycling. I found the best way to get me going was to buy some geek gadgets to help me get excited. Garmin make some nice GPS bike toys which monitor your heart rate, altitude, position, etc and allow you to load it up to your PC afterwards via USB. They also make a wrist watch version.
The primary reasons martial arts are my preferred form of exercise:
1. You have to actually think about what you're doing quite often. You're not just doing mindless aerobics.
2. The group situation pushes you farther than you'd normally push yourself, and encourages you to reach new plateaus.
3. Classes are generally directed at all times. It's kind of like having personal trainers with you at all times, in that there's always a series of directed activities and you're not casting about for what to do next.
With that said, there are MANY bad martial arts schools out there. I generally avoid any place that doesn't seem to have any women or older men participating, that sees fit to display huge numbers of trophies on entry, or that has a master whose personality I don't think I could get along with. There are a lot of arrogant pricks in the martial arts world, and there's no need to pay for and encourage them. Similarly, there are plenty of schools out there that seem to exist so that young 20s males can beat the crap out of each other. Let them... and go somewhere else.
Somewhere in fourmilab.ch, there's a free book about weight loss from a geek perspective which includes an exercise program which is
o quick, under 15 minutes to complete
o private
o works with no special equipment
o is not suitable if you have back problems, get professional advice if you do.
If you live in a hilly area then walking can get your heart rate into the aerobic training range. Aerobic exercise has cognitive benefits too.
Lots of people have reported good results from Dance Dance Revolution.
Sounds like you've solved the #1 problem, motivation. It's a miracle that any geeks retain any interest in fitness after the physical "education" classes in school. But you're already familiar with the fact that your brain feels better in a body that goes when you step on the gas. The other way to look at it is that your body is like a Swiss Army knife, it's the tool you always have with you, so it might as well be functional.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
STOP lifting weights? What kind of silly advice is that? A proper workout incorporates aerobic and anaerobic workouts. That being said, its entirely possible w/ weight training to keep your heart rate insanely high for 15-20 minutes straight. It's called circuit training. Basically, you chain exercises together. So if your doing body weight exercises, you could do pushups, situps, burpees, dips, chinups (or w/e you want), repeat 3 or four times. By the end, you'll be dying, your heart rate will be skyhigh, and most likely be dizzy. But you've burned your calories. And you will get stronger.
On that note, if you have space you can try hanging a heavy punching bag and working it. Find someone who knows proper technique, have them teach you, ask them for a nice routine to follow (eg:3x3 minute rounds with 40 seconds breaks in between).
According to my high school biology teacher, this is true. Muscle cells are rich in mitochondria, which constantly consume "food" to create energy -- hence, burning calories. Weight training leads to more muscle cells. More muscle cells leads to more mitochondria. See where I'm going? (Disclaimer: I'm no scientist. Well, a computer scientist. But that doesn't apply here.)
In which case you should probably consider moving to another city; the savings on not needing a car and "savings" in health will probably pay for your move.
I'm surprised it took this long for someone to admit this. Most likely it's just some form of self-selection bias, but damn it makes slashdot look like the healthiest community on the net.
The only sports I ever enjoyed are ones you might find in a pub, mainly pool and darts (it's a sport, ok? Even the UK recognizes that). At most, an occasional game of football with my high school friends, although even that gets old soon. But fuck me with a spiked running shoe if I have to run further than the line of sight, or risk killing myself while pedaling the horrid invention that is the bicycle. The gym, of course, ranks somewhere below the dentist's office in terms of places I'd like to be.
Maybe I should buy myself a 70s Alfa Romeo. Certainly the motivation to push it to a garage as quickly as possible will be there.
Yoga (hire a tutor if you want) and Plyo can easily be done in the home.
Most people don't need free weights, they are all the weight they need. See here for specific exercises and examples.
Start with the Sun Salutations (lots of youtube links, but be sure an actual instructor sees you do it before you begin your practice). Flexibility and range of motion is important. Relax into the stretch, don't actively stretch. Learn to breathe (yeah, I know, sounds dumb, but most people do it wrong... diaphramatic breathing aides in relaxation among other things, and is more efficient). Move on to (any of a dozen different kinds of) pushups, canoe/reverse canoe, one-legged squats, wall sits. Start walking in the morning before your shower.
Change it up. Your body adapts really quickly to stress loads it has experienced before. The hardest part about working out isn't exertion, it's figuring out what to do and how to do it.
Also, before you start trying to get ripped by maxing out and doing pyramids, keep in mind that time under tension is far more important than percent of maximal effort, and you can efficiently tear muscle down with less injury risk just by dropping the weight and increasing the rep duration.
Supplements are a waste of money. The correct diet is safer and far more efficient. Don't overdo the protein grams. Most people get too much protein as it is (and not nearly enough fiber, dark leafy greens and good fats).
Also, give the Shangri-la diet a try. It worked for me.
cosin() is more fun than sin()...
I rock climb. My clients seem horrified or amazed at it, but I pull down rock like a mean SoB. It's mentally challenging, as each new problem has a unique solution, it's social but geeky (few people do it, lots of esoteric gear), and I get great exercise. I've been injured for the last year, though, so I run now, sometimes kayak. Climbing's for me, though. All that being outside in the fresh air with a good buddy or two? Sounds fratboy-ish, but with a physics teacher as a climbing partner we never run out of things to talk about.
-
I have a health condition that makes it extremely difficult and stressful for me to leave the house to exercise... I do enjoy a good cardio workout, and was feeling quite unhappy about being unable to engage in a regular routinized exercise session that I enjoyed (because aerobics, yoga, pilates, etc. tapes just aren't that much fun to me), so I decided to see what the hype was about last Christmas and I picked up a DDR game.
Now I'm an avid DDRer, and I must say that it can be a fantastic workout, especially if you play doubles (i.e. two mats) as you move your centre of gravity much more often, and if you work yourself up to the harder levels, which get you moving faster. I can burn an estimated 1000 calories per session, and those sessions just fly by because I'm really enjoying myself. You don't only see your improvement in the game, but the improvement in your appearance, too. My stomach is trim now, and I have that nice abdominal V that some fit people get.
If you haven't tried DDR, I highly recommend it. Get a PS2 game, get a couple cheap mats, and give it a go. If DDR isn't your cup of tea, find an exercise routine that you can do at home that you enjoy so that you actually feel inclined to do it more than a few times. You'll never keep up a regime that bores, intimidates, or embarrasses you.
Those exercises are not for beginners, though. If you aren't already in pretty good shape, two of them are outright dangerous: the bridge will wreck your neck, and squats with the heels coming up will wreck your knees. And even if you're in good shape, I've never met either a qualified doctor, physio or professional sports coach who advocates bridging, because of the risk of neck injury.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
... resistance training (multiple sets of situps, pushups, crunches, bicycle crunches, bench/military presses, etc.) followed by cardio (interval training on a real bike mounted on a trainer), not the other way around. This basically guarantees that your muscles will be toned but will not bulk up plus your metabolism rate will increase so you continue burning calories even while inactive. I do this 2 times a week indoors... the other 2 or 3 times I either cycle to work or participate in a group bike ride.
Another key to losing weight is to sleep at night feeling a little hungry.
It all boils down to the fact that you've got to move. Sitting all day destroys your body. After almost three decades of sitting in front of a computer, I decided two years ago to start moving and I can honestly say that despite a few temporary set backs, life just gets better.
Start small if you need to; I started with a fifteen minute walk every day. When things started to get easier I did more. After two years I'm at the point now - though I'm not (yet) the finest example of physical fitness - that CrossFit (www.crossfit.com), strength training (www.startingstrength.com), and rowing (www.concept2.com) are the best tools in my fitness routine. You gotta change things up regularly if you find yourself bored.
The key is to move. Do new things all the time. Challenge your body and you challenge your mind.
You'll find that living life upright is much more enjoyable than life sitting down.
-Fred.
Oh hell. Ignore above link.
http://hundredpushups.com/
---- Liquid was a patriot ----
Might not tone your muscles, but it'll keep the weight down.
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Shovelglove is clever, extremely effective, and extraordinarily elegant in its simplicity.
I've been "shugging" for 3 years, off and on. When I'm on, I feel great, I have more energy, more muscle tone, etc. When I don't do it regularly, all of the above gradually go away over a matter of days or weeks.
Once I pick it up again, I'm feeling great within a couple of days.
Go slow at first. You will use muscles you didn't know you had. I recommend starting with an 8# sledge, maybe a 10# if you are already strong. I also got a 16# hammer after about a year of steady shugging. I also use a 4# framing hammer for one-handed moves.
JWL.Freakwitch.net
One thing I might add - if you're an avid gamer, or a competitive person (if nothing gets you going like a game of Halo, or Starcraft), you might try translating that into a workout. Find a friend, and go play some 1v1 basketball at a court. Race bikes. Something, anything that is competitive. Even if you're bad at the chosen task, if you find it fun, that's all that matters - you'll get better overtime, and you'll get in better shape.
If you're afraid it'll be embarrassing, make sure you try this with close friends - no matter how bad you are, they'll just be happy to see you and be happy to be playing with you. After all, the best part of the this work out is at the end of the day, it's just a game.
A 2-week study at a Canadian University (McMasters?) suggested that 6 minutes of very intense exercise was better than 6 hours of moderate/regular exercise. It came froma small sample, but 8 people did 4 each of 30-second sprints, 3 times per week. In two weeks their Aerobic capacity and endurance showed marked increase, and their mitochondria count increased 35% (which is an indicator of the energy-burning capacity of the muscles).
Geriatrics (ages in their 70's and 80's) regained musculature equivalent to persons in their 30's in Florida after exercising for 13 weeks by supporting weights so heavy they could only hold them for 30-60 seconds. (Two programs, "Static Contraction Training" and "Max Contraction Training" resulted from this study.) In the first 13 weeks I used the Max Contraction training, my doctor and I figured out I lost 14 lbs of fat and gained 9 lbs of muscle. I do this program for about 14 minutes a week. (It takes about a week to allow your muscles to recover at this intensity, despite what so-called "Physical Trainers" say about exercising 3 times/wk.) I'm 60 years old and have some joint problems, so it helps that I don't have to move weights repetitiously through a great range of motion.
I walk 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week using a heart rate meter according to a program by Phillip Maffetone in his book,"The Maffetone Method". He trains bicycle racers and super-long-distance runners, so I suspect his program is pretty good. (It seems to work for me.) The end result: My doctor still wants me to lose another 50 lbs (I've lost 30 over the last two years), but my resting heart rate is less than 70, my blood pressure is 110/70, my total cholesterol is usually between 150-170 with real good ratios, blood sugar runs between 105 and 111 over the last two years, and I have lots of energy.
The biggest drain on my energy is carbs. I was on a low fat diet for four years and gained 10 lbs/year. As soon as I started moderating my carbs instead of my fat, my energy levels picked up and I started losing a moderate amount of weight. I've looked at a number of books on the market, and since I can't distinguish one set of superstitions from another, I've resigned myself to sort of following the guidelines in "Protein Power" by Eades and Eades. YMMV. It is important for me to bring healthy lunches to work, avoid the soda and snack machines, and limit the number lunches I go to with the other developers. (For me, the difference between wishing I was fit and getting fit is using some of the talent for focusing I developed for programming, and applying it towards habits that work for my physical success.)
I have my best success when I get into the pattern of exercising early in the morning. I don't do contract work anymore; the Electronic Sweatshop is detrimental to my health, even though the money is good. I take regular breaks from my desk, walk or do Tai Chi during my lunch breaks, and within a couple of weeks I will be biking to work instead of driving. Theoretically, I need to be active 90 minutes a day in order to lose the 50 lbs. When the joint problem gets corrected I will go back to doing martial arts 3 times per week or more, and that ought to do it.
Good luck, and I hope you find something that works for you.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
Do what I do... get some poundin' beats happening and just dance away at home to them. The neighbours might not fully appreciate your choice of music, but stuff 'em! If you're not into that, could always go to a rave / dance club and dance away. I also walk to and from work every day and own a bike which I take out on weekends.
It's the only time my mind actually shuts off. And it covers all the bases: cardio, strength training, and flexibility. 1.5 hours 3 times a week. And the classes are 75% women.
I do many kinds of exercise (biking, weights, cardio, regular yoga etc.) and have been physically active for many, many years. By far the most effective and pleasing exercise available is Bikram Hot Yoga. It's growing in popularity, so there should be a studio near to you.
The routine is carefully designed to work from the inside out, top to bottom, and to increase flexibility, strength, and circulation. Almost any ailment you may have will be addressed - its hard to oversell the benefits as it engages the entire body.
If you google 'hot yoga' or 'bikram' and your area I am sure you can find classes. However, not all hot yoga is Bikram (I have also tried Moksha, for example), but the Bikram routine I find far superior. I would strongly recommend it for everyone as it sheds weight, strengthens muscles, and improves joints considerably.
(Disclaimer: I'm no scientist. Well, a computer scientist. But that doesn't apply here.)
Don't you mean "Damn it, I'm a computer scientist, not a doctor"?
Having greater muscle volume does lead to greater calories burned without doing anything. This however is a pretty small gain. With aerobic exercise you can burn a ton of calories and most importantly you directly burn fat. When you burn the short term energy stores (sugar) of the body it effects you hunger. When you directly burn fat you feel less hungry after working out. This is why aerobic exercise is best for losing weight. Resistance training will work but it takes more will power.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
After finishing school, I was convinced I hated sport. What I actually don't enjoy are team sports, but that is all I really encountered at school. But there are a whole selection of sports that are a lot of fun by yourself, far more suited to an introvert. I used to orienteer - dashing around the woods by yourself with a map is fun, physical and works your mind at the same time. Trekking is often done best by yourself (or at least I prefer it that way) - you can spend days without meeting another sole if you can find the time. Cycling is also perfect. I've never got into road racing, but touring and mountain biking are fun and it easy to do a few mile after work in the summer. Get outside - there are less people around than you might expect and it's good for the sole. I find it gives my eyes a break and helps me focus on things further away than a monitor too.
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX
"The 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) Plan is an exercise program developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) by Bill Orban in the late 1950s.
The RCAF asked Orban to develop a fitness program for their pilots, a third of whom were not considered fit to fly at the time. The plan was innovative in two respects. Firstly, it did not require access to specialized equipment. Many RCAF pilots were located in remote bases in northern Canada, with no access to gymnasium facilities, so it was important to offer a means of keeping fit without their use. Secondly, the plan only required 11 minutes per day to be spent on the exercises."
The program can be downloaded in PDF form from the following location:
http://www.adam.com.au/wedesign/5bx.zip
James Bray
http://www.reeb.freeserve.co.uk
Self-resistence isometric and isotonic training. Costs nothing, builds muscle efficiently, surprises your friends and balances your life. Also, you can do it while posting to /. from your basement ;)
I went from ~35% body fat to ~15% last year using primarily strength training (4-5 hours a week) supplemented by 2-4 hours of cardio. That translated to about 35lbs of lost fat. I didn't diet. My weight stayed relatively constant. That meant I added about 35 lbs. of muscle. I got to eat a lot of food. I had the doughnuts I love (only right after lifting). The better physique started drawing a lot of attention from women and I got picked up several times. People think I'm five to ten years younger than I really am.
To those who say that aerobic exercise will lead to muscle mass increases, you only need to look at marathon runners' legs to see that isn't really true. more than an hour of cardio a day leads to muscle loss.
Bottom line:
Put identity in the browser.
To specifically address the question posed (what do we, the Slashdot readers, do to stay in shape):
I eat vegetarian; low dairy, lots of beans, tempeh, and seasonal fruits/veggies. I bring my lunch to work every day which is cheaper and more nutritious than buying it.
I lift weights three times a week for an hour emphasizing multi-join and body-weight-resistance exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, dips, incline and hanging crunches, etc.
I bike to work whenever the weather permits.
I run 5 km at least once a week (though bad knees sometimes demand that I go for a long walk instead).
All of this combined yields a weekly time commitment of about 3.5 hours of exercise plus 90 minutes of biking to and from work (2 mi each way). I'm 185 lbs, 6'1", and I fill out my nerdy T-shirts in the shoulders, not the belly. I don't have six-pack, but I certainly don't have a gut. All around I feel very health even though the vast, vast, majority of my time is spent sitting on my ass in front of a computer at work.
I don't care whose biology teacher told them what about which calories are burned by how many muscles, but my whopping 3.5 hours a week of exercise entitles me to all the beer I can drink and stuffing my face with burritos to my heart's content without gaining a fraction of an inch around my waste line (which hasn't changed in 15 years). And no, I'm not one of those skinny nerds than can eat Taco Bell every day and still look like a bent coat hanger.
I think that the big trick to staying healthy is sticking with your routine, whatever it is. Don't just go on a diet and start running in response to feeling fat and out of shape. Biking to work is a great way to start and, depending on where you live, has the added benefit of being faster than driving.
Actually, I wrote my thesis on life experience.
Whatever you do, don't join a gym! So many people pay a monthly fee but just don't go often enough.
I used to cycle, but that did very little for my upper body. Nowadays I row on an indoor rowing machine. Rowing has a lot going for it:
1) Low impact. Less wear on your knees than running or cycling. Swimming is another low impact exercise.
2) Works every major muscle group in the body - arms, legs, back, stomach, chest. http://www.rowsport.com/rowsport/index.php?page=get_page&id=XJSC4F8-UHUNAG0-93C15ZR-SL280W1 Swimming, Nordic skiing and Nautilus machines do this too.
3) Uniquely, when rowing you work both legs together, then both arms together. Other exercises work your limbs alternately. I theorise that you can expend more calories this way. Rowing with a sliding seat has been the best way to get maximum work out of a human body for the last couple of hundred years. It's stood the test of time.
4) Since it's an expensive machine just for exercise, that's an incentive to make use of it. It's sort of a gadget, like a PDA. Boys like toys and enjoy playing with them.
5) As you refine your technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXnKyJdA01w you can achieve new personal records, then try to beat those records. That helps with motivation.
6) Unlike running or weight training, rowing provides a dynamic load to work against. The harder you pull, the greater the resistance.
7) Having a rowing machine at home means you don't waste time commuting to the gym. That makes it easier to exercise every day.
I've been rowing since February 2007, and at one point I lost 14 pounds in four months. This isn't much compared to some, but slow and steady is better for you than crash dieting.
Rowing is not for everyone and some people really do well with a gym membership, I'm sure. This is just IMHO - YMMV.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
Long walks with a dog. Solitary, at your pace. and the dog has many other benifits to your life (just owning one has been shown to lower your blood pressure).
It'll just give you toned muscles. If you want to burn fat, you have to spend more calories than you consume. You need cardio: get the heart rate up, and keep it up. Sit-ups are also bad for you: do crunches instead.
Not a typo. I think I just wasn't clear enough.
Strength training does destroy muscle mass every time you lift to complete failure. Your body just rebuilds the lost stuff and adds some for good measure. This is why you're sore and need recovery time. It's also why you use a hell of a lot of calories when you lift weights -- most of the calories are spent after the training is over.
Put identity in the browser.
In the discussion of calories you might also consider what foods you are eating. Just over 30% of people have a glycemic responses that causes them to gain weight more quickly when eating foods high in sugar and simple carbohydrates. It's an insulin balance thing. The glycemic response is probably why the Atkins diet can be so successful for many people.
I have to watch my pasta, bread and rice along with some fruit like bananas. Alcohol and soft drinks are high glycemic index foods and need to be taken in moderation.
Bottom line:
You forgot something:
There, fixed it for ya.
Slashdotting since 2000