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RomeoStevens comments on Procedural Knowledge Gaps, part 2 - Less Wrong Discussion

10 [deleted] 08 December 2012 05:49PM

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Comment author: RomeoStevens 08 December 2012 10:05:40PM 9 points [-]

What type of exercise you do is less important than doing something. You can claim that optimality of the exercise contributes to motivation, but this seems like a common failure mode. People spend more time researching optimal exercise than doing anything.

The best way to get motivated for me is to quantify the health benefits. A generic "it's good for me" is not motivating. A specific percent reduction in risk of a CVD event is.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 May 2015 02:14:31PM 0 points [-]

That is why I am think the idea of fitness/exercise is fairly broken and we should go "back" to sports

When my dad was a boy, the idea of a gym (outside a school gym) was fairly unknown here. They were like, want to get stronger? Go kayaking. Want to lose weight? Play soccer.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 09 May 2015 09:18:14PM 0 points [-]

Sports have big startup costs for most, but I agree that once they are paid a sport will tend to generate feelings of intrinsic motivation. Reducing those startup costs would be valuable.

Comment author: [deleted] 11 May 2015 07:42:11AM 0 points [-]
Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 12 December 2012 02:47:57PM 0 points [-]

My problem is not having a good idea for what a long enough exercise session is. If I do something like 20 push-ups, and stop there, it feels like I haven't done enough exercise for the day for it to be any good. Then I end up doing no exercise at all.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 12 December 2012 07:25:24PM 0 points [-]

30 minutes/day has some evidence behind it if long term health outcomes is your main concern. I don't recall if 3.5 hours per week broken up in different ways than daily is just as effective.

A somewhat old fashioned circuit of walking for 30 minutes interspersed with a few pushup and pullup sets is certainly going to be helpful. You sometimes see paths at parks purpose built for this with exercise stations scattered around the loop.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 12 December 2012 07:50:59PM 0 points [-]

Yeah, that's a problem. I can imagine myself doing 5 or 10 minutes of calisthenics at home, but not 30 every day. The exercises (push-ups, squats, burpees, kettlebell stuff) tire me pretty fast, and get boring fast.

I can manage 30 minutes jogging, and find it fun, but I worry that my knees will break up if I do it too often. They hurt several days after a weekend of running a 5K and hauling stuff up flights of stairs couple months ago.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 12 December 2012 08:08:16PM 1 point [-]
Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 12 December 2012 08:17:35PM 0 points [-]

Everyone does, but that seems to involve either a gym membership or owning a barbell set.

Though thinking about my "5 minutes" comment above, I realized I'd forgotten about the Tabata workout routine. I can do push-ups, squats and two sets of kettlebell swings repeated twice in four minutes, and end up feeling like I've had an adequate quick workout. I'll see if I can install this as a habit.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 12 December 2012 08:26:34PM 0 points [-]

I suggest gummy bears