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Comment by narrator | Hacker News Reader

One of the most annoying things about physical fitness is you can't really outsource it. In the end, you have to do the work, with a trainer or whatever. There's just no way around it short of perhaps steroids speeding things up.

For cardio, the most tolerable way I've found to do it everyday is to get a heart rate monitor, get a machine that can adjust difficulty based on a target heart rate and then do that for 30 minutes with headphones and a good podcast or audiobook on. I try to ignore everything but the podcast. Things seem to work OK that way.

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I am having the same thoughts. As lazy engineers, we try to optimize and automate everything. Heck, even food is optimized with things like Soylent, but for workout and muscle building there just isn't anything yet. There are so many things I want to do in my day, and putting an hour away to go to the gym and do a few reps here and there is time that I would really love to invest into something else.

I'm wondering if it's really that difficult to 'invent' something to make it easier. Recalling my school biology lessons, muscle build because of ripped muscle fibers that grow back together, just stronger. It sounds so simple to build something artificial that does this automatically to your muscle zones without working out.

On the other note, maybe it's good that we don't have that yet. A good physique, big arms and things like visible abs are a great trophy you get for investing hard work and time. Not everyone has it, which makes it so desirable.

I've just recently gotten into http://zwift.com/, it's the only thing I've found that makes riding indoors tollerable, almost fun. The power meter on the bike connects to zwift, the more power you put out, the faster you go. There are a few virtual locations you can ride around, ride with other people. There are also workouts, where you need to hold a certain power for certain time. The workouts are scaled based on the power you can do. I prefer working out with power than heart rate since it responds a lot faster and is less affected by other things going on in your life. Mind you, a bike, a trainer and a power meter is pretty expensive if you don't already have them.

Does this work with rollers?

Yes, but you need an ANT+ power meter on the bike to make it in anyway realistic. More info here:

https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/203968635--Setti...

I combine my meditation with my cardio. I try to focus on rhythmic breathing and not letting my thoughts wander (especially not to "intellectual" topics since that is my default mode all day).

Works really well.

I use Zwift as well! It makes indoor riding nearly fun! (so long as you have a decent bike trainer, of course).

Ultimately there are no magic bullets, you have to do the exercise. And that's the idea with Jumper - motivating you to get out there every single day and get some exercise.

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