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Comment by girzel | Hacker News Reader

It think it's important to acknowledge the effect the body has on the mind. If I sleep early, sleep well, rise early, and do some physical exercise first thing in the morning, I'm essentially a different person: I feel like I double my work output, yet am still essentially calm.

Beyond that, I think the next step is doing something active and intentional to improve the mind-body connection -- sleeping and exercising is essentially only refraining from damaging yourself. Meditation, yoga, taiji, breathing exercises -- I don't think you can go wrong with any of those. Especially for people who sit in front of computers all day, minds in the ether, it's important to remember that you're also a body, always also a body.

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>It think it's important to acknowledge the effect the body has on the mind.

I think its ridiculous that its not more commonly understood that the "mind" is literally (physically) part of your body. Whatever circulatory, electro-chemical, hormonal, or any other processes are happening in your body are also happening in your brain.

This makes sense to me. I hear this on HN all the time and don't doubt that exercise does provide mental benefits to most people.

However, anecdotally, exercise (and getting a good night's sleep) has had no noticeable impact on my focus and/or productivity.

Is there anyone else that doesn't feel like exercise doesn't do anything? Or is it because I'm not exercising long enough or with enough intensity to make a difference?

At one point I went from being completely sedentary for about 6 years to spending about 3 months running 2-3 miles a day on an elliptical about 4 times a week with decent consistency. After a while, it did become easier to run further and for a longer period of time (from 2 miles to 3 miles), but I didn't notice any of the mental benefits that seem to be attributed to exercise. I still felt a general "brain haze" and sluggishness that I had assumed was a direct result of being out of shape. I've since gone to exercising on and off for another 3 months before going back to essentially being completely sedentary for several months and nothing about my mental state seems to have changed.

That being said, I do plan on exercising again to ideally get healthy in the longer term regardless of whether or not I get any immediate mental benefit. And I also plan on recording things more diligently to determine if there actually is a result for me.

The elliptical machine barely counts as exercise ;)

I have found that hard exercise, requiring mental fortitude to push through is what really helps. Sprints, power lifting, and distance running wear you down physically and mentally. IMO, continually pushing past the mental 'this is hard I want to stop' phase translates to increased concentration and acuity in other types of mental tasks.

I personally find that team sports help much more than individual sports. It's the only thing that motivates me to push myself beyond my mental limit to my physical limit. Basketball is my all time favorite sport, and I'd play for 3 hours a day if I could, but I've started playing soccer again and I think it's probably just as beneficial.

Didn't see your comment when I posted mine, but I feel much the same.

It's just far more interesting and satisfying. Telling someone to walk on a treadmill to help their focus is like telling them to watch paint dry. But team sports are dynamic, which I feel suits people such as myself, who have a hard time staying focused on one thing.

What sucks about team sports is that few people who play at a high level care to play with someone who can't keep up. So you need to do something to get to a certain level at least. I play soccer and basketball weekly, and I think the extra workouts do help with my performance on the field and court.

Those have never kept me engaged.

What does is playing a sport. Playing pick up soccer gives me a far better workout than lifting heavy objects and grinding on a treadmill, even at high intensity levels.

It's easy to say do these exercises, but to people who have minds that jump around a lot, mundane, boring exercises are not enticing.

I wonder if you just weren't pushing yourself hard enough. Ellipticals are fine, especially if you have bad knees, but they're not going to push your body as hard as other stuff. I'm working out these days, and after a couple of months, I notice I feel better. I admit I don't know how to describe it, but I feel healthier and stronger, and that seems to have some sort of effect on me. I don't know if I would have gotten there though if I did ellipticals instead of pushing myself with a coach at my gym, and going through a period of pain that I felt great to get to the other side of, just the feeling of not giving up. It may also be a placebo effect or increased self esteem or something else, but there's something there. Also, I'm totally not an expert on the subject. But I think there is something there, based on my own experience.

Try climbing. It's a physical and mental workout that is matched by few other activities.

The other day a buddy of mine said he started playing guitar again after 15 years without playing, and that it felt somewaht akin to meditation (which he had been practicing), since he had to be so present and focused in one thing while playing.

Agreed on all points. Good sleep and the first couple hours of the morning really set my pace for the rest of the day. For me those hours include meditation, daily review/planning and mental exercise over coffee, and some sort of intense physical exertion.

What kind of exercise? I kind of envy people who bust out 10 miles on a 7.5min pace

Exact numbers don't matter. It depends on your physical status. I find that 20-30' of exercise totally changes my mood and stress levels without exhausting me, allowing me to do actual work afterwards.

It's amazing how little exercise it takes to do the trick. Personally I feel like it's important to do something that opens the lungs and gets the heart beating, so cardio of some sort is what I choose (sometimes skipping rope). But some sort of all-body stretching (yoga sun salutation or similar) is actually enough.

Personal anecdote, so sample size of 1 and YMMV, but 5 months ago I started doing exercise in the mornings that has done wonders for my concentration and has helped me drop 25 pounds without changing much else in my life. It takes 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times per week and I literally don't have to get out of bed to do it.

After being frustrated by my air consumption on a scuba dive, I got interested in free diving (apnea) training. I found an iOS app called Apnea Trainer that looked promising and started doing the breathing exercises. I've gone from being able to hold my breath for just under 90 seconds to breaking 6 minutes for the first time last week. It also revved up my metabolism (like I said, I'm down 25 pounds) and I've gone from having borderline hypertension (with a family history of stroke) to having blood pressure that's almost worryingly low (usually around 100/50). And, like I mentioned above, it's been good for concentration and stress levels as well.

Wet training (in a pool or body of water) requires instruction and a partner, but dry training is pretty safe to do on your own as long as you don't push yourself beyond your limits on a regular basis.

Interesting! Seems that there is some evidence [1] that your experience can be generalizable.

[1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19850416

Nice little plug for your app there haha I'm kidding.

I'm skeptical that you'd be able to lose that kind of weight just by breathing exercises.

Thankfully I'm not super overweight but I want to be cut. Gotta start lifting again.

I want to run though I think that makes your mind clear or soemthing.

Cycling in the morning does it for me. I feel like a totally different person when I skip the cycle and get public transport. Even if it's as short as ~2 miles to where I'm going, I find getting the body going before the mind helps me focus.

I feel that I had to bike to work 10 miles a day, in a month I lost a good amount of weight almost zero gut! Build a bike sim with vr and a rheostat generator hehe

I swim a mile. I've been doing it for about 15 years so it's automatic and almost meditative, plus a full-body workout. Surprising how much head work I can do in that half hour.

I also paint, but you can probably insert any totally immersive creative pursuit here (music is probably more common amongst hackers). It completely switches brain hemispheres and unlike programming, my mind does not wander at all when painting, and I can literally go to another place for hours. Unlike when swimming, I can't think about programming or anything at the same time, I am completely absorbed in the painting. Paul Graham has lots to say on the subject.

I used to swim as well. The thought of drowning isn't pleasant haha = out of shape.

Thanks

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