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Comment by alansammarone | Hacker News Reader

Every time I read an article like this, I get a bad feeling and I say to myself "I'll definitely exercise more - I don't wanna be all buggy when I get older due to my lifestyle - I'll do this NOW!". Then a couple of hours later, I'm back coding happily seated. I'm sure this is the case for many of us.

I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.

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Guilt is a terrible long-term motivator. For me, two big mental shifts made an enormous difference.

1. I had to stop feeling like someone else was going to tell me how to do it or make me do it. Start going to the gym and do whatever exercises you like doing. Keep showing up, and change your posture. Don't think "I should exercise more." Think "I'll go on Tuesday nights when I don't have as much going on." Work from the assumption that you're already a person who exercises, and just think about the mechanics of actually making time for it. We spend way too much time thinking about how we become gym people instead of just going and exercising.

2. As some other people have pointed out, realize that you can't undo a sedentary work day by working out for an hour at the end of the day. One trick I use is to do pomodoros (25 minute chunks of work) followed by a 3-5 minute break where I get up and just walk or look out the window. If my motivation or focus is flagging, sometimes I'll use that time to read a couple of paragraphs on my Kindle app. (Churchill said "a change is as good as a rest"; sometimes taking your eye of the ball for a minute can help you refocus your mind). By moving a little many times throughout the day, I find I don't build up those slow and steady tensions that ruin your body and will to exercise.

There is a Tony Robbins video somewhere where he says "in life, you get your standards". I.e. not what you want or desire but what you make an absolute standard. I found it can take time and few mental visits to a problem before this happens.

Most of us have standards around hygiene, dental care, personal appearance etc that are almost immutable.

If you have a standard that you want to remain fit and that becomes deep-rooted then there is nothing to think about. It will happen.

He also said "You never get your wants, you only get your needs". Same idea- the wants always slide. The only thing that doesn't slide is the needs.

It actually surprised me learning later in life that Tony Robbins is not the total charlatan I always assumed he was.

I never thought I'd find anything useful Tony Robbins ever said, but that sounds true.

I've heard the same idea before, but then it was called identity instead of standards. You have a personal identity that you identify with. You have to permanently change your own personal view of yourself in order to change a behavior long term. Change your identity. It's a way to use cognitive dissonance to your own advantage. If you are doing something that goes against your ingrained view of yourself, then it will be mentally uncomfortable, and you'd rather not be doing it.

I think you can also just call this personal values.

For me, the hardest part was getting past that when getting into shape. Going to the gym when you're out of shape isn't very fun. Who wants to role play the loser? You're surrounded by people who all look better and are stronger than you. And it's not just mental, it's also physically unenjoyable.

In my experience, if you can just get over that hump to a point where you start to look good, or get strong, or feel good, it becomes an activity, not a chore. Your body is incredible and it's a shame to not see a glimpse of its potential.

This simple concept was very helpful to me, and I hope to others as well.

You have about 5 seconds before your brain shuts up those ideas like "I'll definitely exercise more...".

It's an awesome idea, life changing even. 5 seconds later your rational self catches up with the idea and starts to counter with 'but I don't have enough time', 'it's too hard', 'maybe tomorrow', etc.

The next time you get the idea to exercise more you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it. Maybe it's not the best time to start exercising at 3am when you have the idea, but at least put it down in your calendar with an alarm/reminder/something. The point being you need to take action on those ideas as soon as you have them, or they are gone.

you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it

If you're at home, there's no reason not to just do 10 pressups right there and then (and as you get better, 20, 30 and so on). Or dips with your chair if you can't do pressups yet.

I wouldn't recommend focusing on push-ups, they are counterproductive if you have the typical "computer posture" with hunched/forward shoulders. Chin-ups, rows, and similar are likely to be a better idea.

> Chin-ups, rows, and similar are likely to be a better idea.

And in my opinion are entirely missing the point because they take more pre-planning and effort. Even if only a little.

The problem people are trying to solve is "how do I go from nothing to exercising even a little?" The problem you are helping them solve is "how do I get more/ the most out of my workout?"

It's a serious pet-peeve of mine. I know you mention it with good intentions, but people often try to help others by telling them their personal favourite item, vs helping them solve their problem.

People do similar with programming languages. For a one off project or getting started sometimes a shitty language is the best way to help someone for their specific problem.

While some exercise is probably better than none, doing only push-ups can end up being harmful. I was thinking of postural issues[1] like Upper Cross Syndrome[2], very common among people who sit at a computer all day and don't exercise. Focusing on already-strong/tight muscles like the pecs will be unhelpful for correcting these issues, and can certainly exacerbate them. That said, I may have overreacted due to conflating bench presses with push-ups.

1. http://exrx.net/Kinesiology/Posture.html

2. https://www.theptdc.com/2014/07/upper-crossed-syndrome/

As for programming languages, I've sent "pull requests" for AutoHotKey programs via Reddit PM before. If it's the right tool (or a decent one) for the job...

"desire is to drive what truth is to knowledge"

you need it to be a kind of mediating objective to not lose that pledge. otherwise, the inevitable abandonment comes after exercising a handful of times, if that :P

my intuition tells me you'd need a goal that has pushups (or exercise at all) only as a subcomponent along the path towards the attainment of that goal. hopefully it would persist longer than if solely working out were the goal. so that it doesn't feel "empty" or easily abandon-able after doing it a few times.

I agree, although I’ve found that there are diminishing returns around 25-30 push-ups. At some point you need to use weights or machines that allow you to exceed what you can get from body weight.

There's always the challenge of one-arm push-ups. A person who could do 10 on each arm would be a beast!

Is it really the "rational self"? Personally, I think it's just my lazy instincts kicking in.

During a psychedelic mushroom trip, for the first few hours my rational mind is heavily dampened. I’m not fully aware or conscious in the normal way, and I mostly just remember are intense sensory and emotional impressions. After around 4 or 5 hours, my rational mind comes back with a vengeance and more biological drives are dampened. Pain (temporarily) ceases to be a motivator, as do other low-level emotional sensations like embarrassment, hunger, and whatever weird energy conservation instinct it is that makes many people prefer not to exercise.

At this time, when my mind is clearest (there are several other metaphors I could use here, but let’s go with that), I feel like I could totally exercise as hard as I should for as long as I should without getting caught by that nasty energy-saving mechanism we call laziness.

As a comparison, many people are willing to grind for hours on an MMO character, but aren’t willing to go to the gym for half an hour a day. Without the normal din of brain activity, it’s easy to apply the video game mentality to your meatspace person.

The thing that did finally get me habitually exercising (while sober, of course) was an in-work gym, since sometimes repeatedly lifting heavy things is preferable to another minute dealing with most software products.

Your rational self being brought back to the party line.

You just need to find activity interesting for you

I used to do sedentary lifestyle most of my life until I found rock climbing 2 years ago

I go rock climbing to a gym 2-3 times a week now. I go there because I WANT not because I have to. This did tremendous job to my health and overall fitness. And this is sustainable in the long term because I don't have problems with motivation.

So my advice — find your sport, any physical activity you are interested in. If it becomes boring, don't hesitate to change it.

You don't need to be a sportsman and become good at something, you just need consistency to move your body , so care about your motivation. Good body will come naturally after some time.

I'm also mad for climbing and yes 2-3 times a weeks does wonders for overall feeling, fitness and strength. It's also a very complete exercise unlike many other sports. But the claim here is doing that at the end of your day still isn't sufficient in dealing with sitting for hours in row. Which I anecdotelly can relate to: I feel way better overall when not spending hours a day sitting. And when I go climbing after a 'standard' working day involving multiple consecutive hours of sitting I'll top at about 4 routes in a certain grade. However when I'm taking a week off to do some light construction works in my house and I go climbing after such a day, when I've been sitting for max 1 hour or so, and even if I already did a considerable amount of physical labour, I'll do 8 routes in that same grade. At first I thought it was a coincidence (like the routes in that grade just being easier or me just accidentally being better for some reason or...) but it happened time and time again in the last couple of years. I'm not 100% sure the not sitting is really the cause, but it is striking.

Start small - take the stairs over the lift, do more walking etc. Just make it part of your life, no need for exercise to stop and start in the gym.

The idea is to actually do it NOW instead of thinking about it. Then after that, put a daily reminder on your phone, and when it goes off just exercise, rain hail or shine. Most people don't exercise because instead of just doing it, they think of excuses - "oh, it looks like it's going to rain" or "i'm more tired than usual today.. i'll exercise tomorrow instead". To put it simply, make exercise a rule instead of a choice.

It is about loving yourself, granting yourself this time for yourself, form a habit, and stick to the habit. There's no need to get to the gym to become a body builder, start slow and aim low instead and compliment yourself for the achievements you made. Being critical of your performance or lack of exercise is only going to demotivate you as beginner.

If you do not exercise at all right now, doing very little is already a big improvement over essentially nothing. The diff between 0 and 15 min is far greater and significant than 15 and 30 min.

You can start with something simple like doing some minor exercises every 5 min after 1 hr of sitting. It is going to help you focus more as well, because your brain will be in diffused instead of focused mode whilst you're exercising.

I can highly recommend Nederland in Beweging on Dutch TV (tho I doubt you're Dutch, American TV is massive so I hope there's something akin to it). It is 15 minutes a day with a warming up and cooling down. The Dutch government (or well, "gezondsheidsraad") recommends 21 minutes a day of movement and twice a week heavy exercise. With those 15 minutes, you're well under way to reach 21 min and the exercises are different every workday, and target different muscles, so your entire body is in the end in shape. That's in contrast to say running 3 times a week. You meet the heavy exercise requirement, but you won't meet the 21 min one, and various of your muscles (e.g. hamstrings and more or less entire arms) will be weak.

Doing this may also very well increase your overall happiness (and decrease depression), increase your focus, decrease your fatigue, and decrease your procrastination.

Don't rely on that bad, guilty-like feeling. We're hardwired as humans to get out of that state as soon as possible. That can happen in one of two ways. 1) You actually get some exercise, feel better, and now you don't have guilt to motivate you, so you lapse into old patterns. 2) You learn to ignore it and go about your day (as described in your post).

Discipline trumps motivation every time.

Well, I would suggest that instead of going all in at once, try making fitness a habit step by step.

1 - Cut sugar from your diet 2 - Reduce junk food from your diet (start having homemade food) 3 - Start doing bodyweight exercises

and so on.

It will be much easier to stick to the plan if you break your goal into smaller actionable steps.

I found that making exercise part of my routine, as opposed to another thing to get round to, I exercised without thinking about it. I started cycling on my commute, now I do 20 miles a day without thinking about it. I know not everyone can cycle all the way to work and home but can you cycle to the train/tram/bus stop? How about the stop after the one you usually catch public transport from?

That's me. If it was just up to me, I'd never exercise. That's why I've got PT session at the gym scheduled every week and make sure to exercise when my more motivated partner exercises. (i.e. say "I'll go for the run with you in the morning" - and then is feel guilty not to) Making plans with other people makes it harder not to follow through.

Be careful of what you wish for :-D I was the same until this year when some very odd bodily sensations turned into full blown health anxiety. Exercise has turned out to be the only thing that helps keep it at bay, it seems. Getting healthy is great but now I seem to feel dreadful pretty quickly if I'm inactive for even a few hours.

It’s easier when you build it into your daily routines. E.g. I have to go to work anyway, so I take a bike.

I wish these article writers wouldn't write in the "YOU" mode, instead write "how sitting on front the computer is killing me" and then realize maybe there's a better way to communicate this without making us feel guilty.

Pain teaches me away from sitting too long, but the catch is of course to have some alternatives, like taking a break or standing, or doing yoga, if I didn't have those experiences and routines I wouldn't really probably know or recognize the pain, as the pain would be every day with me.

Standing desk is a great invention, but I've noticed I cannot stand all day long, as I cannot sit all day long, best solution for _me_ is to alternate between standing and sitting, that seems to do the trick.

> I wish these article writers wouldn't write in the "YOU" mode, instead

That horse has bolted, unfortunately. Clickbait works and everyone is at it. My pet peeve is "considered harmful. Do all the things that are "considered harmful" in headlines and you will probably come to no harm.

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