Working Out Inside the Office | Hacker News Reader

Working Out Inside the Office

nytimes.com

53 pointsfogus28 comments

Thank god I'm self employed and decide myself when and what to exercise. I can't imagine having to dance to the pipes of these corporate clowns. 18 people being scrutinized by their bosses collectively lose 150 lbs (25 of which are accounted for by 1 person)? I can't say I'm impressed.

They were 18 people participating in a scientific study. There's nothing in the article that suggests that they were forced to participate. They were almost certainly volunteers.

If they were volunteers the study would have a very strong self selection bias and therefore not be scientific.

That might be true for some studies, but the generalization is not correct. It depends on what is being studied.

Care to give an example where a study with strong self selection bias is still scientific?

Nearly every drug test. E.g., the researchers ask for volunteers suffering from condition X. Those volunteers are then tested with a new drug.

Why would you think the fact that the subjects are volunteers would affect this?

On the other side, I really wish my office were like this. I hate having to sit down all day - my back really does start to hurt. I have a stand-up desk at home and I like it much better.

Even better than a stand-up desk is having a small treadmill. It's not like they go fast - it would be about the same as a slow walk. Suits would be fine, you don't sweat at all.

I had a cube at one point at a company who wouldn't buy me a stand-up desk, so I just put a box on top of my desk and put the monitor / keyboard / mouse on it. I obviously don't know your situation, but unless you are explicitly told you can't stand-up, you should try.

For me, I looked ridiculous standing up in the cube farm, but by the time I left, five people on my floor were standing.

I hope that's stock photography. Working out in a business suit is offensive. I can't even wear my hoodie at the gym without overheating. And I look like that dude on the left.

Just sayin'.

(explicitly I am just sayin' that we need to revisit the expectations of attire if we're going to conflate the notions of work and exercise).

I'm pretty sure they're moving at a slow-ish walk, not running. The point is regular low levels of physical activity, not hard core cardio during your meeting.

Not to mention how uncomfortable you feet might feel after lots of walking in dress shoes.

If you read that caption, it's not stock photography. It is however taken from a low angle, looking straight at the woman's behind, a not so subtle bit of art direction.

I'm all for having active workdays, but if we're going to have walking meetings I'd rather have a mid-sized park and a quiet path to walk along. Or a grand promenade if it needs to be indoors. This just seems like an over-engineered solution.

I interviewed once at a hedge fund that had a power rack in the corner. All four people I spoke with were ripped. So yeah, exercise at the office can work pretty well.

I have no idea what the water bottle curls described in the article are going accomplish, however.

My entire dev team (all 4 of us) have started doing burpees at 11:00am and 3:00pm everyday. Great all-around excercise that gets your heart racing and even works out the whole body. Japan has a milder version, called Rajio Taiso.

Not sure if I'd be able to walk while in a meeting, even if its at a slow pace. When I'm working out, I usually try to get into "the zone" and I'd probably have difficulties staying focused.

I don't get it. My wife is on her feet 12 hours a day, so her feet just hurt.

Proof that moderation is still key. Sitting all day is horrible for your health. Standing all day is horrible for your health. Laying down all day is horrible for your health.

The human body was made to move.

Why is standing all day horrible for your health? I'm assuming your are talking about the post above yours referring to a work day. I stand 10+ hours a day, with no foot pain, and don't stand on a pad or in shoes. Just because of this, I won't lay down a blanket statement that it IS good for you (based on one person's opinion), so why go as far as saying it is "horrible for your health" with no backing facts?

Being overly active without taking proper precautions (good diet for joint lubrication, proper posture, etc) can lead to joint damage, back problems, foot problems, recurring pain, etc. Specifically, standing still all day causes problems. Moving tends not to.

In general, humans were not designed to do one motion/one task repeatedly all day every day.

We used to have a ping pong table in an abandoned part of our office space. It was great for a quick break to get the heart-rate up and burn a few calories.

Heh, I've been looking for more tips to add to my blog about this: http://neverfriday.com/?q=exercising-software-developer-it-w...

It's amazing how awful your back feels after a day in a crappy chair :-/ I'm not sure treadmills are the answer, but at least they're something. Now to get those offices to add some dumbbells! :P

Why not just go outside for a run around the block? You'd get an actual health benefit from your heart rate being elevated for at least 20 minutes.

From the article: "But regular exercise doesn’t entirely make up for the shutdown of chemical processes that occurs during long periods of sitting, research has shown."

....yeah, that's why you stop sitting, get up, go for a run at lunch time. it's also recommended you get up every so often and walk around a bit (coffee breaks are good for this)

I couldn't imagine taking a meeting seriously when everyone's walking on a treadmill...But I guess it's better than scarfing down deli sandwiches.

We built one of these at our company:

http://www.clockwork.net/blog/2011/04/27/478/we_made_a_sweet...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clockworkactivemedia/sets/72157...

We've been using it every day for months.

A product I created recently launched to help people do exactly this... fitbolt.com

http://fitbolt.com/ is down.

walking around helps you thinking too. Remember Aristotle and the peripateticians ("those who wander around").

Reply on news.ycombinator.com