Hacker News Reader

Comment by hgomersall | Hacker News Reader

Sure you can do exercise whilst doing something else. I get about an hour's exercise in daily whilst moving to places I need to be.

The idea that exercise needs to be an activity in its own right is somewhat toxic. It puts a big burden on beginning the activity which needs to displace something else. Even for those that manage to get an hour at the gym or whatever, it doesn't necessarily make up for the rest of a sedentary lifestyle.

View on HN

reminds me of

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0

but not very easy depending on where you live

Alas, the furthest I need to go is to the store, about 800 meters away. I walk everywhere, but nothing is far.

You can also just walk around while doing something else, e.g. listening to a podcast or talking to somebody on the phone (this can even be a work meeting!)

Walking is not great exercise from a time efficiency standpoint. It's like half the caloric burn in twice the time of any dedicated exercise, be it running or swimming or weight lifting. Exercise that elevates your heart rate is simply better, from a fitness perspective or from a weight-loss perspective.

Efficiency isn't the only factor. I'd say the most important factor is enjoyment. We each have a finite amount of willpower. If you're using it up on exercise you hate doing eventually you're going to hit a day where you don't have much willpower, skip the exercise and break the routine.

The most time efficient exercises I know aren't ones you can sustain for longer periods of time. I can consistently walk for hours but only run sprint intervals for a few minutes. Sure every minute of sprinting burns more than a minute of walking but if I can walk significantly longer than I can sprint it will probably lead to a higher total calorie burn.

That doesn’t matter when you’re sneaking walking into activities you’d normal do sedentary. It’s not competing against dedicated exercise.

I have this goofy plastic As Seen On TV board that is bent in the middle. Whenever I’m watching TV or playing a game, I stand in it and waddle my body so that i’m doing a light core activity.

It doesn’t matter that sprinting is better exercise when I otherwise would be sitting in the couch.

Depends on what the goal of the exercise is. For the majority of people who need to be in better health, zone 2 cardio is what they need rather than increased caloric burn. You can't look for time efficiency with zone 2 cardio - you just have to do it for enough time to build conditioning. Depending on the person, zone 2 might be running, but for most people a brisk walk is enough.

As others have said, it's not about efficiency. Also, doing a brisk walk does elevate your heart rate (mine goes up to ~100-110 BPM). If your goal is just being healthier, and not necessarily increasing your stamina or building up muscles, than walking is great. It also doesn't fuck with your joints.

> Walking is not great exercise from a time efficiency standpoint.

Sure, but it's infinitely better than a more efficient exercise that never gets done.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com