Show HN: A 15 min daily stretch routine for desk workers
stretch15.com
stretch15.com
(PS: this is my first project launch so any feedback would be greatly appreciated).Seeing the iconography of women in yoga clothes invokes “workout” which means “I do this before/after work” and “I need to change out of my work clothes.”
One piece of feedback: I'm sure your partner trusts you and has asked you how you came up with this routine, but we random internet users can't do that and the site currently doesn't do anything to convince us that we should follow this routine. One way you could build trust with your users is by including a link to the source for the routine, or a short explanation of why you've chosen these stretches, in this order. Another way you could approach the problem of building trust is by making the routine adjustable or editable, or allowing the user to pick between different routines or exercises. I think it will be hard to get someone to commit to doing 15 minutes of stretching, every day, without doing some kind of education or somehow building this trust.
Again, great launch / v1, and congratulations! No need to try to make it anything more than this if your target demographic (your partner) is already happy :)
Make sure you've giving people time to see what the exercise is, to learn it, before starting the count down.
Also, if you could show a hint of sorts of the next, up coming exercise, a user might be able to get ready for it and continuously flow between stretches once some experience with them has been gained.
And maybe see if you can provide an option that allows one to stretch actually at their desk, with little to no getting up from the chair... I know, not ideal, but a 3-5 minutes routine in the chair is better than the nothing most of us do now.
Thank you!
Re: the beeps, couldn't agree more. While building it I also found them annoying but I deprioritised that for the first launch.
I've watched this one several times and like how she presents it.
Not a UX designer, but you could consider having a de-emphasised (smaller font, subdued colour, no illustration) "Next:" underneath every instruction that describes what's upcoming. For regular exercises, that could just say "Break", whereas during the breaks, it could show the next exercise. That way, it's always clear what's the current task and what's up next.
A different background color, font, or something visual in addition to text clues would go a long way for me. I definitely paid more attention to the timer & beeps on break screens than the text.
If you want to provide a number, you would say "2 small pieces of feedback"
Getting upset about being corrected means you've got so much hubris as to think that you think you couldn't possibly be making any mistakes, or so much ego as to think you are above being corrected... or both.
To NOT correct people because we might "offend" them leads to a world of clueless idiots thinking they're infallible geniuses.... Crap. We're too late.
Since this forum has threaded conversations, someone can correct grammar at the same time that someone else is progressing the discussion, so I wouldn't have a problem with it here.
Well, okay, there's another time: If they're obviously being mean about it. But I think most people would dislike that, regardless of context.
Pointing out that "feedback" in uncountable is giving information on how to better match actual usage. A prescriptivist will agree with it, but so would a descriptivist.
Contrast this with "lion's share": traditionally, it meant "all", but nowadays is usually used to mean "most, but not all". If I convince someone that they should use it to mean "all", they'll be further from matching actual usage. I think that's what qualifies it as nitpicky and rude vs. just helpful.
Pushbacks are countable in the context of a debate with both parties present. It’s fine to say “I have two pushbacks on this proposal” because those are specific, countable, contained arguments.
There’s also the nebulous “pushback”, which is used to describe general resistance to an idea or plan in an uncountable way. “The general’s proposal was met with pushback from the oversight committee”.
I've had chronic back issues since I was 19 and they ended in my late 40s when I stopped stretching my back and focused on static strength exercises(McGill "big 3" plus lots of lat & trap strength training).
Thanks!
I don't have the confidence to do something like that in front of other people.
But now I do it 5 or so times a day everytime I pee.
Perhaps I could add these stretches although 15 minutes is too long, perhaps in 5 lots of 3 or 2 minutes once an hour or something.
The main reason why we lose strength, flexibilty, balance, and endurance when we get old is because we let that happen. We stop exercising those attributes so they atrophy.
For the timer you should use a mono font so it doesn't jump around so much as it's ticking down.
A sound between stretches would be helpful for the times I can't see the screen. Would be good to be able toggle off/on.
I do know that a 15-minute "stretch routine" should either substitute or incorporate push-ups, squats, and other, similar basic movements in the routine. Stretching on its own is quite pointless if it's also coupled with continued sitting the entire day and not much other physical activity (walking, weight lifting, running, swimming, sports, w/e).
I'm struggling to find a response to this. My personal results from daily stretching are so profound but could be written off as "anecdotal". I'd find it very hard to take this person seriously unless there was some caveat or qualifying information.
I don't think his message is that stretching "does nothing". It's more that, research has shown that combining stretching with strength (using the range of motion) is the way to create lasting change.
I wear Vibram "toe-shoes" so that my heel isn't lifted off the ground when I squat or do other movements and unless I'm lifting very heavy I go below parallel
I warm up by doing either some prescribed warm-ups or by getting on the air bike/rowing for a few minutes + other warm-up activities
I do the exact exercise movement I'm going to be doing if it's a movement like a snatch, clean and jerk, deadlift, squat, etc. to warm-up
I don't do any stretching before or after. It's absolutely fascinating that so many different things work for so many people.I dropped powerlifting when gyms closed in 2020. I picked it back up recently. With a garage gym it's now so easy to lift without so much dang ceremony, just warm up through the exercises themselves. Sessions all under an hour, PRed all three lifts at my meet, and never got a red light on squats when I used to get one for depth on one side all the time. Stretching is all time fake in my book.
I will say throughout my life I have heard a lot of conflicting advice on stretching. "Don't stretch before working out", "Don't stretch after working out", etc. and I personally just do dedicated yoga sessions with deep/long poses for my stretching and that's it. I'm not sure "the science is settled" there so to speak, but my own personal results suggest that stretching is beneficial and helps prevent injury.
It clearly does something, but it's possible that in the context of the claim it does indeed do "nothing" (nothing, or so close to nothing that it might as well be nothing, to affect the specific things in question)
Glad to see you've found something that has helped with your back pain. I've been taking more walks now that my life has gotten a little less chaotic and the weather is warmer and what do you know? There goes the back pain. Standing desk helps too but it's mostly the walking.
Yet in 2023, there’s no consensus on stretching. Boggles the mind.
Plenty of opportunity to further humanity's knowledge on a subject there.
A piece of feedback for the transition between two exercises. You may want to stop the bottom watch altogether during transition and - somewhere on top right -start a simple circular time animation 5..4..3 In the current form the transition looks bit confusing.
In any case, congrats again for the launch.
It worked well. I have done it for the past 6 months.
I have a couple points of feedback:
If I accidentally click out, there's no way to recover my place. A forward arrow or option to start at any pose by clicking in the preview would fix that.
Some training poses would be helpful for those of us who can't touch the floor in triangle pose or can't maintain an upright torso in garland pose
[1] such as https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0192/8184/products/RoostSt...
This will really help fill the gaps, and I'll probably recommend it to people doing the regular pushup challenge for warmups and healthier workouts.
https://www.wellandgood.com/release-stress-muscles/
Found this post the other day, similar vein - movement is medicine!
One suggestion: Audio queues would be great. I heard a beep when it was first starting but not after that (iOS). And maybe a gong or chime sound would be more relaxing.
If you'd like feedback, it would be nice for new users like me to see the instructions for the next move during the "get ready" phase.
You should be able using both hands to reach every spot on your back or there about.
You should be able to sit down on the floor with your hips bent at 90 degrees whilst both your legs are straight and your knees pointing upwards and unbent.
You should be able to sit at 90 degrees to the floor straight on your ass whilst having your legs inter locked (“Indian sitting”)
You should be able to sit down on your shins by bending your knees the top of the foot should be in line with your shins and your ass should be comfortably sitting on your ankles. (Japanese sitting)
You should be able to touch your toes without bending your knees and preferably without flexing your back especially the lower and mid back.
If you can’t do all 6 you need a routine to work on at least your weak spots.
One of the reasons why I don’t like this specific routine is that it doesn’t stretch under load, to actually improve mobility your stretches need to be accompanied with a dynamic load such as body weight, balancing, free weight or a resistive band or cable.
I also do not think that a routine that does not have a test to identify which muscles are too weak and which are overused and one which does not allow you to set specific mobility goals is going to be productive either.
Whenever I know someone who wants to become a bit stronger or feel better, but hates the routine or gym or doesn't feel like they have time, I always recommend just showing up to a gym as frequently as you can, but 3 times a week is a good number. You can't optimize what you aren't already doing, so it's not really necessary to tell someone to fet into any particular exercise until they're there and feel comfortable with that.
To that effect, this routine doesn't seem like it's for someone who already has literally any existing training experience, it's for someone who sits all day and doesn't really have anything in movement.
As for my comment, I just mistook you for OP, it was early.
I personally love pullups, bench etc.. and that changes over time, but I'm usually chatting with people at the gym and making connections, which inspires me to try what they're doing and keep the habit strong. If I wanted to apply more rigor to it, I'd probably note my progress in some meaningful way, try to ingest more protein, pay attention to more detailed nutrition elements, but that's like a tertiary optimization that doesn't interest me too much.
I'm afraid quite a few of those have become a no-can't-do since they've put a few plates and screws around one of my hips... result of a cycling mishap, of course.
One thing the standing desk allows me as a music fan is to sway or even dance a little when I listen to music during my workday. A sitting desk is simply more restraining and will (in my case) often lead to that bad habit of placing my legs on the corner of the table. The curse of freelancing my my own office.
Lack of flexibility is touted as this bogeyman that needs to be fixed. Saying people "should" be able to touch their toes without bending their knees has no basis in science and unless your job or daily life requires that kind of flexibility, you don't need it.
If anything, strength training should be what a person spends their times doing to increase quality of life.
This is not as visually appealing but might be nice for people who wish to customise their stretches or do a resistance workout.
Show HN: Stretch HN
1. East seated twist left and right have their icons switched. The twist left states to put your left hand on your right knee, but it shows the person with their left hand on the back of the chair. 2. When you first start and are on the 5 second count down page, you can scroll through exercises. 3. Once that 5 second page moves on, if you're on the first exercise and click back, it takes you to the last exercise in the routine. I found this unintuitive since I was actually trying to see what the 5 second page was telling me and didn't realize it was just a "get ready" countdown.
1. Fixed 2. Sorry I didn't quite get this, do you mind explaining it more in detail? 3. Working on it
If I have to use my left hand, the figure should use its right hand. This way I can mirror the figure so from my perspective both hands move to the left.
I'm currently working in the least ergonomic position possible bent over on the sofa with laptop on my chest. Will try your full routine later
Awesome tool!
I wish we were more okay as a society with some good things staying good and simple.
Having said that, I have a couple of routines lined up that target specific body parts for those days when you want to really go for the stiffest areas (ETA: these would just live permanently in the page).