I need to get out of my desk chair more, but lately I’ve been trying to walk my neighborhood since the weather’s nice. What kinds of things do you do to stay active? I’d love some suggestions for good stretches and simple/effective exercises. Thanks!
I run about 30 kms a week and I happen to live near my office, so I go there by bike. Walking is good. I do that almost daily after dinner. If I am tired after work, I make a point of taking long walks. I will still be tired, but the exhaustion will be physical rather than mental.
I ride an electric bike instead of driving, gentle exercise but I’m sure it makes a difference. Pokemon go walks, yoga 4x a week at a group class, weightlifting less than once a week. Yardwork too, hauling things around. I got running shoes but have not deployed them yet, I’d like to run once a week only. I do move around a lot. I read somewhere that if you wanted to be fit after you are 50 you really need to exercise 3 hours a day, and it seems true. Not like lifting for 3 hours every day but if I was retired I’d do cardio every morning, lifting every noon, yoga every evening except one day totally off everything each week.
Also, keep a glass of water at your desk. Get up to fill it, drink, get up to pee, repeat. So that you aren’t sitting for too long.
I do yoga multiple times a week, use a rowing machine twice a week, and walk/hike my dogs.
Yoga is the best especially if you are sitting all day. And it’s a nice “third space” where you see the same people every class and make weak links with them that aren’t at home or at work.
Climbing! I’ve never been fond of weightlifting, but lifting myself up on the wall is way more fun! It’s incredibly physical, and there’s an equally important mental problem solving aspect to it. Most cities have a climbing gym these days and it’s a lot more approachable than most people think. Bouldering especially only needs shoes and maybe a chalk bag. Just short but hard climbs that are usually only a few challenging moves. No ropes or harnesses, just big squishy mats to land on. It can also be pretty social with most gyms having a good community, and if you really take to it there’s always room to grow into actual outdoor rock climbing.
Biking for commuting and errands is great as others have mentioned.
Running too. Just needs shoes and some comfy clothes. Even starting at a one km run doesn’t seem like much, but you’ll be surprised how much further you can go if you stick with it.
I was fortunate enough to get invited to a ballroom dancing class in high school and fell in love with it. It’s exercise and a social experience all in one fairly affordable package. Where I live an hour long group class is $10 a head. I wouldn’t do private lessons for these purposes. And if you like it, there are so many subcultures! There are entire groups dedicated to certain dances like West Coast swing and Argentine tango. Regular social dances on the weekends in addition to classes. YMMV based on where you live, but dancing with the stars has brought ballroom into the mainstream and there are quality studios in most decent sized US cities as far as I know.
60ish min in the weights room 5 days a week, 6 days a week 30 min zone 2 cardio. That’s it.
I break up working day with small 5 min breaks where I rest in a squat. I do this a minimum of 6 times. It helps to stretch the whole posterior chain.
First 30 days I had a 4cm block bellow my heels since I severly lack the mobility. After a month of daily practice I’ve been able to reduce the height of the block to 2 cm. Will continue for another month and hopefully the full squat will be available to me.
The goal is to be able to have the squat as a natural resting position that I can use on a daily basis to break the chair sitting banner.
I love this idea! Tie it into your existing routine! I decided a year ago to stand on one leg while brushing my teeth. Started as a teeter-totter, now I just sway a bit. I change legs when I change quadrants & do each for 30 seconds.
Also, squares are great. I avoided them (and lunges) for 20+ years because of my knee. Then I worked with a trainer for about 8 months last year. She slowly got me working the knee and after a few months I realized I could do squats! My pampering the knee for decades did nothing for it while her slow but steady working on it has me pain free and able to hike for 5+ hours now.
I also found the book: Built from Broken: A Science-Based Guide to Healing Painful Joints, Preventing Injuries, and Rebuilding Your Body by Scott Hogan
Really helped me out.
What are Squares?
That idea of standing on one leg seems interesting, a simple way to introduce balancing on a daily basis, will try it out.
That’s a cool idea. I’d like to start doing this. I hope my knees can cope, I’m very heavy.
I suggest you take a different approach then.
Instead of doing in 5 min blocks, do it in smaller intervals, say start with 30 seconds. And also you can aim for a smaller total daily time like 5 min, and work your way up to 30 dailly minutes over the course of weeks if not months. It may seem small but the goal is to accumulate the work and slowly induce adaptations.
Going to the gym is so boring for me. I ended up finding an activity that I enjoy doing that also happens to be good exercise and started kickboxing about 9 months ago. The people there are very friendly and they text me if I don’t show up for a while, so there’s more accountability that I would typically have.
Similar. I started rock climbing about a decade ago. It’s fun, you make friends, learn new skills, and get exercise.
Rock climbing seems pretty sweet, I think I could get into after I lose maybe 60 lbs or more lol
Ngl, climbing becomes a lot easier if you are lighter. But also, there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying it at a heavier weight - you just climb routes with an easier numeric grade. And there are various climbing disciplines that are less disadvantageous to heavier climbers, like ice climbing or mountaineering. If you want to take a really traditional approach, you could enter climbing by way of hiking and backpacking, which are also a lot of fun and have a decent amount of skill overlap.
Also, I have no science to back this up, but I just intuit that when you consistently do activities like hiking, running, and climbing where lower body weight is advantageous, your brain notices and predisposes you to lose weight.
So give it a shot!
My advanced activities consists primarily of hiking and on a more frequent and casual form day-to-day, just carrying heavy and bulky stuff around.
I was born and raised in the vast wildernesses, forests, wetlands and the old mountains/fells of the Fennoscandic Lappland, so hiking and walking in nature in general has been a big part of my life since I was a wee lad. Even as a teen the closest thing counting as something close to a city was some 200km away, and I spent my pre-teens in a small remote village of 300 inhabitants not so close to anything bigger. Closest village with a church and a few shops a few tens of kilometers away. This is all to give the context in that I haven’t even had much chance to do stuff other than wandering in the wilderness, so whatever I now am has been built and predicated on that mostly.
I have found that the usual form of hiking and backpacking (in nature) in places not requiring special tools or equipment (such as for cliff climbing) seems to favor building up upper body bulk and strength as opposed to a general lightweight build. If we are to assume the logic you suggest is universal and true.
I haven’t been to gym or actively building up my mass or strength, but I’ve grown to be quite heavy on my upper body just by loving hiking and traversing wilderness and fells with a backpack and camping equipment. I’ve also grown pretty hefty thighs and legs overall.
I’ve attempted climbing (in a hall setting, you know as a total beginner) and I’ve got to say: My build is entirely wrong for that. I’m not very agile and the weight the muscles bring makes me very unstable and really bad at swinging/maneuvering. Of course it’s mostly that I’m a total stranger to that and probably would get a lot better with a lot of patience and training, but then my friends with lighter, more usual build (from hobbies in jogging, tennis, soccer or such) with exactly as little experience or knowhow in climbing, were all so much more natural in all that, in much less time and with much fewer attempts.
This is all to say, that your usual hiking and backpacking (especially on a multi-night, even a weeklong carry) is probably not so directly building towards climbing itself, or a lighter build. I think it tends to favor bulkiness to sustain the required carrying weight and the tough, varying terrain. But running of course does favor lightness, maybe the well-paved tourist trails do too, in terms of hiking, but even then you’re going to have to carry a lot and keep a modest pace to be able to sustain the energy for the long haul, while still being able to power through the hills, the ravines, the fells and the deep thick forests with a lot of trunks, large glacial erratics etc, with the weight on your shoulders and back, which I think is pretty much all of it disadvantageous on a lighter build(?)
But that’s neither here or there, just thought I’d offer a differing anecdote. Otherwise I think your (and others’!) points are great!
my work involves walking and carrying stuff, and i lost weight, eventhough im kinda below normal weight as it is.
I jiggle my mouse every 5 minutes.
Teams is such a snitch…
Currently unemployed, so I can’t exactly remember, but I used to launch a call with just myself. By default, that will change your status to “in a call”, but I believe you can override it and set it to available. Alternatively, a mouse jiggler is around $20.
Yeah, setting up a call with just yourself does this. You can also share your screen and it will go to “do not disturb”.
Yes. My mouse.
Bicycle commuting, but it sounds like you might be WFH. I am a 100% remote worker, but I keep an office and workshop to keep the day job out of my tiny living space. When I still worked from my boat (where I live), I would go for a bike ride through varying loops before and after work just to have that separation of mental states.
When we’re on a passage or anchored out, yoga, calisthenics, dumbbells, TRX (body weight training system), and swimming keep us fit. Among my peers, there is a 1:1 inverse relationship between who does yoga and who has pains of inflexibility.
Another great book for keeping your range and flexibility is “Ten Golden Exercises” by Daniel Philpot.
I’d love to hear more about your (house?)boat! I live near a river and have thought about doing the opposite – using a boat as my office.
I do not. It is very easy.
Simple calisthenics and stretches every morning. Hip extensions, shoulder rotations, toe touches, etc. Quick and easy and feel much better after. I do these during breaks throughout the day.
After work it depends on time of year and weather. Kayak, mountain bike, snowboard. Hiking or rail trail is fine too.
I have two huskies. If I don’t walk them they get destructive. I got them to help keep myself active and they’re doing their job.
Also took up Ultimate (frisbee). Such a great game, but so much running!
Walking my dog, anxiety, pessimism, and existential dread mostly.
