Why does it always have to be "The Best"? Most people would benefit from at least doing something, no matter what. All this obsession with finding the best causes a lot of people to do nothing instead.

"The best exercise routine is the one you actually stick to"

Some people already exercise and would like to maximize the benefit of all their time spent.

We all need some excuse for our lack of accomplishments. Pretending to value excellence sounds better than "Basically, I'm lazy and can't be arsed."

It does seem rather a shabby article. Out of all the ways we can imagine exercising, they compare 3 very mild approaches (plus not exercising) and someone proclaims one of them "the best"!?

If you want to find an "optimal" exercise, you'll need to specify a function you're trying to minimize. Might be time to run a marathon, or time to swim a mile in the ocean, or some blend of performance/hours_invested.

Of course, some people do this, e.g., folks trying to win Boston, etc. And even here, where the goal is clear cut, the absolute best approach is not at all obvious.

I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, but people like to use their time and expend effort as efficiently as possible - or at least have a sense of what kind of practice or process to aspire to.

In my experience, pople like to use their time and expend effort to research the optimal solution instead of implementing any solution, ignoring the waste cost of their research and ignoring that "research" is a sneaky way to avoid expending effort on making progress.

That describes 95% of web front-end programmers I have ever known -- and I wish I could do something about it.

'Resistance' as Steven Pressfield would call it. Highly recommend 'The War of Art' to all.

Non-affiliate Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1...

I know HN frowns on 'me to' posts, but I'll take the hit for this one - this is an excellent book, and I recommend it, too.

"Me, too" is frowned upon because it doesn't add much of substance to the conversation, yet feels like a contribution. Adding specifics about why you like it, providing relevant details, not only conveys your recommendation, but also is a beneficial contribution to the discussion.

Let me add then that it is less of a feel good book and more of a practical book.

It focuses on things you can do something about like getting started in time.

At the same time it is easy to read so I actually finished it.

I do that with photography. Spending hours reading reviews instead of going out taking pictures.

Find a photo you like, replicate it.

Rinse and repeat. (Eventually you'll build up enough skill to be able to do something unique, or a mashup, yourself.)

Exercise isn't 'fire and forget' - you're supposed to do it all your life. Nothing wrong with a bit of research ahead of time here.

This is called "maximizers vs satisficers". They each have their place.

Is it always about the best? Have you ever heard about "just half an hour of exercise a day"?

I think the trick is making it into a habit/addiction.

Plus--everyone is physically different. I'm about forty pounds over weight. At this point, I honestly don't know what fat, and muscle. And don't care.

I briskly walk for 30-45 minutes nightly. I have a route that includes a hill. I do sweat. I figure I'm carrying around a sack of flour, so I don't need to push it too hard.

When I get home, my depression lifts. I drink less. I'm less anxious.

I definetly use that brisk walk as a a drug. If your fat, like myself, you don't need to go all out. Your legs are most likely stronger than skinny people--from carrying around that sack of potatoes.

Oh yea, my dad was an electrician. He definetly got exercise at work. It was only when he retired did he need to do a little bit of exercise. He didn't. He just drank. He died too early.

My laboring point is you don't need to exercise to extremes in order to feel a bit better, lower blood glocose, and lower blood pressure. A moderately fat guy can be healthy.

Doctors just look at you physically, and make generalizations. Kinda--like the rest of the world!

They meant the most effective of the three forms studied. As a lazy slob it may have inspired me to do 5 mins interval training per week.

Doing anything physical for 45 minutes will improve your life 10 fold without a doubt. Free non toxic euphoria.

> euphoria

Overselling a bit there. I've never felt anything I'd qualify as euphoria from exercising. The closest is the runners high which is, for me at least, really not that high.

I used wording from others, maybe it's a bit strong I don't know.

I know the runners' high too, the runners' crave also. And long walks (forest + small hills) does something a bit different because it's a low intensity effort. Yet after 40+min you can go from depressed to a thin and constant "life is beautiful" background emotional state. That's all.

All in all the takeaway point is: doing something stupidly simple for long can change your mood quite surprisingly.

May I add that when my cardio vascular system was fubared, this kind of walks (moderate uphill) was the only thing that could interact with my body the right way. Being almost bed ridden, but an ex athlete I tried running, jogging, biking, indoor biking, taichi, stepping. They were either too demanding and injuring (for my very weak self) or of low efficacy. Yet walking had the right rhythm, full body muscle use, right intensity to circulate blood everywhere. You can guess how good it is to finally feel warm blood reaching your fingers or toes. It also helps your breathing, lungs ..

I know it gets said a lot, but I really think it comes down to doing something you really enjoy. I play volleyball 2-3 times a week, and it never feels like something I'm just doing to slow the rate at which my body decays.

I play basketball for 30-45 minutes everyday. It made all the difference for me getting back into good shape - feel good shape - and I do hit some of the euphoria every once in a while as well. Plus, after some years of this, sugar, cholesterol, tsh, etc. are back to normal. I'm not so sure about BP trends but am tracking it. I hope it helps there as well.

Totally. I would not typically classify "fun" as "euphoria", though.

I wasn't speaking about the usual fun physical activity. At all.

30 minutes of solid, constant cardio leaves me with a feeling similar to a light (marijuana) high, but longer lasting and with none of the mental fog. Not euphoria, but certainly a high.

The euphoria comes from pushing yourself past what you believed your limits to be. One of the biggest adrenaline/testosterone rushes of my life was from a 600lb deadlift. The feeling was so intense, I felt like I could tear someone limb from limb with my bare hands for about a minute after that.

So your euphoria is linked with violence?

"the best" is the American way of describing things.

Why the downvotes? A study of the difference in American english found that extremes like "the best thing ever" or "the worst" are more common of American english. I read this study a few years ago so I don't have a citation but I could find it if I waste enough time looking.

Interval training has always been a cheat-code for me in terms of getting in shape, then staying in shape when I wasn't able to spend a lot of time in the gym. As someone who comes from an engineering background, I have a special appreciation for how efficient it is in terms of time-spent and results.

I agree. The catch is that it doesn't seem to be something that's sustainable at high rates in the long term. There's quite the contrast between the way experienced athletes who already are very fit incorporate interval training long-term (often 1x/week) and the way Internet enthusiasts (perennial beginners) use interval training because they read about the Tabata study.

It strikes me as a bit similar to one of those effective but short-term crash diets. You get lean, tell everyone about it, and stop. Similarly, the dramatic effect of training intervals 6x/week is one of those things that's great for a few weeks.

> There's quite the contrast between the way experienced athletes who already are very fit incorporate interval training long-term (often 1x/week)

1x/week? Where are you getting that number from? For many athletes, their sport essentially is interval training (e.g. sprinting, tennis, American football).

As a pretty capable sprinter, I do something akin to interval training 4x/week, weight training 2x/week (one heavy day, one light), and then mobility and blood flow work whenever I can.

You're right. I missed a great deal of context there, as I was thinking about the most familiar cases to me, where either (a) you're an endurance athlete whose interest is largely maintaining a huge cardio base (see the Mark Twight piece in the sibling comment) or (b) you're getting a ton of 'intermittent' work from your sport, like you say.

Mentally I somehow but that kind of skill work in a different category from "interval" training but that's probably because I've never done an sport like sprinting or short-distance rowing/swimming/etc. Skill training for tennis or boxing or judo or BJJ or whatever doesn't feel like interval training even if it is intermittent and anaerobic... even when the round timer goes off at regular intervals in a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio.

IIRC, Tabata's protocol also included low intensity work during the week, which most people seem to overlook.

I recently started doing Tabata workouts on a stationary bike. Interval training is an incredible approach if you can't invest much time. I can be in and out of the gym in 15 minutes and can feel the benefits 48 hours after a rough workout.

The challenge is that it can be incredibly difficult. I never regret going, but it can be hard to motivate knowing how hard that 15 minutes will be. I can barely walk afterwards. That's unfortunately a tough sell for most people despite its benefits and I find an excuse to avoid it more than I'd like to admit.

For anyone thinking it's a tough sell who is curerntly doing regular cardio; try it, it's tougher for sure but then it's over before you know it. I honestly can't go back to regular cardio now that I've tried Tabata/HIIT.

There's no such thing as a free lunch,

https://www.marktwight.com/blogs/discourse/85824260-no-free-...

There's a major difference between "getting in shape" and "being a top-performing athlete". There's no silver bullet, no, but some forms of exercise are better than others.

It is sort of a cheat code but when i measure intervals in terms of how stressed i am after a work out... intervals should be worse then a 5 mile jog. Its so intense i don't really feel like i cheated anything.

I'm reminded of the Müller workout, aka Kafka Calisthenics: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/fitness/2011/01/kafkas_ca...

Small study shows exercise is good for everyone, people continue eating fried yogurt for breakfast, doctors shrug and continue prescribing cholesterol-lowering pills because they make more money on office visits and lab tests.

So what's "fried yogurt"?

Berliners/sufganiyot/yogurt donuts?

Thanks. I'm not a donut lover. Probably a good thing.

And where can I get some?

I'm looking for a recipe ;)

Maybe yogurt is good in French toast or pancakes.

You can prescribe exercise all you want but people are not going to do it.

Can I say this is a meaningless reply and I wish I had downvote powers?

Op has a point... if Jesus had been as dead as this horse, there would be no Easter.

What? Did we read the same article? The one I read didn't say "exercise is good for you".

It distinguished between 3 forms of exercise and the interesting results they had on young and old people.

That's hardly a dead horse.

Did you perchance read the article? It's points were a little different from that.