This article, and the one from the other day (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=176526) inspired a little idea: bite-size exercise.

You subscribe to a (Twitter?) feed of simple, two-minute, quick-break-from-your-desk exercises, like "do 20 pushups", "walk up and down a flight of stairs 3 times", or "jog around the block." These exercises are explicitly designed for busy folks like us who spend too much time sitting in front of a computer.

You get a task like this every few hours. When you complete the task, you reply to the message. You can see who did the exercise, poke friends who haven't yet done it, encourage each other. Office-mates could make it a shared break.

Maybe there's a "step it up" button, which increases the intensity (like on a treadmill) -- you go from 20 pushups to 30, for example. Eventually, use historical data to customize exercises.

Thoughts?

I like it a lot. I doubt it would catch on though.

A good rule of thumb is that things that encourage people to be healthier or smarter will not be popular. The things that gain popularity are tools that allow people to be lazier and stupider. Social networking is a way for morons to say stupid things to one another with less effort. Google allowed idiots to search the web without knowing anything about boolean search terms. etc.

My rule: If you do what your body was made to do, and you do it in balance you'll feel better and be more healthy. It's a bitter pill to swallow for our generation, but our bodies weren't meant to sit looking at a screen 12 hours a day.

Totally. Im thinking of going with a standup desk.

Currently trying that myself, it's actually quite pleasant so far. I just put my desk up on cinder blocks to raise it to elbow level. If I like it I'll find a less ghetto solution.

Ghetto tech FTW

Ok, I'll name it: my damn knee joints.

Try rowing or cross-country skiing instead of running. Much easier on the knees. It'll probably help your joints.

I'm a competitive ultimate player, and I really like my sport. I'm just saying, excercise like everything else is not an unalloyed good. My achy knees today after practice yesterday are evidence.

The right kind of exercise helps a lot. Ultimate as a sole source of exercise is clearly not the right kind (though it's probably much more enjoyable).

Oh definitely! I train all the time, I try to do 4 nights a week. I'm better at it in the offseason than I am during the season, because my body gets beat up and it's hard to convince myself to train when I'm sore.

It's just that ultimate is so stressful to my body that it overwhelms the rest of what I do.

I'm glad to talk your ear off about training methods, crossfit and tabatas, but this is probably not the right place for it. DIY gyms are kind of hacker though.

Pilates and biking are my two favorite forms of exercise.

The problem with running is that by the time you realize you're too out of shape to run, it's too far to walk back. (re-joke)

Do anything that doesn't involve impact on those joints.

"Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes."

Something is wrong with this picture. Not denying that exercise is good, but clearly, in this case, it is not enough.

I am confused - I have read several times that diabetes (the acquired type) can be controlled with the right diet, so that you don't have symptoms anymore and don't need medication (for example in Kurzweill's books, and in "The China Study"). So why are there still people like that? I don't think they are getting the right treatment, and they are kidding themselves with the 45 minutes exercise.

If someone weighs 300lb's then they are probably weigh 100+ pounds more than their goal weight which works out to around 350,000+ calories. Fixing that would take not eating for 3 months or a long term solution like 45 minutes of exercise a day.

Chances are if she keeps that up for 1-2 years she will have lost a lot of weight but nothing is a magic bullet at that level of weight.

Sure there is no quick fix. I am just worried that people will lull themselves into feeling they are doing something, while they still remain dependent on the pharmaceutic industry. Which would be exactly what the pharmaceutic industry would like.

One of the most important things I got out Startup School 08 was to exercise MORE often.

That reminds me, I didn't hit the ellpitical machine yesterday. Better do that now.

I hate NYT for requiring me to register and login to their site. I have created about 30 logins and I always forget them anytime I use a new browser, or am at a new location, after a fresh install, new computer, whatever.

F you, NYT. I don't read any of your crap because of it.

Next time that happens, just clear your browser cache (including cookies), and reload the page; you'll see the full article without logging in.

And there is, of course, this: http://www.bugmenot.com

Or search for the headline in Google. NYT apparently doesn't block anonymous users referred by Google.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=You+Name+It%2C+and+...

Correlation != Causality

That said, exercise makes you feel good.

Are you studying for the LSAT ;)

Agreed though, my sense of well being is always greater when I exercise regularly - Lately its been pickup basketball games and a mini routine of pushups and situps in the morning