4 ms·

It is better to ask how many times do you exercise per week. I.e. somebody who exercises 30 minutes 6 days a week is better off than someone who exercises once

by vl 5y ago

It is better to ask how many times do you exercise per week. I.e. somebody who exercises 30 minutes 6 days a week is better off than someone who exercises once for 3 hours. I exercise daily because otherwise it's too easy to start skipping. This way you know that you have to exercise and have to plan for it. (I have a home gym, which I built, lucky enough, pre-covid)

technothrasher 5y ago
Building a home gym helped me enormously. Since I built the gym ten years ago, I've been exercising pretty regularly for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I basically don't allow myself to watch TV shows except while exercising, which keeps me motivated.
ljhsiung 5y ago
I'd agree. Frequency and intensity, aerobic or strength, all matter too. My mom walks for 30 minutes a day, while I run rather fast for the same time. I always tell her she should run a little, but she doesn't like to sweat. Granted, 30 minutes of walking is 100x better than sitting around, and running is ~5x better. I'll give her that. Lessening returns and all. My mental model is "easy" activity is sufficient to not die when you're 60, and more intense stuff will make you thrive into your 80s.
- stank345 5y ago
  Can you provide a source for running being 5x better than walking? It doesn't seem that simple to me (eg. older people may suffer from joint pain or a risk of falling from more intense activity, so frequent walking may be better for them).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ljhsiung 5y ago
    5x is arbitrary and just how I chose to express the relative importance of doing nothing --> walking --> running. That's just my mental model. I.e. walking has no excuse barring disability. Running I recommend, but not as strongly. Put another way, I will endlessly nag my parents on walking. Running or jogging I merely suggest, given various costs like you point out.
iso1210 5y ago
> I exercise daily because otherwise it's too easy to start skipping Skipping of course being an easy way to do daily exercise :D
jp57 5y ago
> somebody who exercises 30 minutes 6 days a week is better off than someone who exercises once for 3 hours. My experience here is that it is more subtle. "Better off" depends on your goals. For losing weight, one or two sessions of 75-90 minutes or longer per week seem to have much more effect for me than 30 minutes every day. (Borne out over years of trying different things; I'm in my 50s.) For increasing my VO2max, 25-30 minutes of aerobic exercise every single day for weeks on end worked well, but it was hard to maintain that discipline long term. (I was very surprised at the effect of every day, as opposed to, say, 4-5 days a week. It seemed like I was getting a lot more than an extra 50-75% benefit.)

by vl 5y ago

technothrasher 5y ago

Building a home gym helped me enormously. Since I built the gym ten years ago, I've been exercising pretty regularly for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I basically don't allow myself to watch TV shows except while exercising, which keeps me motivated.

ljhsiung 5y ago

I'd agree. Frequency and intensity, aerobic or strength, all matter too. My mom walks for 30 minutes a day, while I run rather fast for the same time. I always tell her she should run a little, but she doesn't like to sweat. Granted, 30 minutes of walking is 100x better than sitting around, and running is ~5x better. I'll give her that. Lessening returns and all. My mental model is "easy" activity is sufficient to not die when you're 60, and more intense stuff will make you thrive into your 80s.

stank345 5y ago
Can you provide a source for running being 5x better than walking? It doesn't seem that simple to me (eg. older people may suffer from joint pain or a risk of falling from more intense activity, so frequent walking may be better for them).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ljhsiung 5y ago
  5x is arbitrary and just how I chose to express the relative importance of doing nothing --> walking --> running. That's just my mental model. I.e. walking has no excuse barring disability. Running I recommend, but not as strongly. Put another way, I will endlessly nag my parents on walking. Running or jogging I merely suggest, given various costs like you point out.

iso1210 5y ago

> I exercise daily because otherwise it's too easy to start skipping Skipping of course being an easy way to do daily exercise :D

jp57 5y ago

> somebody who exercises 30 minutes 6 days a week is better off than someone who exercises once for 3 hours. My experience here is that it is more subtle. "Better off" depends on your goals. For losing weight, one or two sessions of 75-90 minutes or longer per week seem to have much more effect for me than 30 minutes every day. (Borne out over years of trying different things; I'm in my 50s.) For increasing my VO2max, 25-30 minutes of aerobic exercise every single day for weeks on end worked well, but it was hard to maintain that discipline long term. (I was very surprised at the effect of every day, as opposed to, say, 4-5 days a week. It seemed like I was getting a lot more than an extra 50-75% benefit.)