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I've always wondered what the health trade-off is for a less mentally stimulating role if it dramatically reduces your stress levels and offers better work/life

I've always wondered what the health trade-off is for a less mentally stimulating role if it dramatically reduces your stress levels and offers better work/life balance.

JR1427 2y ago
On a similar note, I've often wondered what the optimum amount of exercise is if you don't like exercise, but want to maximise your time not exercising.
- mecsred 2y ago
  Luckily this is a very common situation for people, so there is a good body of research to answer your question! A good answer is about 30 mins of moderate cardio activity a day: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-ac....
  - krumpet 2y ago
    What is the time period for this statement? I'm assuming that must be weekly, but everywhere else in the report, the units are daily. "Adults aged 18–64 years should do at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity;" EDIT: Added quotes for clarity.
    - mecsred 2y ago
      Yes it's very confusingly worded. "->Should do ... ->Or ... Throughout the week." Not sure why they worded it that way, maybe adults with busy schedules engage less with _ per day than _ per week recommendations.
- mikrl 2y ago
  Don’t the government of various countries recommend 90 mins of cardio per week and 2-3 strength training sessions on top of 30-60 minutes of daily light activity? I feel like they would be the ones to answer the optimal exercise question over a huge number of people.
- gwd 2y ago
  If you want to do weight training but don't want to spend a lot of time in the gym, look into "myo-reps". Rather than doing a traditional "Do 3 sets of 12 reps separated by 90-120s", you do a set of 12, then do several sets of 5 after waiting only 15 seconds. It's more intense but just as effective, and a lot faster. Doesn't really work on leg day if you're lifting heavy, because 15 seconds isn't enough to catch your breath; but has worked pretty well for me for push and pull days, where my whole workout is usually less than half an hour.
  - CuriouslyC 2y ago
    Myo reps might have training benefit for strength-endurance athletes, but afaik they don't improve muscle growth or 1rm strength comparably to traditional schemes. If new work has come out showing that please share. As of about 4 years ago the research I'd seen suggested that taking rest breaks of 3 mins vs 30s or 1m improves gains over time, though to be fair the lower rest breaks resulted in less overall work being done, so that's not entirely surprising.
    - gwd 2y ago
      > they don't improve muscle growth or 1rm strength comparably to traditional schemes I didn't say they improved muscle growth cf traditional rest times, just that they took less time. The person I responded to didn't sound like they wanted to be as huge as they could be. I don't want to be as huge as I can be either -- I primarily want to maintain muscle mass as I age (nearing 50). Getting in a solid workout in 20-30 minutes rather than 45-60 minutes makes a big difference to that goal. ETA: As they say, "The best workout is the one you actually do". This guy is a bit vulgar, but has a lot of good information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V71TGRQaLRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V71TGRQaLRs
- CuriouslyC 2y ago
  If it's just a matter of time vs results, HIIT and overhead press/deadlift for 3 sets each of 5-10 reps, with ~2-3 minutes between sets (you can do stuff like bicep curls and chest flyes in between big exercise sets). Unpleasant but high reward/time. If you want to optimize for exercise pleasantness, start consuming all your tv on a treadmill or elliptical at a slow-moderate (2.5-3m/h) pace.
- krumpet 2y ago
  Great question. The approach I've always taken (now that I'm past my prime) is to just show up. If I train 15 minutes and call it a day, at least I was active and sustained the habit of being active. If I train for a couple hours, that's great too. What I try very, very hard to avoid is doing nothing. I suspect I get the majority of the gains from the first 20 minutes or so. And since I'm no longer training to compete at a high level, I don't need to eek out as much from my training as possible...but I have no data to back that up.
- saulpw 2y ago
  For me it seems to be a ~30 minute speedwalk almost every day. My bodymind notices when I miss it, especially 3 days in a row.
CuriouslyC 2y ago
I think the sweet spot is lots of mental stimulation and no stress. This is probably why university positions were so coveted in the past, before academia became completely dysfunctional.
bongodongobob 2y ago
Same here. I worked repetitive manual labor jobs for a long time before I switched to tech. I was bored out of my mind at work, but after work loved playing games and working on programming/tech/electronics projects. Now that I'm in tech I have 0 desire to do anything screen based or deep thinking/problem solving after work. There are days I look out the office window and kind of wish I was the guy mowing the lawn and trimming trees. But I know I'd be bored. The grass is always greener I guess.
- sandspar 2y ago
  We have two batteries: physical and mental. It's only when both batteries are fully drained that we feel happily tired.
- westurner 2y ago
  Occupational burnout > Treatment and prevention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_burnout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_burnout Work-life balance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance Maybe you could start a 20% hobby project at work on their tab. "Why companies lose their best innovators (2019)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887903 Hypothesis; it's probably normal and healthy to pursue different biomechanical activities when not working (possibly regardless of tech career or not)

I've always wondered what the health trade-off is for a less mentally stimulating role if it dramatically reduces your stress levels and offers better work/life balance.

JR1427 2y ago

On a similar note, I've often wondered what the optimum amount of exercise is if you don't like exercise, but want to maximise your time not exercising.

mecsred 2y ago
Luckily this is a very common situation for people, so there is a good body of research to answer your question! A good answer is about 30 mins of moderate cardio activity a day: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-ac....
- krumpet 2y ago
  What is the time period for this statement? I'm assuming that must be weekly, but everywhere else in the report, the units are daily. "Adults aged 18–64 years should do at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity;" EDIT: Added quotes for clarity.
  - mecsred 2y ago
    Yes it's very confusingly worded. "->Should do ... ->Or ... Throughout the week." Not sure why they worded it that way, maybe adults with busy schedules engage less with _ per day than _ per week recommendations.
mikrl 2y ago
Don’t the government of various countries recommend 90 mins of cardio per week and 2-3 strength training sessions on top of 30-60 minutes of daily light activity? I feel like they would be the ones to answer the optimal exercise question over a huge number of people.
gwd 2y ago
If you want to do weight training but don't want to spend a lot of time in the gym, look into "myo-reps". Rather than doing a traditional "Do 3 sets of 12 reps separated by 90-120s", you do a set of 12, then do several sets of 5 after waiting only 15 seconds. It's more intense but just as effective, and a lot faster. Doesn't really work on leg day if you're lifting heavy, because 15 seconds isn't enough to catch your breath; but has worked pretty well for me for push and pull days, where my whole workout is usually less than half an hour.
- CuriouslyC 2y ago
  Myo reps might have training benefit for strength-endurance athletes, but afaik they don't improve muscle growth or 1rm strength comparably to traditional schemes. If new work has come out showing that please share. As of about 4 years ago the research I'd seen suggested that taking rest breaks of 3 mins vs 30s or 1m improves gains over time, though to be fair the lower rest breaks resulted in less overall work being done, so that's not entirely surprising.
  - gwd 2y ago
    > they don't improve muscle growth or 1rm strength comparably to traditional schemes I didn't say they improved muscle growth cf traditional rest times, just that they took less time. The person I responded to didn't sound like they wanted to be as huge as they could be. I don't want to be as huge as I can be either -- I primarily want to maintain muscle mass as I age (nearing 50). Getting in a solid workout in 20-30 minutes rather than 45-60 minutes makes a big difference to that goal. ETA: As they say, "The best workout is the one you actually do". This guy is a bit vulgar, but has a lot of good information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V71TGRQaLRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V71TGRQaLRs
CuriouslyC 2y ago
If it's just a matter of time vs results, HIIT and overhead press/deadlift for 3 sets each of 5-10 reps, with ~2-3 minutes between sets (you can do stuff like bicep curls and chest flyes in between big exercise sets). Unpleasant but high reward/time. If you want to optimize for exercise pleasantness, start consuming all your tv on a treadmill or elliptical at a slow-moderate (2.5-3m/h) pace.
krumpet 2y ago
Great question. The approach I've always taken (now that I'm past my prime) is to just show up. If I train 15 minutes and call it a day, at least I was active and sustained the habit of being active. If I train for a couple hours, that's great too. What I try very, very hard to avoid is doing nothing. I suspect I get the majority of the gains from the first 20 minutes or so. And since I'm no longer training to compete at a high level, I don't need to eek out as much from my training as possible...but I have no data to back that up.
saulpw 2y ago
For me it seems to be a ~30 minute speedwalk almost every day. My bodymind notices when I miss it, especially 3 days in a row.

CuriouslyC 2y ago

I think the sweet spot is lots of mental stimulation and no stress. This is probably why university positions were so coveted in the past, before academia became completely dysfunctional.

bongodongobob 2y ago

Same here. I worked repetitive manual labor jobs for a long time before I switched to tech. I was bored out of my mind at work, but after work loved playing games and working on programming/tech/electronics projects. Now that I'm in tech I have 0 desire to do anything screen based or deep thinking/problem solving after work. There are days I look out the office window and kind of wish I was the guy mowing the lawn and trimming trees. But I know I'd be bored. The grass is always greener I guess.

sandspar 2y ago
We have two batteries: physical and mental. It's only when both batteries are fully drained that we feel happily tired.
westurner 2y ago
Occupational burnout > Treatment and prevention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_burnout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_burnout Work-life balance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance Maybe you could start a 20% hobby project at work on their tab. "Why companies lose their best innovators (2019)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887903 Hypothesis; it's probably normal and healthy to pursue different biomechanical activities when not working (possibly regardless of tech career or not)