[hinkley]

Part of this is establishing a narrative that you will be less productive when burnt out than you are now, where you disappear an extra 20 minutes a day to be outside.

There was a point where I was worried about my fitness, which reached its apex when I had a long commute and a stressful job. Some research was published that changed my life.

Cardio improvement can be seen with 3x7 minute intervals, rather than the previous wisdom of 20 minutes. To get a 20 minute workout you have to disappear for at least 25 minutes, and already be in a certain amount of shape to go that long. It’s miserable and your coworkers notice immediately.

7 minutes doesn’t even have to get you sweaty, so it’s 7 minutes plus however long it takes you to get where you’re going. It’s like a long bathroom break, and nobody commented on where I had gone. 1-2 of those a day and then another 10 minutes at home (or walking to and from lunch) and I was on my way to feeling a lot better.

Also for me, physical activity tends to clarify concepts and decisions I’m wrestling with. I do less work and do it better once I know what I’m doing. I can often save myself an hour and a bunch of mental energy by disappearing for 10 minutes and coming back. Even if it only worked 20% of the time, my boss still comes out way ahead.

Sharpen your saw.

[sandworm101]

Ever see the BBC series "The IT Crowd"? There is a great scene that illustrates the class differences when it comes to work and fitness. The boss is giving a speech about stress. He is head-to-toe in spandex having just commuted in on a bike. Everyone else is in office attire. Only certain people in certain jobs enjoy the luxury of mixing work and fitness. Even something as simple as having some free weights at work draws class lines. It means you have an office or a desk. A driver, or care worker, or food service worker doesn't enjoy the stability of having their own workspace.

[cbozeman]

Reading the first post in this chain makes me laugh, not just at the cluelessness of this person, but that this person could be mid-30s and still think this way.

I have a distant cousin that I see only at family gatherings. She's an injection molding worker for an automotive parts company (IAC). She gets one 10 minute break and one 30 minute break in an 8 hour shift.

The rest of her time, she's picking up plastic car parts off a conveyor belt and inspecting, labeling, and placing them on metal racks.

Tell me how she's supposed to do literally any of what the OP said.

Those suggestions work great if you're like most of us, and lucky enough to be a knowledge worker, working for a Fortune 500 / 1000 / 5000 company. If you're not...

Reminds me of what the Athenians told the Melians, "The strong do as they can and the weak suffer what they must."

[sandworm101]

It isn't just the fortune 5000. I'm in the military, an organization where fitness is literally in my job description. I should be able to step away from my desk for a few minutes to exercise, but 10/20/30 minutes can be a long time when the boss needs something asap. And it is always asap.

Ironically, even though I am on a base the majority of my work occurs over phone/email connections to people other locations. Covid has only made that worse as we are to avoid in-person meeting whenever possible. I feel like a remote worker ... one that still has to commute to the office each morning.

[navbaker]

Once you hit the staff/command level the stress of the job combined with the lack of time to exercise due to everything being an absolute emergency really takes a toll on your health.

I was never the type to hate being in the military, but stepping away was the best decision I’ve ever made in terms of physical and mental well being.

[sandworm101]

From your phraseology, I take it you were in the US military. I'm in a different military with a very different culture. We have Americans working with/for us. They are very happy. They never want to go home, always trying to extent their time. Right now, at the height of covid worries, there is no job I would rather have atm.

[08-15]

However, that's an eight hour shift, not twelve as mentioned in the article. Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and two hours of commuting and personal hygiene still leaves a full six hours per day to use however she likes. That doesn't sound too bad.

[sandworm101]

>> Eight hours of work

No. It is eight hours on shift, on the factory line. That doesn't include all the pre/post work getting to/from the line, paperwork to do and meetings to attend. All of that is probably another hour or two every day.

>> two hours of commuting and personal hygiene

We don't all live next to the factory. I'd say two hours just for commuting. As for personal hygiene, I leave it to the ladies here to comment on how much time they need to put in each day. I (military) can shower/shave in under 10 minutes when necessary, but I get to wear the same clothes every day and certainly don't worry much about my hair.

>> a full six hours per day to use however she likes.

Work emails to answer. Kids to cook for. Bills to pay. Paperwork to do. Shopping. Taking the car to the mechanic. Dentist appointments. Elderly parents to support. Carpets to vacuum. LIFE.

>>eight hours of sleep .

lol.

[cbozeman]

I spoke with her recently, and she seems like she's at the breaking point because the company is requiring her to work 7 days a week. About a month ago, they instituted a new policy:

You can't say no to overtime if you're asked, or you'll incur a write-up. Three write-ups and you're terminated.

And because of Texas labor laws, an hours over 60 are not paid at double time as they are in many other states. Meaning by the time Saturday rolls around, were she in California, she'd at least be making double time at some point. Instead, they only get double time on a Sunday.

She told me last week, she had 82 hours. For a job that pays $16 an hour. Yes, she's probably clearing $4000 a month, but she's putting in CEO-level hours to do so. The saddest part about all this is that many people are jumping for the chance at these positions because of the insane amount of overtime this company is offering.

The United States should be better than this.

[FalconSensei]

Then you add cooking, laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, taking care of kids if they have...

[thesuitonym]

Sounds a lot like the McDonalds budget that forgot to mention things like eating, heat, and commuting to work.

[Broken_Hippo]

And not to mention that some factory work is fairly draining, and you might not have energy to do anything you'd like to do.

[tuatoru]

And personal fitness.

And (mainly for women, sadly) the emotional labour of communicating with relatives and with friends. Social media have increased the burden here massively.

[georgeecollins]

Another really common real world example of the class difference. In some tech companies work in what is effectively a barn. Senior employees will say they also work in the open space. But really they sometimes reserve a particular meeting room for the whole day when they are in the office. So the barn is for the average employees, senior employees spend their time in a large office, traveling or having meals.

[Cactus2018]

IT Crowd - I AM DECLARING WAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elrV-oHeSjE

[collyw]

> Cardio improvement can be seen with 3x7 minute intervals,

Where do you get those details from? Fitness and nutrition advice seem to change more often that the favoured JavaScript framework of the month.

[Ma8ee]

> Fitness and nutrition advice seem to change more often that the favoured JavaScript framework of the month.

You are certainly right there. I think the problem is that the sizes of different effects rarely get reported. So a just significant study that showed a 4% improvement is reported as the new “truth” of the week.

But the fundamentals are the same and very simple. Almost all of us should eat more vegetables. Maybe raw kale is slightly better than tomatoes, but that effect is dwarfed by the effect of switching your french fries to tomatoes. Almost all of us should move more. Maybe 20 minutes is slightly better than 3x7, but that is nothing compared when you go from nothing to 3x7. And if 3x7 is what you actually have a chance to do, that is what you do.

So, for most of us, move more and eat more vegetables is what we have to remember. The rest is just noise.

[mschild]

See ACSM [0] article and the cited papers for more information.

[0]https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2013/05...

[rurp]

This is great advice and even easier to do when working remote. I have a few free weights that I keep nearby and have worked out a short and simple routine that I don't mind doing. It takes about two songs to finish, so I guess 6-8 minutes. Any time I'm starting to lag or I'm stuck on a problem I walk over and do the routine, then come back to my desk much more alert.

One nice aspect of having one (or a few) regular routines is that it's easy to see progress. Even with just a few very short sessions most days I can lift much more weight than when I started.

[sosilkj]

Thank you for this suggestion!

What sort of cardio activity would you recommend for these short intervals?