So, here’s the story. I’m currently at my mother-in-law’s house in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. I spend most of my time in the basement, working on a project that might end in a submission to the CHI conference.
Anyway, one effect of being here is that the physical exercise I was used to getting - minimal, irregular and infrequent as it was - is no longer happening. Apparently those 3-4 bike rides to work, 1 hour of kung fu, and 1 hour of stretching and conditioning each week was enough to keep my body feeling like it was still useful. Since I’ve been here and not doing anything at all, I’ve started to feel a bit restless.
So I’ve started doing some exercise. I’m not generally very good at self-disciplined exercise programs. The productivity experts like Leo at Zen Habits, recommend some helpful steps to start:
- Tell some people about it to set up social pressure to keep going,
- Set goals so you know where you’re going,
- Measure progress so you can see how you’re going.
Those are the ones I remember anyway. Step 1 is why I’m writing this post. For step 2, I decided to do the One Hundred Pushups program, for no other reason than I came across it at the right time. Conveniently for step 3, there’s a pushup logger on the web already. You can see my progress. I’m just doing standard pushups - maybe if I make it through the program I might repeat it, using a different kind of pushup.
I also do a little run, using healless or natural running (that’s a commercial shoe page but seems to have the clearest description). Most of the web pages about natural running seem to be also about barefoot running. Maybe I’ll think about that later. It was also recommended to me in the one Parkour class that I went to. All I have to report about the running is that I’m slow and unfit and my calves are in agony while I run, when I walk up hills, when I use the stairs, and most of the rest of the time. I’ll implement steps 2 and 3 for the running once I work out how to measure the distance.
Post a Comment