In the previous blog post, I discussed the importance of getting enough sleep every single night. For this post I want to emphasize the importance of physical exercise. I’m writing these words after having run approximately 15 kilometers. This I do three times a week, every week, throughout the whole year with only a few exceptions. And the reason for this is pretty obvious. Since I started running back in 2007, I never felt better.
As software developers, we basically sit at a desk whole day churning out code. The only form of physical movement we get is when we drag our bodies to the coffee machine, the water cooler or the vending machine when we want to get a snack. This means that we don’t get to burn as much calories as other people who have professions that involve more physical labor. For some of us, this is one of the many reasons why we chose this profession in the first place. I know I did ;-). Unfortunately, our text editor skills don’t cause us to burn any calories. What a bummer!
During my childhood, I practiced several sports like soccer and judo. But when I started going to graduate school this all stopped. I slowly gained weight over the years. I didn’t have any physical exercise for about fifteen years. But at some point, around September 2007, I just bought myself some running shoes and started running short distances twice a week. Since then, I stopped making excuses for myself and improved my physical shape and my overall health. I learned so many valuable lessons, which led me to write this blog post.
In hindsight, I can’t even remember what the actual tipping point was for me. What I do know is that this has been one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. How do I keep this up? Quite frankly, this has always been the easy part. I started out by reserving 20 minutes in my agenda twice a week. I made some decent arrangements with my spouse and family about how and when. After settling on the best time frame, I treated these “appointments with myself” as non-negotiable. Now I reserve 1 hour and thirty minutes three times a week. I try to schedule all other appointments around these blocks of time. Again, have a good talk with your family and try to come up with the best possible time frame. I can’t emphasize this enough.
I can only encourage everyone who spends his days behind a desk to get some physical exercise at least every two days. Try choosing a sport that you actually like but also make sure that there is a low barrier of entry. This way you can get up and running in not time, and I mean that quite literally :-). You can also start out with some small and simple habits like taking the bike instead of the car for short distances, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. … and pick up on some more physical exercise along the way.
A professional software developer not only takes care of writing good code, but also takes care of himself.
Until next time and happy exercising!
You make it sound so easy 🙂
I used to go to the gym two times a week, but I stopped doing that a few weeks before our first baby was born. She is now four months old and I haven’t found the time to do some physical exercise since then.
At the end of the day, when all work is done I’m glad I can sit on the couch and read a book or watch some TV. At this point, I can’t imagine combining a job, work at home (tidying up etc) and taking care of a little baby with regular physical exercise.
This is the excuse I’m going to use so I don’t feel guilty when I go skateboarding instead of coding/studying as a 30 year old. Jumping 2 to 3 feet over street objects 100+ times in an hour is quite a fat-burner!
Its strange but when you exercise it gives you more energy. I don’t run but I go to the gym as often as possible, plus play sports almost every other day. At 4 months it can be hard, but seriously – try 20 to 30 minutes per day of exercise even if you are watching TV. It just isn’t that hard. Your body will thank you, you will see and feel a big difference. It’s worth it. I lost 50 pounds and I’m never going back. It feels great to fit into the same size of clothes that I wore in high school. Plus now I can run around with my kids with an energy level that highly exceeds theirs – I mean if the kids are unruly I get sent in to tire them out. 🙂
Learning is very important to a developer as well. It’s all about finding the right balance, but then again, I don’t have to lecture skateboarder about balance 🙂
I agree with @willt. I started running when my youngest daughter was ~1,5 years old. I have three kids who all do lots of activities after school and I still manage 3 x 1,5 hours of running every week, code on side projects, write blog posts occasionally, work in and around the house, watch TV, have fun, etc. … AND get enough sleep. Your energy level will go up and you will benefit from it.
It’s not always easy though. There will be moments that you have to push through. But to make it easy for yourself, you need to start making it a habit by allocating time on a regular basis. As soon as it is a recurring habit, then things get easier over time.
I really don’t understand how you can pull something like this off…
I get up at 6AM and leave for work at around 7AM. I get home at 6PM. Then I help a bit with cooking and taking care of the baby. At 7.30PM we’re mostly done with eating and doing the dishes. Then it’s “entertain the baby”-time followed by giving the baby her bath. Next I feed the baby and put her in her bed. When I’m done with everything it’s about 8-8.30PM. I have to go to sleep at 10PM if I want to get enough sleep so that gives me on average 1.5 hours a day to relax a little bit.
I agree on the energy part. But I’m 185cm (6’1″) tall and I weigh only 80kg (176 pounds), so losing weight isn’t really a concern for me 🙂
There are other life choices here other than before and after work. What are you doing for lunch? How long do you have? I take a walk as part of my lunch. Sometimes entertaining baby for me is putting baby in a stroller and walking….even better because often baby will fall asleep in the stroller as well. I also use that time to catch up with my wife.
Granted, my baby is now 2.5 years, but baby also has 4 other siblings — and none are old enough to babysit on their own, so my problems compound.
You don’t need to do it to lose weight. It’s just a positive side-effect that only kicks-in over time. As Chris mentioned, you need to think outside the box if you want some change. Nobody can judge/determine which change you need to do first. Be sure to start out small. Taking tiny steps is important.
Spot on! I felt a lack of physical activity and started run 2 months ago. I run 5 kilometers so far 3-4 times per week, my goal is to run 1 hour. I feel much better after the run and full of energy.
Completely agree with this article. We as developers have a very unhealthy job, and most of us will show signs of poor health at some point. Besides our work we tend to live a very sedentary lifestyle, because we sit at the computer at home. I was diagnosed with hypertension few years ago and had terrible back problems. Now I go twice a week after work for 1,5 h swimming and do regular hiking and mountaineering (I’m in an area with a lot of mountains thus with a lot of possibilities fur such activities). Those two improved my health immense. I lost around 15kg and lowered my BP. Due to swimming my back problems are gone, since my back muscles are strengthened more. I would advice everybody to go swimming for 2-3 times a week, but do it regularly. Perfect aerobic exercise and improves your posture. Much better then running (especially if you have some overweight) since you won’t add to much pressure to your joints, and all muscles are involved :).
Swimming is indeed a great way to start exercising. When you swim, you basically use every muscle in your body without pushing any burden on your joints.
I changed to a standing desk over a month ago and love it.