Comment by anticodon
2 days ago
> And note that for most people, a week to few weeks of the exercise give stronger orgasms and ability to delay the ejaculation.
I've experienced all those benefits when I started walking two times a day, 8-10 thousands of steps a day continuously for several weeks. I haven't performed any other exercises.
But it's really boring and you need to do it every day. I do it only because I need to walk a dog.
Two ways I’ve made walks less boring:
- I started carrying a camera
- I started using the Merlin Bird ID app
Photography has made me realize how much I was previously ignoring. There’s so much to see, and even when walking the same route over and over, there’s an astounding amount of change over time. Often little things.
The Bird ID app made me realize just how many unique birds were making up the sounds I was hearing. As I learned to distinguish between them, I found myself fascinated in a way that I’d never been before.
Walks became almost meditative over time, and the sights and sounds a kind of salve for my often tired brain.
I often feel like I can think more clearly when walking as well, and thought processes kind of just sort themselves out as I go.
I highly recommend making walks more than just a way to move your body. They can be much more, and getting the benefits of movement almost feels like a happy side effect.
I also recommend the Seek app by iNaturalist. Though if you’re like me and use it to identify plants and every bug you see, you may not actually get that much walking accomplished.
My wife and I have a running joke about the Seek app: "Dicots. It's always dicots."
Too often, pointing Seek at a plant results in "dicots", which is about half the flowering plants out there.
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+1 Merlin. I also stop and do a few minutes with Duolingo in the park, then take a breath and just listen to the wind and birdsong.
Walking is considered by einstein and pretty much all thinkers to be critical to deep work. It's also covered in Cal Newport's book "deep work" briefly. Which is a short audiobook worth reading.
One such prescription would be to do deep work early in the day then walk after and walk again 2 hours before bed. Another would be split the deep work with a 1 hour walk and do the 2nd walk after the 2nd block.
It may be more fulfilling with lots of interesting ideas rattling around. YMMV
I desperately want to do this type of walking, but I live in a major city. There’s always something to distract me, which is great for boredom perhaps, but ruins any sense of zen or reflection. I would say half of every walk involves people yelling, loud vehicles, and louder music. Noise-cancelling headphones are only useful for distraction through podcasts and music, not for decompressing. I’m starting to wonder if the solution, the sad solution, is to walk on a treadmill at a gym during off-peak hours.
Have you considered earplugs? The firearms community have some pretty great ones which are readable and fit really well. Check out Axil x30i for example.
You could try white/pink/grey noise on the headphones, or a binaural beat generator (I use the brainwave app on iOS).
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All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
I don't find walking to be boring at all! Especially when I'm working on something new, I will walk as many as 10 miles a day while thinking through all of the design corners.
Even when I'm not working, I like taking long walks to think about family, friends, video games, etc.
Its a great way to get into your head without the distraction of a phone or feed or forced message.
>But it's really boring and you need to do it every day. I do it only because I need to walk a dog.
I'm lucky enough to have a pedestrian path to do my long walks (so no cars or even bikes to contend with, bikes have a dedicated parallel path), so I listen to a podcast while walking around 1 hour/day.
Taking long walks daily was great but damn if it didn't increase my appetite. I gained weight over a couple years in spite of 4+ miles a day.
Were you walking to the cake shop and back?
Haha no unfortunately
That's pretty much textbook why exercise on its own will not reduce weight. You need to control your intake as well.
There is some evidence that we offset all that activity later in the day. I know that if I go for a long bike ride then I will inevitably veg out in front of the TV later.
Exercise is important but it's not because of the burning of calories.
This is anecdotal as it gets, but I've developed prostate issues almost simultaneously with quitting photography. Didn't think about it until now.
I often listen to podcasts while walking. Or I think. I also own a walking pad and walk while working (1h in the morning, 1h in the afternoon - not every day but most).
Podcasts help me with the boringness.
I find walking very enjoyable.
I do a lot of daydreaming when I walk, too (to my wife and daughter's impatience!).
You must have been in really bad shape before if you're getting such noticeable health benefits from a rather modest exercise intervention like 8k steps.
My average over the last year is ~13K steps a day. But I am usually not bored when walking, I enjoy it, in fact. So it is not a burden.