Be Fit With Biray

An anonymous coward (seriously, that was his handle) posted a question on Slashdot.com yesterday asking the readers “How do geeks exercise?” It said:

I have always been thin but all the sitting in front of the PC is taking its toll now that I’m getting older. I have begun to get a little heavier around the waist. I don’t eat a lot but the weight seems to stay on these days. Most of the time I don’t have the luxury of just getting out of the house/office. And being an introvert, I’m not enamored of the idea of exercising in full view of *shudder* people. I regularly do press-ups (60 per night) and sit-ups (30 per night) and some fetching and carrying, but that is all and these days it isn’t enough. I need a solid and effective routine that will tone all my muscle groups efficiently. Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?

Well, there’s nothing unusual about this inquiry, right? It seems that ‘Anonymous Coward’ echoes the concerns of most sedentary individuals. Like most people looking for advice, Coward turned to his community. And the community chimed back with their comments (all 1625 of them).

After scanning through most of the comments, I began noticing that these responses were probably more ineffective than good. In fact, most fell under THREE categories:

1) JUDGMENTS: Health behavior change is hard enough without being judged about your current lifestyle choices. If people feel misperceived by a person or community, they may either tune out any ‘health’ advice from them or re-frame their commitment to that person or community. When the writer plainly states that he didn’t “have the luxury of just getting out of the house/office,” why did so many comments criticize him for staying indoors all the time, asking why he didn’t make ’spending time outside’ a priority. Some suggested his personality was the ‘problem’ he needed to take care of first. Another dismissively said, “So you’re an introvert. Big deal! Exercise in front of people anyway.” Imagine how it must feel to get not one, not two, but hundreds of comments in less than 24-hour period basically questioning your actions, motivations, and… well, YOU. But, I assume “Anonymous Coward” already knew the rules of the internet and should have expected some conversations to be cruel.

2) NON-ATTENTIVE: It’s amazing how much people simply don’t listen to other people. How is suggesting kayaking, biking, rollerblading or hiking going to help this poor indoorsman? The guy spends his time inside – what part of “inside” didn’t they understand? And why do people think that getting a ‘gym buddy’ and joining a martial arts club or a community swim team is an effective form of motivation for a guy who clearly doesn’t like the thought of exercising in front of people? Don’t get me wrong – outdoor activities and community support are all great suggestions. But great for who? It seemed no one was considering the variables: indoor, PC-geek guy who does pushups/situps. One person did suggest taking on an exercise video game, specifically Yourself Fitness (also available on PC), but that post also included ‘having sex’ as a viable option. Classy.

3) EXERCISE INFORMATION: Although this is not the most resourceful site for health/fitness information, there were a few folks who claimed they were knowledgeable in the field of weight training and weight loss. (And hyperlinking to health-related websites doesn’t count). These were the ones who took the time to write thesis-length posts on the physiology of caloric expenditure. Unfortunately, it led to a series of broken discussion threads about ‘who had the right answers’ vs. ‘who didn’t know what they were talking about’. And if any reasonable advice was included among the bunch, good luck sorting through 1600+ comments to find it. Let’s face it, the average reader doesn’t really care to apply Mifflin’s predictive equation for calculating resting metabolic rate. I’d probably be more interested in the ‘muffin’ equation of blueberry-baked goods and justifying their caloric intake.

To counter my point, I will say that there were some positive comments that came out of this forum. For instance, other introverts banned together, reclaiming their thrown and proposing there be a sport for all introverts! Countless other posts took the “biking to work” suggestion seriously, spinning-off into an entirely new discussion – from the pros/cons of showering at work to fighting for cyclist equality on the road. And there were a few joke-tellers in the forum… so I did laugh at a few funnies.

In the end, assuming you throw out the judging posts, irrelevant comments, bad jokes and scientific jargon, I really hope Mr. Coward finds a concrete answer to his question. Or perhaps, he’s still reading the answers…