Tuyen's Blog

Posts for Tag: exercise

The stand-up workstation experiment

My friend Sumul turned me on to the stand-up workstation.  So far so good.  I find myself shifting my stance every few minutes as my knees start to ache but hopefully that will go away.  I bought this three joint platform from Amazon called the Comfylap.  It's working ok so far.  I like the fact that the joints snap to degree markers so you can be sure the left legs are at the exact same height as the right ones (and the right angles at each joint).  Only downside I'm encountering is the platform is not 100% fixed in place so there's a little bit of bounce every time I type.  I did a makeshift hack by propping some boxes below it but it doesn't eliminate the bounce all together.  Hopefully I get used to it over time.  Only other solution I can think of is to get a shelf or a single block of wood but then I lose the ability to adjust the platform should I find the current height uncomfortable.  We'll see if the claims of burning 50 more calories per hour versus sitting are true...

MBT - The anti-shoe

In my never ending search for a way to exercise without exercising, I recently bought some MBT shoes. The logic behind the concept seems sound but I wasn't sure it would translate in the real world. After wearing them everyday for about a month, I can say that some of the claims are true. First off, you definitely feel your calves getting a workout even after 5-10 minutes of normal walking. Supposedly the shoes are also supposed to exercise your thighs, back, and abs but I don't quite feel it in those areas. Then again, I'm just casually walking over relatively short distances and only for about 10-20 minutes at a time. Perhaps with a good hour walk over a couple of miles or so might yield different results. Second, I do find myself walking taller as the curved sole kind of forces you to walk that way. I don't know if this makes my posture better when I'm not wearing the shoes but it's better than nothing.

Skechers has a competing product called Shape-ups which has the same benefits. Not sure if they're accurate or not but MBT was the original so I put more trust in them. Plus, MBT seems to have much better styles to choose from versus the bland cheap tennis shoe styles that Skechers has. If you're looking to take the plunge, head over to Endless.com. I bought my shoes there and the service was great. Prices were much cheaper than buying at a retail store and they have a great return policy and free shipping. I bought the Tembea style which look good both as a hiking or casual wear shoe.

Walked to work today

This morning, I dropped off the car at Downtown Toyota and decided to walk the rest of the way to work. That was actually a good work out (by my low standards). If I walked directly from home, it would be another 15 minutes and 0.8 miles for a total of 3.5 miles and 68 minutes by Google Maps standards (it was actually pretty accurate for today's walk time).
 
I'm definitely feeling the pains of being overweight and old. I think I'll incorporate this walk a couple of times into my week's sparse exercise schedule. One thing I'll definitely NOT do is lug my backpack with a laptop in it. My legs and knees are fine but my shoulders are killing me.