I notice that if I perform a large amount of physical activity during the day, like playing soccer, I'm tired (obviously). However, the lack of energy applies to both physical and mental tasks.

I’ve gone through years of working out daily to years of basically only walking and not exercising much.

The honest truth is if I’m truly coding a lot, working out is a strict downgrade in my long term output holding for all other variables.

Working out is good for you, but it’s a big detriment to mental energy. Perhaps working out late in the day solves this, but then again I’m most productive as a coder late at night. Days where I work out in the afternoon wreck my night time productivity.

>> Working out is good for you, but it’s a big detriment to mental energy. Perhaps working out late in the day solves this, but then again I’m most productive as a coder late at night.

My experience matches this when I tried to workout first thing in the morning. Then I tried lunchtime spin class before moving to working out and playing recreational sports after work/in the evening. I was far less productive when trying to spend the physical energy during the morning/afternoon than I was when releasing it at night. The biggest mental benefit (in terms of production) for me is rarely in the moments after working out and happen more in the next day(s). If I skip it for weeks it would take a few days of consistent, and preferably, high intensity physical activity to get both back to where I am most productive.

Yeah, math and programming contest winners are usually very thin. Do some cardio, don't be fat, but bulking up is probably not optimal.

Lack of skeletal muscle is extremely dangerous for long-term health. Muscle is a key component of the endocrine system, acting as a sink for blood glucose and preventing insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes). Lack of muscle needed to stabilize your movements also greatly increases the risk of debilitating falls and other skeletal injuries. It's important to build up a good amount of muscle when you're young because hormonal changes make it increasingly harder as you age (unless you take anabolic drugs, which carry their own health risks).

https://www.gabriellereece.com/muscle-as-the-cornerstone-of-...

https://peterattiamd.com/ama27/

Of course if some people want to sacrifice healthspan for the sake of winning math and programming contests, that is a choice they can make.

Fwiw I am naturally strong, I’ve always been muscular even when not working out much. Some people are like that, there’s genes that code for it.

I'm struggling to take these comments seriously. Do you guys have any scientific or even anecdotal basis for believing that gaining muscle is detrimental to programming ability, or are you all just talking out of your asses?

If there is no basis for it, please stop spreading this stuff. I am trying to build my programming career and build muscle at the same time, and I don't need people being prejudicial towards me because they read some misinformed comment on HN telling them bulking is detrimental to coding.

If you are happy building muscle then build muscle. It isn't like you need to be smart at programming jobs, I brought up competition winners since at that level you have to be in top shape mentally, but workplaces are full of obese programmers etc nobody cares.

Still a harmful assumption that nobody has backed up with actual evidence.

Getting very muscular will earn you all sorts of judgements, that’s humanity. It certainly will reduce attraction from women most stages of life as it’s a stronger indicator of insecurity and low self confidence more than it’s an indicator of physical fitness / competence. If you add in this sort of touchy and sensitive reactionary attitude it will only worsen that.

Most important thing in life is to do things out of genuine interest and do them with confidence. Know the prejudices and know they exist for good reason so you can laugh at them, rather than running around trying to ref the world.

We’re just going over anecdotes and learned experience about the reality of physical exertion taxing total mental energy. You got very sensitive about it for some reason and are demanding data but no one said anything about data just lived experience (more valuable than data anytime it comes from someone experienced - I trust a single person who ate at every taco stand in LAs review way, way more than the average of every review on Yelp).

No one will feel sorry about “prejudice” against fit people, it’s like complaining about prejudice against rich people. If you don’t get why those exist and are valid then the world will rag on you (rightly) for being naive, it’s first-world-problemism at its finest.

> It certainly will reduce attraction from women most stages of life as it’s a stronger indicator of insecurity and low self confidence more than it’s an indicator of physical fitness / competence.

You have already lost me. This is totally made up and most likely the opposite of the truth, and I would like to see some evidence for this claim.

> If you add in this sort of touchy and sensitive reactionary attitude it will only worsen that.

So you're saying I should just be okay with you making hateful stuff up and posting it, and that if I ask you for evidence I am being "sensitive" and "reactionary"?

Sorry I am not okay with you insinuating that `$fit = dumb` without evidence. You haven't provided any, which leads me to believe that your beliefs stem from your own insecurities more than anything.

I agree that best coders don't do 2x a day workouts and best soccer players don't play chess 4h a day.

But there is an idea where you do 3 workouts per week, do things each day to be productive in your trade and augment it with exercise to be even more productive.