Your health vs your hobby/job

How many of you think about the effect of sitting down for long periods of time coding has on your health?

I don't particulary like spending too much time slouched over the keyboard for four main reasons:

1) I tend to get aches at the very top of my legs
2) An arched back will no doubt catch up with me later on in life
3) RSI - Sometimes I get a burning sensation at the back of my shoulders
4) Fatigue - Lack of proper excersise, sleep, and food can bring on an awful feeling of brain fatigue

So, I try to limit the time spent on the PC, breaking up the sessions into smaller parts and doing some form of excersise in between. Be it walking around, biking, jogging, swimming.

Ultimately I know it leads to a healthier mind rather than one in which runs with the handbrake on (usually after many hours puzzling over *bugs* in my code)

Bah!, call yourself a coder? :p

I get up and do something every hour or so, even if just for 5 minutes. Does wonders.

I lift weights and then I'm to tired to do anything else but sit on the computer, so, for me, computer is more a result of doing something rather than the opposite.

> I lift weights

Me too. Via my AOL CD collection:

lol - that's the best use I've ever seen of AOL CD's :)

Jim try this when your shoulders start to tense up. Sit at the edge of your seat, put your arms behind you and clasp your hands together. Squeeze your shoulderblades together, stick your chest out, hold your stomach in and keep your head up. Hold it for THREE MINUTES - no less. If you discover you won't be able to hold it that long just ease up a bit, but don't release yet. It's hard to do and your arms might even start to go numb and tingle a bit but stick it out. Shrug your shoulders a bit now and then and you will feel it working. Release after three minutes and you'll feel blood start to rush through everywhere...it feels amazing :). You can even relieve tensions headaches this way.

Fatigue and general well-being and happiness drop off when all I'm doing is sitting on my butt, coding/playing games and eating junk. And it hasn't been an obvious black and white thing. Its something more subtle, and happens slowly. I don't think most people realize when its happening to them. I know I didn't. But I'm very aware of it now.

It really does help you sooo much to maintain a degree of fitness( And excercise your mind in something outside of coding. ) I started Judo last year, and let me tell you. Improvements all around. When your body is fit, it just makes a better you.

I've taken a couple of extended breaks from it, and always feel worse when I'm not training. I've been out since Sept, and can definitely feel a difference now. Its like I'm reverting back into the fatigued, not-as-lively person I was.

Anyways, I'd highly recommend a few hours a week of Judo or Brazillian Jiujitsu for anyone who wants to sharpen their mind and body. I know that sounds like a bad infomercial, but it really is true :)

I gave up commercial game dev because it was bad for my health. Super long hours plus long commutes up to 3 hours each way, jobs not being that stable if your not in the core team of 3-5 developers that start a project. Very unhealthy and made me neglect my family, friends and pets.

These days, now in my mid 30's I'm no longer willing to compromise my health and for the most part only do dev as a hobby and sometimes I think it's out of habit.

I take regular breaks, every 20-30 mins or so I walk about for a few minutes. I got rid of my car and use a bicycle as my main means of transport, and generally had a midlife crisis...

I'm far less active playing games than writing them, whilst coding i'm probably only sat at the computer for about three quarters of the time. Playing games however several hours can pass before I move.

Heh, I actually started losing weight when I took up oil painting again. Still sitting most of the time. I spend about 2 days on the computer and 3 doing traditional art at the easel these days and am a lot more healthy.

I guess all the extra moving around you do, or maybe drawing and painting require more brain power and burns more calories or something lol.

I know about fatigue, I often have to work 3 night shifts one after the other.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday night from 6 in the evening to 6 the next morning...this can't be healthy.

I use this at work, it can annoy on occasion, but at least you keep the fact you need to take breaks in your mind.

http://www.workrave.org/welcome/

teh desk I've got in my room right now gives me massive neck pain after about an hour. It's a hotel room though so I don't have much choice.
I'm trying altering the height of the chair but not having much luck.

I do go to the gym for two hours a day though, so I'm fine otherwise.

The fact that I recently pulled a muscle in my back while playing Fallout 3 tells you everything that you need to know about my health. :)

I work from home, I code for a few hours, get on my drum set for 20-30min, repeat several times a day as needed. I also "try" to drink alot of water while coding. My biggest problem is I'll code and all of a sudden 8 (or more) hours has passed. Been going on like this for over 20 years. I think they call it "hyper focusing" which can be both good and bad.

I hate that! I wish there was more than 24hrs in a day :P

I have a treadmill in the next room with a DVD player and small TV in front of it. Try to make like a hamster for 30-40 minutes every day.

Completely necessary really.

Wish I had more hours to focus on it than a few per week. I am not usually focussing on this for more than a few hours so I don't really have these issues, at least not yet.

Well, I'm in highschool, so I get alot of exercise being a teenager.

Besides that... I:

-Am on the wrestling team, practices are intense to say the least :) esp. my weight class (170-180 is my weight)
-Work out 4 times a week
-Do alot of walking
and of course all the chasing girls helps too.

My hobby is pretty diverse, I'm split between programming and artistic stuff, I'm a really good sketcher and painter, but computer graphics wise I'm not the best. And then the other side is coding which I'm pretty good at, I started programming when I was around 11. I don't tell everyone that though, gives them a reason to label me as a "nerd" :).


Most of my stuff is what people call 'spir of the moment' because I get a really good idea and then I basicly go all hyper focus on it and my whole day/weekend is gone. And if it happens to take more then a few days then I tend to lose my dedication towards the project. Plus my original vision becomes distorted.

I tend to do alot better when I am given a task to complete. Then I know solidly what I need to do and am pretty efficient. This is why i'm currently seeking an oppertunity to join a team project to contribute to, or some sort of internship. I will gather experience more efficently this way.

They can move surprisingly quickly when they want to...

>They can move surprisingly quickly when they want to...

No kidding, you should see this one girl that does track/cross country.. shes like setting school records every day on the annoucements.

Hello.

Drink vodka, smoke ciggies, eat curry.

All will help with coding and workplace related stress.

Goodbye.

I took up Aikido 11 years ago to combat sitting still at a PC all day long making business software, then all night long playing FPS games. I also try to get up a lot and move around + wiggle/stretch in my chair and have good posture + workstation setup.

A good ergonomic chair does wonders - I have an ObusForm Elite ergonomically designed chair, and after a few minutes you forget you're even sitting down. :-)
Wii Fit is pretty good if you can't pull yourself away from computer-related activities.

I don't think it just comes down to your job either. Others look differently at people who look like they keep themselves in tip-top condition ie sporty people like yahfree and me and it helps bring around other opportunities in life aswell as health benefits ie socail standing, women etc

Coding is just a hobby for me but sometimes consumes too much time(or did) and i bet it's hard to lead a good stress free life doing it as a career.

Alot has to do with what you eat too. Stuffing yourself with pizza, chocolate and fizzy drink, just makes your body make harder to digest these thing, eventually raising your blood pressure, giving you sore heads and generally making you feel tired.

And when you feel tired, you don't feel like exercising.

I like carrots.

Oh snap.. its totally 5:14AM and I'm still typing away.

..i have water bed, n stuff..its kool..

Women? Is that from having a better physique or just your elite coding skillz.

I would expect the latter.

Elite coding skillz may help, i don't know, im not an elite coder. Personality more than anything ie how you react, treat and speak to others, women don't care if your buffed up, being buff n ugly never helped anyone lol

I know all my time sitting at the computer is definitely having a detrimental effect on my health. Coincidentally, I've become a lot more conscious of health issues in the last couple months, due to a whole bunch of dental troubles I've been dealing with.

Its not just exercise. If your aiming to lose weight, you can work out all day long and then eat 20 twinkies, and nothing will happen.

/me lights up another ciggy and cracks open a can of beer

just don't smoke the cig or drink the can, you'll be fine lol

I would wake up stiff as a corpse from that. Sleeping on jagged rocks would do more wonders for me then that or an air matress =p

After my girlfriend bought a water bed, we just drifted apart.

I'll get my coat...

heh, this last week was the first time in 6 months I spent all week in front of the puter working on flow instead of 3 days or traditional art and 2 days computers. Already have to wear my glove and got lower back pain :(

I really recommend a program called Workrave!

http://www.workrave.org/

It is a nice, free tool that tracks time spent on your computer to help prevent RSI. It's pretty simple, but the folks behind it clearly have some good ideas. It does frequent micro breaks and occasional rest breaks, and you can specify how it will enforce either one. (I have the Postpone button disabled for micro breaks since I hit the thing almost by reflex!).

It not only deals with RSI, but I find it helps me get stuff done, too. The occasional breaks give me a moment to wander about and do something else, which always helps me to sort out my thoughts. It's something I don't always think to do, otherwise, if I get too fixated on something :)

Thanks for the workrave link. I don't usually have issues with arm pain, mostly because I sometimes take my hands off the mouse & keyboard to think through code/read/IM.