People often talk about how you should do sport, which implies group activity, usually not with the kind of people you prefer to spend your free time with. Forget that. Healthy activities can also be done alone. You don’t even need gym for strength training. Exercise can be a perfectly introverted activity, if you wish so.
Exercise gives you more energy. It’s your choice how to spend that energy, but even reading a book or writing code is better when you don’t feel tired. To get benefits from exercise, you don’t need to exercise more (or even as much) as someone else. You just need to exercise, full stop.
At the beginning, it works almost like an RPG: you get experience points, your strength increases. If you exercise every day, the improvement after one month will be visible; if you keep written records, you get feedback even sooner. That is an amazing experience. The good news for you is that beginners have the greatest gains per unit of effort.
As a nerd, you will probably spend a lot of time in your life sitting. Sitting is an incredibly harmful thing for your body. Do whatever you can to reduce it, because after a few decades it will result in pain. Buy a standing desk, take breaks during work or study, take walks in your free time. Hey, you can have intellectual conversations while walking, as long as the other person is also willing to take a walk.
Halo effect is a thing. Looking more fit (other things being equal) will make other people believe you are also smarter and more competent. Don’t philosophize about it. Yes, humans are stupid. Now that you know the cheat code, use it.
Regular exercise doesn’t have to cost you lot of time. You can do strength exercise while watching a movie: pause, do dozen repetitions, unpause, etc. While you are taking a walk, you are free to think about whatever you want; you may plan your activities for the rest of the day, or think about a math problem.
Things I would tell to nerds:
People often talk about how you should do sport, which implies group activity, usually not with the kind of people you prefer to spend your free time with. Forget that. Healthy activities can also be done alone. You don’t even need gym for strength training. Exercise can be a perfectly introverted activity, if you wish so.
Exercise gives you more energy. It’s your choice how to spend that energy, but even reading a book or writing code is better when you don’t feel tired. To get benefits from exercise, you don’t need to exercise more (or even as much) as someone else. You just need to exercise, full stop.
At the beginning, it works almost like an RPG: you get experience points, your strength increases. If you exercise every day, the improvement after one month will be visible; if you keep written records, you get feedback even sooner. That is an amazing experience. The good news for you is that beginners have the greatest gains per unit of effort.
As a nerd, you will probably spend a lot of time in your life sitting. Sitting is an incredibly harmful thing for your body. Do whatever you can to reduce it, because after a few decades it will result in pain. Buy a standing desk, take breaks during work or study, take walks in your free time. Hey, you can have intellectual conversations while walking, as long as the other person is also willing to take a walk.
Halo effect is a thing. Looking more fit (other things being equal) will make other people believe you are also smarter and more competent. Don’t philosophize about it. Yes, humans are stupid. Now that you know the cheat code, use it.
Regular exercise doesn’t have to cost you lot of time. You can do strength exercise while watching a movie: pause, do dozen repetitions, unpause, etc. While you are taking a walk, you are free to think about whatever you want; you may plan your activities for the rest of the day, or think about a math problem.