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Staying Fit As a Software Developer

One of the things I love about John Sonmez's book Soft Skills is that he has an entire section dedicated to Fitness!

Fortunately, I've always been someone who has been active.  I played sports in high school, intramural sports in college, and still stay active playing golf, basketball, softball, skiing and more.  I also workout almost every weekday.  How does this help me?

Well, for starters it helps me stay in shape.  As a software developer you're sitting at a desk a lot!  You can't burn many calories sitting at your desk!  My usual weekly routine is to workout every weekday for about 45-60 minutes.  I'll mix in free weights and some circuit training.  I might run a few miles here and there, but usually when I run it's on the weekends.  I try and play basketball every Wednesday night, and this is the best workout ever!  (just try and not get injured!)  You can lose a lot of calories playing basketball! (if you don't like basketball try racquetball)

Secondly, working out and staying active helps relieve stress.  Staying fit and healthy really helps me stay calm!  I don't get too high or too low!  So that helps me deal with situations at work, home and anywhere else.

Lastly, it builds confidence and increases brain power!  These are things John talks about in his book and I totally agree with it.  I think the confidence comes from knowing you're taking steps to improve yourself.  When you workout you usually feel better and look better, which results in higher confidence!  And typically higher confidence leads to better jobs, higher productivity, and just being happy overall.

Exercise also helps increase brain power and there have been studies to prove this!  But I can attest to that myself because after my lunch workouts, I come back to my desk to work, and I feel energized and ready to work with ideas flowing!

Staying healthy should be a great importance to everyone.  There are different ways to stay healthy and different levels.  Staying healthy will help you live longer and also make you feel so much better.  And for those of you who fret about the investment of joining a gym, think about how much cheaper that is than having health issues and having to pay medical bills.  I would rather pay $360 a year than pay thousands of dollars for medical bills.

Anyhow, if you're someone who doesn't workout much.  I hope this article helps inspire you!  We all can be inspired by others, certain people inspire me.  And if you have any questions about what exercises I do and so forth just let me know.

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