Tobias blogged about a year ago on taking up running to avoid falling into the "hole of no workout that so many other people in the industry seem to be in".

He then asked:

What other workouts are common for the time deprived and lazy programmer folks out there?

I commented that besides indoor climbing at a local gym, I stretch for 20-30 minutes everyday. For the last ~3 years I've only missed two days when I was deathly ill. It helps me feel great overall and really relieves the stiffness that comes from sitting in front of a monitor all day/night.

Part of my new year's resolution was to incorporate new stretches into my daily routine as my body had become so accustomed to my sequence, I didn't feel any improvement. As I was wandering through Barnes and Noble one night I stumbled upon a book called Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee. My wife does yoga a few times a week and her sister teaches Bikram yoga (yoga in room of 105 degrees with 40%+ humidity) in Austin. I had gone to a handful of classes but never really made a connection to the practice.

To make a long story short, I purchased the book and decided that for the 8 week program I would forgo my stretching for the daily exercises in the course. I finished two weeks ago and I must say that yoga blows away my former exercise routine by a mile. Needless to say my old stretches got thrown out the door and now I do yoga everyday.

Anyone else out there have success stories on countering the stiffness of hacking with workouts?