5 ms·
Exercise is good, everyone knows. The problem is advising people to exercise doesn't work and doesn't scale. Gyms are for people who have plenty of intrinsic mo
by Herring 8mo ago
Exercise is good, everyone knows. The problem is advising people to exercise doesn't work and doesn't scale. Gyms are for people who have plenty of intrinsic motivation and money and time.
To improve physical activity at the population scale and over a lifetime, it literally has to be built into the design of the cities, so people get enough exercise while walking to work or grabbing groceries.
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/pubs/activity-inequality-nature17.pdf https://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/pubs/activity-inequality...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0&ab_channel=NotJustBikes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0&ab_channel=NotJu...
- gedy 8mo agoI think it would also help to not have everyone working so damn much.
- amelius 8mo agoOr maybe work harder in the physical sense. AI will help by doing all the intellectual work.
- devmor 8mo agoRTO is also a factor for some... when I was working full remote I had the time and energy to attend an HIIT class 4 days a week. I was in the best shape of my life. Since starting a position that requires me in the office for 3 or more days a week, I no longer have the energy (or schedule) to attend since I spend ~120-160m in traffic. Between that and the lack of proximity to my own kitchen affecting my dietary choices, I've gained almost 40lbs in 2 years. All of this is of course avoidable with self-discipline, but self-discipline wanes as you get more exhausted from your day.
- CincinnatiMan 8mo agoWhy do you choose to live this way? Such a long commute sounds life-sucking. Consider moving to a smaller city.
- rickydroll 8mo agowhere you can get a job dictates what city you live near, how much you are paid determines how close you can live to that city, and how much distance you want to keep from your neighbors sets the density you can stand. Moving to a smaller city changes your job, which changes how much you are paid, which changes how close you can live to the city, and your neighbors may still suck. It's likely that you'll end up in the same soul-sucking commute life that you just left.
- gedy 8mo agoThat's what a lot of people did when "WFH"
- devmor 8mo agoIf I didn't value my career at all, that would certainly be an option.
- Aurornis 8mo ago> since I spend ~120-160m in traffic. You went from one extreme to the other. 2 to 2.5 hours of commute each day is very unusual.
- devmor 8mo agoNot if you live in a large metro area.
- lenkite 8mo agoI have found stair walking a good, zero-cost, easily accessible and fast-to-execute means of exercise in urban areas. You can also scale-up/scale-down intensity and duration to your heart's content.
- pigpop 8mo agoor you can just buy a kettlebell and do swings for as long as you can last
- jjj123 8mo agoThat requires intrinsic motivation, which is part of OPs point. If you build a walkable/bikeable city, you raise the exercise floor for everyone.
- weatherlite 8mo ago> If you build a walkable/bikeable city, you raise the exercise floor for everyone. That requires intrinsic motivation for people to want to leave their house. I'm not kidding, if jobs are going to go away we're all gonna become super fat. Thank god for Ozempic I guess.
- kamaal 8mo ago>>If you build a walkable/bikeable city, you raise the exercise floor for everyone. There are ripped men in prison. >>That requires intrinsic motivation How do you make some one do a thing, they don't want to do?
- jjj123 8mo agoWhat does “there are ripped men in prison” have to do with anything? Those men have intrinsic motivation for working out, but not everyone does, that’s kind of my whole point here. >> how do you make someone do a thing they don’t want to do? You make it part of the fabric of daily life. If it’s easier to walk than it is to take a car, more people will walk. Of course there will be those who cannot or refuse to, and that’s okay, but systemic changes can lift everyone up on average.
- Mawr 8mo ago> How do you make some one do a thing, they don't want to do? You assume what you feel you want to do is intrinsic and not based on your environment. You are a product of your environment. If we change the environment, you will change with it. By "you" I of course mean large populations over the course of decades.
- Aaronstotle 8mo agoYeah, during covid and little bit after I was in amazing shape because I was able to go on nice long bike rides a few times a week. It got me thinking what would our society feel like if everyone was able to exercise?
- noelwelsh 8mo agoHear hear! Exercise at scale is an urban design problem.
- mojuba 8mo agoYou don't even need to reinvent a walkable city, just look at any medieval historical town that is say ~500 years old, almost untouched, and has restricted traffic today (possibly with no public transport whatsoever). These towns are a pure joy to live in, they are walkable with no other options, quiet, pleasant and overall healthy to live in in all respects.
- Fricken 8mo agoWe keep rediscovering that we're happier and more fulfilled when we live in ways that are more like how we've been living for most of the last million years. Also we are disgusted by our ancestors and look down upon them.
- TheCoelacanth 8mo agoCities and agriculture have existed for under 10,000 years. I don't think we would be happier living as hunter gatherers.
- Fricken 8mo agoHunter gatherers. Eww.
- alentred 8mo agoWe lack basic education in fitness, really, we do! They don't teach it in schools, but really just walking your 8-10k steps a day + simple own-weight exercises at home do wonders! Gym is fine for those who like it and can afford it (time, money), but by far not the only solution. We need to educate ourselves better. Plus, better cities, I am with you on that one.
- nathan_compton 8mo agoI find this confusing, but most people do not like to exercise. I think most people know how.
- Aurornis 8mo agoFor those people it's better to call it "being active" or "moving" or just "not sitting all day". There's way too much emphasis on gyms, workout programs, PRs, and difficult fitness. Most people just need to move a little more.
- alamortsubite 8mo agoIt's a tough sell after decades of propaganda. According to the CDC, over 75% of Americans are seriously out of shape[1], and 40% are obese[2]. They typically spend an hour a day commuting by car, which robs them of an easy opportunity to get a little exercise (and which is also physically dangerous in an immediate sense and a form of long-term psychological torture as evidenced by driving behavior at rush hour). 1. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db443.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db443.htm 2. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db508.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db508.htm
- galleywest200 8mo agoThere are a ton of ways to exercise that are fun, people just fail to see that. Hiking (free), rucking (only requires a backpack), climbing/bouldering (free outside, money in a gym), sports (free minus ball cost), kayaking, canoeing, walking your dog, etc.
- Aurornis 8mo agoI'm all for walkable/bikeable cities, but that doesn't solve the intrinsic motivation problem either. I live in an area that has a lot of walkable and bikeable things nearby. There are a lot of people who drive anyway. Some because they're older, others because they have kids, others because they have busy schedules, and some are just lazy. So while I'm in favor of better city layout, I don't think this would be a magic solution. > Gyms are for people who have plenty of intrinsic motivation and money and time. There are a lot of ways to work out without a gym. You can go for a walk or run around your neighborhood or even do a lot of workout programs at home. There are many easy workout systems that don't even take a lot of time and are easy to get started if you're not in shape.
- BrenBarn 8mo ago> I live in an area that has a lot of walkable and bikeable things nearby. There are a lot of people who drive anyway. The less warm and fuzzy part of this urban-design approach is that it can't just be about making things easier to walk to, it also has to be about making them harder to drive to. For instance, by making parking limited and/or expensive. People tend not to like that idea, although I think there's a good likelihood they'd actually be happy with it if not for the meta-awareness of having "lost" parking.
- Aurornis 8mo agoPeople don't like that idea because it's highly exclusionary. It only sounds good to younger people who don't have any disabilities, kids, grandparents who want to come along, or any number of other valid reasons to walk. It's also highly indicative of the weather where you're from. Forcing people to bike and walk everywhere sounds a lot better if you're in a moderate climate where bad weather means you need to pack a light jacket and wait for the light rain to stop. Move somewhere with harsh winters and the moralizing about people driving places stops making sense quickly.
- fusslo 8mo agoWhen I was in SF, the coworkers who drove in were those who lived outside of the city who were trying to save money and raise family. Buying a home in the city is impossible for these people (and me). Mostly less prestigious jobs, like cleaners, technicians, office managers. Not the App guys making 300k living in the Marina. It's often an unintended tax on the poor. IDK maybe there's some middle ground where we beef up public transport while beefing up parking at stations.
- AuthAuth 8mo agoHow does that change anything? Walk to the shops and buy a donut and you'll still be at a net negative. Most people who are overweight are eating far to much and a bit of walking each day isnt going to beat their diet. The reason people recommend gyms and good diets is because its very time efficient. 45mins in the gym beats out hours of light walking.
- DuckConference 8mo agoThere are tons of important health effects of exercise beyond caloric balance.
- alexjplant 8mo agoAbsolutely true. I lost a belt notch when I visited Japan for two weeks and walked everywhere. That being said redesigning cities is hard. It's a lot easier to meet people where they are: in front of the TV. Kettlebells, dumbbells, resistance bands, treadmills, and bike trainers are all great for doing whilst one marathons the latest season of "Real Housewives of Transylvania" or "Star Trek Impulsivity" or whatever. Affordability is a real question as a lot of this gear is costly for the average consumer - I wonder whether a government health stipend would help with this.
- Herring 8mo ago> That being said redesigning cities is hard. It's not that hard, it's just time-consuming. Takes ~30 years. Roads/buildings/etc break down eventually, you just need to incrementally design for the better new version instead of rebuilding the older version. Plenty of those European countries are doing it.
- thefz 8mo ago99.9% of exercise can be done outside of a gym. Walk, hike, run, cycle, swim, ski, paddle, play soccer, basketball, skate, play tennis, hockey, archery... The idea that exercise equals paying a subscription is so American.
- hankman86 8mo agoI would love to learn why some people can self-motivate to exercise while others would need coercive interventions. Such as to build cities in a way that some exercise is inevitable. Or put differently: is there really nothing that can be done to shift people into being self-motivated?
- Herring 8mo agoI think you have the coercion direction reversed. If there was a choice - if people could easily walk places - they probably wouldn’t buy expensive cars.