[Herring]

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...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0&ab_channel=NotJu...

[alentred]

We 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.

[keybored]

No, listen to what OP said. People know that exercise is good. Everything else is standing in the way.

The solution to everything is not education. That’s just what people who have been filtered through the system with good grades and a high education think. Their good habits are more correlated with their income than with their informedness.

[ako]

Education is not the problem. People know sugar is bad, people know cigarettes are bad, people know alcohol is bad, still millions use these substances every day.

What works best is to find some form of exercise that you really enjoy. I will get up at 5 in the morning, skip diner, skip appointments when i get a change to exercise, just because i enjoy it so much.

In addition, what also helps is to ensure normal activities require excercise. I will walk to the shop every day for groceries, walk the dog every day, cycle into town, best if you can cycle to work.

[nathan_compton]

I find this confusing, but most people do not like to exercise. I think most people know how.

[lenkite]

I 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.

[noelwelsh]

Hear hear! Exercise at scale is an urban design problem.

[mojuba]

You 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.

[Aaronstotle]

Yeah, 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?

[Aurornis]

I'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]

> 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.

[thefz]

99.9% 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.

[alexjplant]

Absolutely 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]

> 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.

[gedy]

I think it would also help to not have everyone working so damn much.

[devmor]

RTO 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.

[amelius]

Or maybe work harder in the physical sense.

AI will help by doing all the intellectual work.

[pigpop]

or you can just buy a kettlebell and do swings for as long as you can last

[jjj123]

That requires intrinsic motivation, which is part of OPs point. If you build a walkable/bikeable city, you raise the exercise floor for everyone.

[AuthAuth]

How 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]

There are tons of important health effects of exercise beyond caloric balance.

[hankman86]

I 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]

I 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.