I was thinking about gyms the other day. I used to do 6 and a half hours exercise a week, Body Combat, Thai Boxing and weights. Then one day my gym buddy and myself decided to walk to the local pub. It was uphill all the way and it damn near killed us!
It made me question, why? We worked out, did cardio, but we were out of breath, and we weren’t particularly rushing. Recently, I started walking for both pleasure and fitness, after a long sedentary period. I feel a lot better than I did, but it bought that incident back to me. It’s been quite surprising how a 30-45 minute walk each day makes a difference. It also makes me think about my parents generation, who never really suffered with fitness related health problems, and gyms were unheard of. Is the real root of the problem our growing alienation from the world around us? If we walked more, took more outdoor exerise, would we really need the gym?
I’ve been very hesitant to go back to the gym as I now feel that the best way to exercise is walking, cycling, etc, things that engage us with the real world, rather than lock us away in an airconditioned gym. Plus, I’ve learned more about the layout and byways of my local area by walking than I ever would have had I not started going for walks.
