
The Healthiest People in the World Don’t Go to the Gym - gozzoo
https://medium.com/s/story/the-healthiest-people-in-the-world-dont-go-to-the-gym-d3eb6bb1e7d0
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btrettel
For years, I've told people that the best way to get into cardiovascular shape
was to make it an unavoidable part of their life, not whatever motivation hack
or special workout they seem interested in. For me, a bike commute does the
trick.

Unfortunately, in the US riding a bike on the streets quickly shows you how
little many people value the lives of cyclists. But the safety statistics
improve almost every year, showing that the tide is turning.

Just like people choose where to live to have a good driving commute, you
might need to change where you live to have a good cycling commute. This seems
to disappoint many people who are basically locked in to a location that's bad
for cycling (too long a commute, poor safety, etc.), but it's necessary to
give cycling a fair chance.

Many people are incredulous that I buy groceries with a bike as well. This is
completely possible for an individual if you have storage on your bike and go
weekly. Plus, as an added bonus I don't buy much junk food because I don't
have the space.

~~~
comprev
I've been cycling to work for the last ~5years, and the practicality of a
commute is a key factor in where I decide to accept a job.

I live in Amsterdam and the commute is ~6km each way. It might not seem very
much, but I ride whatever the weather and whatever time of day/night. It helps
enormously having the dedicated cycle path infrastructure.

I'm a cyclist at heart and did wonder if the oversaturation of daily biking
would alter my view from "enjoyable pastime" to "necessary evil". It's almost
done the opposite. Not only has my fitness improved (so I can enjoy longer
rides with less effort), but the fresh air and independence (leave and arrive
by my own steam, not waiting for a bus or stuck in a traffic jam) really does
make each day start better. It's also changed my perception of what can be
achieved - even if it's chucking down with rain and a howling wind.... I still
have to get on two wheels and pedal to work.

If only the government would understand all the benefits having a proper safe
cycling infrastructure can bring to the people...

~~~
baud147258
But if you're cycling, you're not paying fuel-based taxes...

~~~
btrettel
And? Cyclists also can't use many of the most expensive infrastructure
projects (e.g., highways) either. They also don't cause anywhere near as much
damage to the roads as motor vehicles.

Plus, in the US at least, roads are usually paid for through general taxation.
The value of the gas tax is small and has only been decreasing.

(All of this ignores the massive parking subsidies cyclists have to pay for
but can't use too.)

~~~
baud147258
I should have added sarcasm in my post: I think cycling is a great way to do
your commute, I have done for years and I have the chance of living in a
country with very good infrasctructure, but also where fuel tax is 60% of
price and the parent post is about Holland, where the fuel tax is even higher
(but I don't know where it is allocated).

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whack
The body of the article has some great suggestions, but the headline is
clickbait. Lots of low-intensity activity is great for health of course. But
if you only have 3 hours per week to exercise, spending those 3 hours at the
gym doing high-intensity exercise, is far better than just taking a leisurely
stroll. For people with busy lives, going to the gym provides the best ROI for
your time. For an obvious illustration of this, you can see the research done
on HIIT vs low-intensity exercises:

[http://time.com/4893161/hiit-high-intensity-interval-
trainin...](http://time.com/4893161/hiit-high-intensity-interval-training-
exercise/)

~~~
sinatra
> But if you only have 3 hours per week to exercise

I think the point is that you don’t have only 3 hours in a week. You can bring
physical activity in many other things you’re already doing. One minor example
that I’m trying to focus on: I go for a walk when I take any phone calls.

~~~
btrettel
Great suggestion. I often make calls if I am walking to get dinner. It's also
a better use of time than just walking alone.

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corysama
There was a TED talk about regions with unusually high life expectancy. They
identified 3 common themes amoung them:

1) Their lifestyle encouraged lots of low-key, continuous activity. You want a
plate? Go get the footstool because grandma keeps her plates on a high shelf.

2) Their cultures encourage small meals and not eating more than you really
need. Instilling your kids with “Finish your plate” guilt is a bad idea.

3) Their cultures encourage lots of socialization with lifelong groups of
friends hanging out and doing things together daily forever.

~~~
eberkund
Completely agree about the low-key continuous activity. I go to the gym partly
because I feel like I need to balance out my otherwise sedentary day with an
hour of intense workout. However I can see why someone who walks or bikes to
work and is constantly on their feet might feel different.

~~~
phicoh
It is worth noting that prolonged activities mostly burn fats, whereas short
(90 minutes or less) high intensity mostly burn carbs. If you only burn carbs,
it is hard to get rid of excess fat.

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sincerely
This "bluezones.com" website is some sort of service that charges for meal
planning. I'm not sure how reliable a source that is.

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maury91
I'm one of the people from one of the blue zones (Sardinia), on one side what
he said is true, you don't need to go to the gym to be healthy, but by just
merely walking a little bit more you will not achieve such a great benefit.

All the elderly people I know have a lifestyle that can be considered weird,
for example: \- My grandfather goes every single day to farm his land, he
spent 3-4 hours every day doing all kind of farm jobs, mostly potting plants
and digging the land. Even if he is after his 70 he is stronger than me (and I
don't consider myself weak). \- My neighbour (an old lady around 110 years
old, that lives alone and sometimes you say around 4 generations of daughters
at her house (I usually see her in company of her daughter, her granddaughter,
her grand-granddaughter and her grand-grand-granddaughter) wakes up every
morning before the sun can raise and goes to the fields to cut wood and then
she carries it on her back. \- My other old neighbour wakes up every morning
very early to, and goes to farm, he his nearly never at home and hangs out
with the gang of old people (it's not a gangster, they simply walk around the
village and they sit in every bench in every square)

To summarise, I think the difference is the mentality, the people I know, old
or young have all in common their absurd stubbornness, all these people loves
their work, and even after going to pension they want to continue working
(many says they will work until death), many of the elderlies weren't farmer
before pension, but they choose to start doing it instead of doing nothing,
essentially is people that don't like to lay on the couch and watch the TV,
but instead going on the nature and pass their time there. Also many of these
people have some unhealthy habits, like drinking insane doses of wine, beer,
limoncello and mirto.

There's a ton of other differences, but I don't want to write an article in
this comment

~~~
Bjartr
> essentially is people that don't like to lay on the couch and watch the TV,
> but instead going on the nature and pass their time there

Have there been studies on what kind of percentage of the population exhibits
a stubbornness against doing nothing? Is it inherent/genetic, or is it
cultural (or how much is contributed by those factors). Those that oppose
measures like a universal basic income often point to a tendency to do nothing
and while I can agree that certainly there exists some portion of the
population that that would describe, I don't know just how prevalent it is, or
if it can be "fixed" socially.

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maym86
Nothing is quantified in this article. Define healthiest? The framing of this
is a nonsense way of saying get some daily exercise. Maybe "the healthiest
people in the world" would be even helathier if they went to the gym too?

There's a fad of prematurely optimizing for what's best (in diet too) when
actually what would help most is getting more people to do something active
more often. I would be much more supportive of this article if it didn't try
to discourage some types of exercise as not being perfect but just explained
that walking and biking to work is good for you too.

Just do the exercise you enjoy and can keep doing regularly. Don't worry if
it's not going to make you the healthiest person in the world. Just start with
doing something regularly be it in the gym, HIT, walking or riding your bike
to work.

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gwn7
I agree with the article but the given recommendation is not practical for
most people. Yes, there are so many things fundamentally wrong with our lives
but people need to be practical.

There is nothing wrong with gyms and high intensity exercise. They are indeed
worse than the recommended form of exercise but implying that they are
unnecessary is a bad advice for many.

I think before giving this kind of general advice one needs to remember that
not everybody has the luxury of adopting a lifestyle like the world's
centenarians. "Quit your gyms!" advice won't be helpful at all for many.

This somehow reminds me of the "the right thing" vs "worse is better" duality
in software development.

Note: I'm a health geek and hate gyms myself but for other reasons.

------
dictum
> Go ahead and cancel your membership

The upside to the _Daily Mail_ style is that, like a scammer intentionally
aiming for the credulous, its total confidence and lack of misgivings helps
weed out unintended audiences.

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cryptozeus
Got pay walled. Any other link ?

