Workout

Working outside was the original workout. I suspect indigenous people didn’t distinguish physical activity from everyday life, like they didn’t distinguish themselves from nature. Early colonists had their hands full surviving, then eking a living from the land. Neither people would have understood our modern fixation with burning calories.

But average members of post-industrial society spend their weekdays in an office. Only after work do they run, bike, climb, ski, always with the end goal of winding up back at home. Even worse off are the ones who work out inside a gym, running like a hamster on a treadmill or inserting themselves into heavy machinery like a sweating, grunting, piston.

Many privileged people are taught to look down on manual labor, like ancient Chinese aristocrats who bound their hands and allowed their fingernails to grow through their palms, proud that they could pay others to do all their manual tasks for them—but recreation is different. Climbers’ calluses, skiers’ goggle tans, mountain bikers’ scabs are all badges of honor. But many a skier who cultivates a goggle tan will scoff at a farmer tan. Climbers compare calluses, calling each other out if they haven’t been climbing frequently and their palms have gone pink. Do carpenters do the same thing?

Outdoor recreation tends to go hand in hand with caring about the environment. To lessen their carbon footprint, some pro skiers and snowboarders have given up helicopter rides in favor of traveling under their own power. But are any willing to completely give up skiing except when it’s a logical mode of transportation? People first used skis to hunt in the winter. People first climbed to gather fruit and nuts, and to avoid predators.

We got our thrills trying to eat and avoid being eaten. Now that our food and safety are manufactured, so must be our thrills. Dangerous jobs that aren't sports are to be avoided. Jobs that require any amount of physical work are to be avoided.  

We used to have to burn calories to bring in calories: hunting, gathering, farming without machinery or even domesticated animals at first. Now we can get more food than we can stomach without leaving our cars, or our homes even. When that makes us unhealthy and miserable, what do doctors say? Go to the gym.