General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fit mother attacked on Facebook [View all]Xithras
(16,191 posts)The need for exercise is largely a byproduct of our modern sedentary society, and one that has primarily arisen during the past 30 years. There have always been unfit people, and they have always died early, but never in history have unfit people been such a large percentage of the population. You don't have to work out when you walk miles to work every day, or your job involves manual labor in a factory, or your life includes any of the myriad of other things that naturally work your body anyway. My grandmother lived to be 103 years old and never "worked out" a day in her life. Instead, she ran a farm until she was almost 70, hoed and weeded her gardens daily until she was in her 90's, and walked to and from the store almost every day until she died...at nearly two miles each way. Earlier generations didn't have these problems in large numbers because earlier generations lived lives that required them to move.
The obesity and fitness problems in this country are new to the current generations of young people, and primarily stem from the fact that our jobs and lives are far more sedentary that they were even just a few decades ago. And I'm fully aware that there were plenty of people with sedentary jobs back then. They were generally less fit, and died younger, than most of their peers.