Exercise: It's Never Enough

I made the mistake of reading a health-related article in the mass media. It just seemed too appealing. On the cover of the latest Suomen Kuvalehti, there's a non-trim (but not fat either) man's belly strapped with drinking bottles. The man is obviously in motion. The caption reads: "Working for Nothing - Exercise the Reason behind Lack of Fitness?"  (translation mine) This is, of course, a totally misleading title that has nothing to do with the content. If you're triggered by expert scorn, stop reading here.

I'll admit that I cherry-pick. I only read health-related articles when they seem like they're going to refute something we all "know for a fact"(tm). I already know all the basic claims against fatness and a sedentary lifestyle, so I don't think I'll become ignorant from not reading every single article reiterating these "facts". I suppose I'm guilty of only reading things that strengthen my own conviction and skipping other things, but so is everyone who ever skimmed thru a fat acceptance blog and left a comment saying "go join a gym". So I'm not going to feel too bad.

The article begins with a recap of statistics about how much Finnish people supposedly exercise; apparently surprisingly many people exercise daily. The question is: why do we still have so much diabetes, obesity, blablabla, if people are exercising more than before? The answer, according to this article, is "slacking": going for a walk but at a leisurely pace, so you talk more than you walk; or skipping the hardest parts of the workout; or, god forbid, going to the gym but parking your car as close to the entrance as possible.

So, as the UKK Institute expert says, it's not enough to just do the minimum amount of exercise (30 minutes a day plus 45 minutes three times a week). It has to be strenuous exercise. It has to be sweatty and tough and and and. So it's not that people don't exercise, it's that the workout isn't good enough. If it were good enough, the people would be slimmer, and healthier, and less diabetic. "Excess weight" is mentioned among diseases like high cholesterol and diabetes; there is no admission that sometimes, people who exercise a lot are still fat. There's a calculation of what a diabetic costs society. Many illustrious examples follow, and the journalist is obviously ridiculing people who think they're so good for doing just a little exercise here and there.

Then, for a little sidestep, we are offered the idea that perhaps health education can lead to resistance and health moralizing may offend and annoy people. This, however, is not really looked into, it's merely mentioned. The expert is never called into question. In fact, it's hard to tell how much of the article is the journalist's own ideas and how much is paraphrased from the expert.

I'm not here to refute the health effects of exercise, given that it seems to be the one thing all experts can agree on. So let's agree that exercise is a good thing for your health, and a natural thing. But I hate the tone of the piece and the whole underlying idea:  that there's a "right way" and "wrong way" to take care of your health, and even when people try to take care of themselves, they can be told off for being slackers.

Ever since my childhood, health articles have had this impact on me: I begin to feel guilty in an irremeedable way. I do actually walk in my everyday life, and I've never thought I'm in particularly good shape, so there was no "OMG I've been doing it wrong" awakening. What I feel is sadness and inferiority: even if I walk to work, and to the store, it's not good enough if it's not strenuous. It's precisely strenuous exercise that makes me pant and sweat that I've always hated. Yes, I've tried the exercycle, and brisk walking, and cycling. I do enjoy some aspects of all of these, but I've never been able to make them a habit. I'll ignore the obvious, yet judgemental idea that I may just be lazy. Maybe I am; but I work damn hard mentally, so I suppose you can't have everything. Whatever the reason, exercise has always been the thing that I just can't do.

So I was happy when there was this "at least move 30 minutes a day" thing. I felt like I can do this- hey, I'm already doing this! It made me more positively disposed to exercise, and probably made me do a bit more walking than I had previously done. So now it's all "that's not enough"?


I thought I was over this by now, but I'm not. I can't even look at the article again to refer to the journalist and expert by name, and I do apologize. The truth is, I was terribly depressed by the piece. I don't think my guilt stems from a genuine remorse for "living wrong". It's just the shame of never being quite good enough, no matter how much you want to live healthier. This feeling is also the reason why I've never made much of an effort. It just hurts too much to be told you did something, but it wasn't enough because you're not an athlete.

The article mentions different attitudes on exercise. Some people crave it, others abhor it. There is no pondering on why this might be so, if it's so very natural for humans, as a species, to be on the move. I think this is the most interesting question: why do we strive to move less? Perhaps we're not all meant to exercise equal amounts. Perhaps we aren't all meant to be fit. I don't know. I don't have any particular theory on this, I just wish the journalist had tackled this question. It would have been nice to have some kind of thought behind the article, but as it is, it just seems to be a mouthpiece for experts who are disappointed in us. Because we want to do something, but really we're just lazy.

Maybe I should decide that what I'm doing now is enough and I'll never have to Have Exercise (tm), no matter what the experts say. That is the only way I can be happy with myself, to be honest. I don't know if it's self-deception... Well, I suppose it isn't, because I'm not denying anything, just allowing myself to be sedentary. Maybe it's OK.

So the article had the opposite effect on me than it perhaps should have had. But hey, it was nice to see the non-fit guy's belly on the cover. He's hot.