I realised those around me lead a sedentary life when...

[fruitcake]

This thread inspired by this one about staff at a car hire firm astounded that somebody might cycle seven miles. It's a thread about realising you have a different level of general fitness than those around you.

I'm in my fifth decade and I guess one of the things I get from regular cycling and walking is a reasonable level of health and fitness. That is to say, the fitness I enjoyed as a seventeen year old hasn't gone away because I haven't adopted a sedentary lifestyle.

It's not like that for most people around me, and here's a quick story.

I recently took on some casual work at a university supervising exams. This involves being on ones feet for two hours at a time, and a small amount of walking. It's the level of exercise I get from walking into town, popping in and out of a few shops, and walking home again.

Others who do the exams work talk about aching after a day's work, because they are not used to being on their feet for two hours. (These are people who took on the job having been told that it would involve standing for long periods of time and a moderate amount of walking.)

This was the moment I realised that I'm really not like most other people. I don't think of myself as particularly fit, but I suppose I am by modern Western standards.

The public fitness is poor. It's very poor.

[telstarbox]

Mrs T and I have some experience of this. We've both done regular exercise for the last few years including all the way through the pandemic. Not saints (we both enjoy a drink) but we have a mostly healthy diet and lifestyle. Most of our meals are home cooked and Mrs T is vegan which keeps things healthy. We don't use our shared car indiscriminately - for example we walk 15 minutes to the supermarket in town.

Other people in our families are incredibly inactive and as they're around retirement age they are picking up more health problems. My MIL now can't manage to walk more than five minutes and basically drives everywhere.

It's frustrating to see but hard to persuade them to sort their lives out without sounding like a preacher! I think they see us as weird when really we're doing the things which everyone should be, and the NHS recommends in their public health campaigns like Change 4 Life.

[fruitcake]

It's frustrating to see but hard to persuade them to sort their lives out without sounding like a preacher!

I guess everyone sees their own lifestyle as normal.

[chrisbainbridge]

I think this general attitude to exercise is so prevalent and we are becoming a society of 2 groups, the fit and the unfit.

This can work against us.  When I saw the doctor for my UTI last Tuesday I had been ill for 2 weeks.  For me it was massive but I was not describing major pain and I walked in with my paper I had read in the waiting room.  After examination the GP did a urine sample but suggested waiting until the sample came back before starting antibiotics.

I got home and my wife exploded (quietly) so I went back the next day with her and she explained that I was functioning at about 30% of normal, she hadn't seen me this unwell in 20 years, normally runs 20km per week plus cycling, etc.  Immediate antibiotics.

I suspect the first GP saw somebody who by "average" standards still seemed quite well and who had coped for 2 weeks.

[CAMRAMan]

When I give blood, the staff at the centre are invariably astounded that someone who's 62 isn't on any medication, doesn't have high blood pressure, nor any underlying health conditions. I'm not exactly an Übermensch by a long stretch, but I eat well and do a moderate amount of exercise.

I contrast this with a younger colleague who's regularly off sick, has had covid 4 times, is probably pre-diabetic and does no exercise. He has bad teeth, lots of underlying conditions and is verging on being declared unfit for his role.

A lot of it's the luck of the draw genetically, but plenty is down to lifestyle.

[offcumden]

I think this general attitude to exercise is so prevalent and we are becoming a society of 2 groups, the fit and the unfit.

This can work against us. 

Yes. Perhaps 20% of the UK population do enough exercise to keep healthy (if not what we might consider 'fit') and the remainder are exercise-deficient. Many of this sedentary majority do not trouble the NHS in the short term, but will be likely not to age well.
It does concern me that medical guidelines may be based on large population surveys and research which give a skewed picture, resulting in unhelpful advice in individual cases. I have often found myself having to 'protest' to medics that, as a lifetime exerciser, I don't expect to be treated as one of the unmoving masses. In the end the light dies for all of us but, in the meantime, we need to keep on raging.

[JefO]

... A lot of it's the luck of the draw genetically, but plenty is down to lifestyle.

Well put.
I am aware of many huge people, that are more than mildly obese.
At 5ft 9" and 16st 10lb, I see myself as "mildly obese", "stocky", "fat", but I do look at a lot of youngsters and worry for their sakes.
Nobody was that big 50 years ago when I was at school, but it seems to be acceptable to be my weight and 14yrs old nowadays.

Always trying to not drive my car, I cycle at least 140 miles per week (ahead of target for 7500miles this year) including road, gravel and mtb, over every terrain type, and in all weathers. I wonder if some people are resigned to never exercising. Then again, I don't think I was overly concerned with exercising between the ages of 15 and 34, when studying then working (physical outdoor job) and raising kids, so perhaps I am being hypercritical.   

[T42]

The downside of being fitter than others of one's age is that medics tend to prescribe for folk who don't move.  Even when I tell them repeatedly that I average ~150 km per week in one short ride and one longer one they completely ignore that and slap me with their one-size-fits-all cocktail of poisons.  The effects can be unfortunate: megaton-scale flatus and hypoglycaemia to name the most obvious.  In the end I accept the prescriptions but apply them according to my cycling plans.  I appear to be still alive.  The bloke 3 doors up, though, is much the same age and recently acquired a nifty electric mobility scooter because he wasn't a great mover and they sawed one of his legs off.

[hellymedic]

When I give blood, the staff at the centre are invariably astounded that someone who's 62 isn't on any medication, doesn't have high blood pressure, nor any underlying health conditions. I'm not exactly an Übermensch by a long stretch, but I eat well and do a moderate amount of exercise.

My Mum is 87, on NO medication, has NO underlying health conditions and does her minor shopping on foot. (I get Sainsbury's deliveries for the hefty/bulky stuff.)

Mum walks fast (but dislocated a shoulder when she took a slippery, wet floor at speed a few years ago).

I'm totally sedentary due to MS, though the household is still car-free.

[sojournermike]

We are fortunate. I keep moving for health, but also because I enjoy it. Always have.

I have to make a determined effort to get out during the week. Often it escapes me. Many people struggle and fail to overcome the barriers in their way. After a while it becomes self-fulfilling - get home after a hard and stressful day at work. It’s easier to sit down with tea and biscuits, or worse a beer or a gin, and stop. You only get more tired if you do this - I see it every day.

Then you get the people that have slipped into heavy daily drinking. Met a genuinely lovely chap yesteray. He was 41, carrying his beer with as he walked, but looked older than me at 57. One day he’ll be one of Sue’s patients with an alcohol related dementia - that’s a terribly sad outcome. People like this are not uncommon and there’s no real concerted action to address it. It’s usually just a consequence of their history.

The biggest tell for me these days is that when I go to London I’d rather walk from Kings Cross to the office - a couple of miles - and everybody else gets on the tube.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Pre-covid Mrs A and I went on a cruise to Alaska. I’d never set foot on a cruise ship before, and to be honest, I enjoyed the novelty. Most of our fellow cruisers were Americans and they were large people, width wise. They ambled slowly around from treat to treat. Hardly surprising if the cruise ship life style floated their boat. The entertainers were flown out to the ship by helicopter and they were all good, I enjoyed seeing Alaska, too.

Nevertheless, it was surprisingly pleasant to get back to the UK and mix with much thinner people who moved briskly and purposefully about their lives. Today I think it’s different and we have become more like our large and languid neighbours.

[vorsprung]

ah now

I do the audax thing, i am 57 years young and if we'd have had this discussion a month ago I would have smug thoughts that I was "fit"

However, on Hols in Wales we walked up Cadair Idris and down again.  Up was fine but the down phase messed up my legs for about a week.

Fit to ride a bike ✓
Fit to walk back down a mountain ✖

[Andy W]

An interesting thread. I wonder how many people reading this or commenting about this subject find themselves having to watch what they say in case they sound preachy, I certainly do. I’ve family members who hold post grad, professional careers that would be classed as morbidly obese or bigger. They state that their lives are stressful and they comfort eat and drink. Well I run a business, raised children to adulthood care for my Mum, I’ve had my share of issues. Rather than being critical of others shortcomings regarding their state of health and fitness I acknowledge that we’re all different, and at different stages of our lives, we make our decisions and have to live with the consequences. This includes health and fitness, financial health, relationships etc. I don’t have the courage to prod or nudge people close to me to make healthy decisions.
At 62 and not on any medication apart from antibiotics 10 years ago i thank my lucky stars. Good luck to anyone that is making the effort to improve their health.

[Lightning Phil]

Sedentary time in children linked with heart damage in young adulthood

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-sedentary-children-linked-heart-young.html

[Wowbagger]

Walking down mountains is always a mistake.

Jan and I walked up Ben Nevis (and down again) when we were in our early 50s. Ben Nevis is actually quite boring, and the tourist route is very badly eroded, but going up is all up, with no variation, and of course coming back down is all down, with equally little variation. The knee cartilage gets badly punished by such things, and it did take two or three days before the pain and discomfort subsided. Just before we got back into Fort William, a young couple who had also climbed the mountain, overtook us. We had a brief chat. "I think it's wonderful that you can still do it at your age!" he remarked. They still haven't found his body...

I have had a lifelong tendency to obesity, but I have always tried to keep myself active. Up to May last year, I had kept up a daily average of >11,000 steps for about 18 months. Then my brother died relatively suddenly, after having had 76 years of being very fit, and not long afterwards a whole load of other unrelated family trauma overwhelmed us and I responded by comfort eating. I have ballooned in weight again, and I became much less active, but I'm beginning to get on top of things (I hope) and I'm trying to cycle at least 10k each day. I also attend a gym for an hour weekly (see Wowbagger's Weightlifting for details) supervised by a guy who is a physiotherapist, at a sports injury clinic. I look around at other people my age (I'm in my 70th year) and I don't think I'm doing too badly. If I could shift 20kg I'd say, just like that other noted son of Billericay, that I'm doing... very well.

[Lightning Phil]

Mountain walking is a diffirent fitness and most people are not used to walking in that type of terrain and make poor choices in placing feet and staying in balance whilst moving quickly. Works lots of the smaller muscles, ligaments and tendons, ones that cycling don’t really hit.  Lots of interesting ways up and down Ben Nevis if you get off the tourist path. Men’s and Women’s records to summit of Ben Nevis and back to valley floor are both below 1 hour 45 mins.

A lot of people are using walking poles in the mountains, a trend since the 90s. Reduces load on knees by 30% when descending, I remember reading years ago.

[fd3]

I must live in a bit of an echo chamber for this.
I work with A level students, so car ownership is low and many are habitual gym users.  This runs off on colleagues and now 75% of my team are non drivers.
My mom (80) is a water aerobics instructor.  My mil doesn't drive and never has, so walks or takes the bus.

To make up for all this good health we hit the heroin pretty hard, but never on weekends.

[Adam]

It's an ever-increasing circle around the collective girth of the nation.  And it starts early.

10% of 4 year olds are obese, with 28% of children under 15 now overweight or obese.  The numbers of children requiring treatment for Type 2 diabetes has risen by 40% in 3 years, mainly due to obesity.

Around 2/3 of adults in the UK are overweight or obese.  Bearing in mind so many people are in the South-East of England, it's not surprising the south is slowly tilting into the sea.

[fruitcake]

I’d rather walk from Kings Cross to the office - a couple of miles - and everybody else gets on the tube....

This. I'll often ask directions and be told "oooh, it's a long way... it will take half an hour on foot."

[fruitcake]

I don’t have the courage to prod or nudge people close to me to make healthy decisions.

Like you, I've always said live and let live. I think that's why I've not noticed up to now that I'm different from almost everyone I know when it comes to what we might call 'appetite for activity'. That, and I had considered myself to be normal, as perhaps we all do. But I'm seeing that I'm really not normal - when a stranger expressed surprise that I was planning to walk for 30 minutes to get to a train station, for instance. (That was last Monday.) It's in these moments I see myself as others do.

[chrisbainbridge]

For reasons for the last 9 months I stopped riding to work and took the car. It was only this week that I realised how much that loss of cycle commuting had messed with my head.

On the other hand my 4 year old grand daughter has just bagged wainwrights on successive days. Then they had a rest day. That was only 5 miles of flat!

The 7 year old climbs twice a week, cycles to school every day and swims.  I have a day’s walking in the peaks at the end of September! I suspect I will ache!

[fruitcake]

I suspect the root of all this is car ownership. Saw a school friend reduce his activity level after he got a car aged 17. The effect on him was visible, and those effects will be compounded year on year for the activity that is cancelled by the car.

I've never owned one. I didn't make a choice to avoid cars, just never needed one; I've always lived in places with decent public transport, and at age 20 I realised I could cycle 10 miles in one go and feel fine (and since then considered that a transport option).

[T42]

Then you get the people that have slipped into heavy daily drinking. Met a genuinely lovely chap yesteray. He was 41...

I was a relatively heavy daily drinker until I was 48.  Stopped dead in 1995, did my first 100k in 1997, got 3xPBP and various other 1000k jaunts under my belt before age overtook me.  The human body can be very forgiving.

OTOH I can't see a croissant without the GIMME sign lighting up.  It's only 3k to the bakery in the next village...

L8R

[L CC]

Jeez the level of smug in this thread is huge.

I can't walk for more than 10 minutes without pain.

I'm really quite obese.

I have a RHR in the low 50s and do at least 30 minutes vigorous exercise every day.

Sometimes, the luck of the (genetic) draw fucks you over. In 2017 I walked each of the 3 peaks. By 2022 I couldn't walk more than 5 minutes without pain and needed a stick.

My daughter said to me the other day that now she lives with me and sees what I actually eat, she genuinely thinks there's something wrong with me because I 'shouldn't' be this fat.

I've had my knee replaced and next up will be my right hip- the X-ray shows 0 gaps around the femoral head in the joint- no wonder it hurts.

[Polar Bear]

Modern society is geared up to encourage folk to be sedentary.  I despair when articles appear telling folk that 6,000 steps and not 10,000 is all you need and then another with 4,000, not 6,000.

What most people who have the good genetic fortune of a healthy base need is to use that and use it well and not overdoing it.

Since my encounter at the local sports centre last year I have shunned any form of exercise except walking.  I feel significantly less fit and the scales show the 10kg of ballast that 3 years of running, swimming and gym work kept off me.

And then I look at my wider family (no pun intended) to see the bad backs, dodgy knees and tendency to middle and later age spread with a vengeance.   Thankfully we seem less prone to organ and circulatory ailments but still, they are a sorry and decrepit bunch.

I know my fate.  🙁