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Just some of the usual arrogant comments, probably from the ssme people that laugh at unfit people in the gym or on a bike for the first time in 30 years.
No wonder people don’t bother.
Excellent. My walk to the pub comes with a reward.
Just some of the usual arrogant comments, probably from the ssme people that laugh at unfit people in the gym or on a bike for the first time in 30 years.
No wonder people don’t bother.
By unfit do you mean appropriate body mass, just not trained? Or overweight? Because the two are very different.
If you need an extrinsic motivator to move more because you're not particularly healthy, rather than an intrinsic one (like not dying) then it's not unreasonable to observe that it won't stick and once the novelty wears off.
But if it helps a few people then it's not a bad thing. Also makes for a catchy headline I suppose and NHSE feel like they're doing something from their ivory tower.
To be honest, the government should be doing more of this. An ounce of prevention and all that.
Health spending is unsustainable given both an ageing and unfit population. It needs to go further, removing VAT on sport equipment is a good suggestion. Subsidise coucncil gyms or leisure centres, for example everyone is entitled to one free visit a week, whether its a swim or an hour of badminton. Pay people to cycle to work.
The man thing I think is it needs to be carrot rather than stick
Just some of the usual arrogant comments, probably from the ssme people that laugh at unfit people in the gym or on a bike for the first time in 30 years.
No wonder people don’t bother.
You'd probably be less angsty if you went for a short walk.
😀
Health spending is unsustainable given both an ageing and unfit population. It needs to go further, removing VAT on sport equipment is a good suggestion. Subsidise coucncil gyms or leisure centres, for example everyone is entitled to one free visit a week, whether its a swim or an hour of badminton. Pay people to cycle to work.
While in principle I agree, you can already buy a tennis racket for £15, making it £12 isn't going to change anyone's mind. Gyms are already subsidised but the owners don't pass it on and membership could be subsidised by salary sacrifice but most employers won't do it. People don't ride to work because it's expensive, they drive because commuting by bike is terrifying.
Cost isn't really a barrier, attitude is.
While in principle I agree, you can already buy a tennis racket for £15, making it £12 isn't going to change anyone's mind. Gyms are already subsidised but the owners don't pass it on and membership could be subsidised by salary sacrifice but most employers won't do it. People don't ride to work because it's expensive, they drive because commuting by bike is terrifying.
But for most people the biggest benefits from being active isn't from doing sport, it would be if they used their car less and their legs a bit more. Don't drive the 500m to the shop. If you need to drive, don't park so close to the destination that you get a parking ticket. Don't drive your kids to the local school and then home.
The habit is of not being active at all, not of not doing enough exercise.
But for most people the biggest benefits from being active isn't from doing sport, it would be if they used their car less and their legs a bit more.
That picks up on the point that I made (and which was then further noted by @ratherbeintobago ) about designing out car journeys and designing in walking and cycling:
This is why Low Traffic Neighbourhoods improve health - by making driving slightly less convenient than walking/cycling you reduce the number of very short car journeys as people walk instead when they realise it'll take the same time. The best way of making people more active is redesigning streets to enable people to fit in 'incidental activity'.
Active Travel England are really pushing the health benefits and moving away from talking about things like "Low Traffic Neighbourhoods" mostly because of the sheer amount of culture war bollocks it generates. On the other hand, if you can frame it as healthy, saving money on the NHS, cutting pollution and improving road safety, even the most hardened Reform councillor finds it difficult to argue against that.
Screaming about "rights of drivers" etc when talking about LTNs is easy. Screaming about "rights of drivers" when the alternative is a dead child outside a school is a considerably harder thing to protest about!
People don't ride to work because it's expensive, they drive because commuting by bike is terrifying.
And when something is done to make it feel after, people ride to work.
Screaming about "rights of drivers" etc when talking about LTNs is easy. Screaming about "rights of drivers" when the alternative is a dead child outside a school is a considerably harder thing to protest about!
Absolutely. The Netherlands didn’t end up the way it is by accident, but the starting point was a very successful “Stop de Kindermoord” campaign.
I think the big DfT push to get kids walking and cycling to school is good because school streets are much harder to argue against.
I agree we need to try and engineer out "the car for everything" attitude, but its hard to see how you do that without more stick than carrot.
There is a new Aldi, 500m from my house. My neighbour drove yesterday (naturally in an X5). No idea how you can engineer out that kind of behaviour.
Yep, our adjoined neighbours drive everywhere. To the local shops, the school and even to the park (5mins away).
other neighbours walk everywhere, their children are slimmer, fitter and sleep well.
we really need to get children walking to school. A child that does this- gets a better nights sleep, concentrates better at school, will be fitter, healthier, will be less likely to have weight issues, but most importantly, they will carry on walking into adulthood, as this has become part of their normal life.
Just some of the usual arrogant comments, probably from the same people that laugh at unfit people in the gym or on a bike for the first time in 30 years.
No wonder people don’t bother.
If you take a step back from having a pop on people posting on a niche cycling site, surely what matters is that the NHS is taking a small, but welcome, step towards prevention rather than treatment. We have a health orthodoxy that's more concerned with preventing people from dying than living an active, enjoyable life into old age. We'd rather wait until someone's horribly unwell, then patch them up and send them home than actively promote a lifestyle that might stop that happening in the first place or increase their chances of a full recovery.
I'm not sure many inactive people are inactive because they're being 'laughed at' mind. It's pretty obviously a mix of stuff including over-reliance on cars, the ready availability of online entertainment, busy lives putting pressure on people's time - housing costs, I'm looking at you - and more.
Anyway, I always think, remember the Daleks. Once fully mobile, 'normal' beings, now disembodied brains rolling around in deadly mobile killing machines. If only someone had offered them an incentive to walk more, they might never have invaded earth (albeit in the future, 2150 A.D according to google) and lived happier, more productive lives. But no-one laughs at a Dalek. Just saying.
Quite a relevant piece on the government website (although probably something we all already new). I did notice that it's in the children's health section (they're going to have lots of time on their hands when the social media ban kicks in).
Based on NHS calculations, I'm well into the overweight element of the BMI calculator. Last week Garmin had my activity minutes as 670, 4x days of bike commuting in the hot hot heat, weights Saturday and a run Sunday, I usually walk ~90k steps a week. Do I win a prize, I want a prize?
I agree we need to try and engineer out "the car for everything" attitude, but its hard to see how you do that without more stick than carrot.
There is a new Aldi, 500m from my house. My neighbour drove yesterday (naturally in an X5). No idea how you can engineer out that kind of behaviour.
Much as I hate the "car brained" and the lazy, can I ask, was it for a big shop?
I've recently moved house and the big tesco is now 0.5mile drive, or a 0.4mile (8 minute) walk according to google.
I'll happily walk if I'm just picking up some milk or a few bits that will fill one carrier or a small backpack.
But a big shop will fill a trolley and half fill my car boot. There's no way I (or even with the missus to help) could carry that home.
Every so often someone comes up with some ridiculous idea about car journeys under x distance being banned somehow. OK, great I can combine my shop with my commute home.... saving about a quarter of a mile's drive in total, but I'll still be doing the half mile trip home.
Much as I hate the "car brained" and the lazy, can I ask, was it for a big shop?
I wondered that too.
Well I didn't follow them round the supermarket, but they took the smallest basket on the way in.
150 minutes a week seems to be the sweet spot according to this little video on the BBC news website, although it's clear that any is better than none.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c0qyjy9qn25o
