Thread by @PaulSkallas

Today on the Lindy Newsletter

It's 2023 and we still haven't solved the Exercise problem. The mismatch between our environment and our body.

The number of people who regularly exercise is still low and 90 percent of people hate doing it.

lindynewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/exercise-pro…

Apple, one of the biggest and most visionary companies in the world recently announced their first product in 10 years. Goggles. Screens in front of your eyeballs. Ok. I'm sure it'll be good.

But it isn't a real problem that we're solving.

There's gyms on every corner, the television ads have athletes. You'd assume everyone is exercising. Wrong

Only about 20-30 percent of Americans get minimum government required exercise. And since it's the government saying this, we probably need more.

Of those 20-30 percent, half hate it.

That means about 10% of Americans actually enjoy exercising. That basically means exercise is a fetish

who's to blame?

It's a tough problem to solve.

We didn't evolve to want to exercise. It was just a byproduct of life and living.

You had to travel somewhere. you have to hunt. you have to work the fields. you have carry something. You have to have sex, go to war, or play.

Today we can live a completely sedentary life and be wealthy

We've gotten so good at automating life that even farmers today have worse health outcomes than city people

Which is a reversal of a historical norm

We have to exercise every day, or most days. Consistently and throughout our life. It doesn't stop

It's just part of living.

If you look at the Hadza, a modern hunter-gatherer tribe. They have very low rates of cardiovascular disease.

Since there is a mismatch between ourselves and our modern environment

Who are some of the groups that are part of 10% of exercise lovers?

It should attract an odd group. And it does.

1) The C-Suite consistent cardio white collar workers

2) The Bodybuilders

3) The men who fear death

If we're serious about solving real problems of modernity. We need to focus on the exercise problem.

There is hope. I outline a few ways we can address it.

We can either focus on fun and stimulation (NOT DISCIPLINE OR MOTIVATION)

or we can change our environment back to a more lindy time where we NEED to exercise to get things done.

2 paths...

Playing sports is great. I love tennis. I have done martial arts for years. But unfortunately, the sports as they exist now are not doing the job or we wouldn't be having this problem.

New sports may be something we should work on. Like the rise of pickleball

Or maybe technological solutions can be a way to help solve the exercise problem. Put fun sedentary games on cardio machines. GTA on the elliptical.

Currently, technology isn't helping the exercise problem very much.

The other pathway is completely change the environment

To do your daily life you need to exercise

This is a radical solution that many people may not be ready for

You're going to have to walk or ride a bicycle everywhere.

There's this rowing machine type of guy who loves doing them. I never got it. I never liked the rowing machine

My guess as to why it attracts some people is its a full body cardio exercise so you can feel it more intensely than running or biking.

I hope it doesn't have to come to this. It seems too excessive when we can just think about it differently

It's really a testament to the power of music that it can single handedly make exercise the least bit tolerable

Everyone you see running or at the gym has earbuds on.

You read about Plato or Islamic scholars wanted to ban music. It's because its powerful. It holds up the exercise regime today

One fitness motivator is self defense.

Lots of MMA/BJJ gyms have opened up in America during the last 20 years. This seems to work for a minority of men.

But it's tough taking a punch in your 30s and 40s or getting choked 3-5 times a week

Getting in shape is painful and takes a lot of time. Most people hate that part of it.

But ancestrally, you wouldn't ever get out of shape. Your environment would always demand you to be moving for most of your life.

"getting in shape" and then getting out of shape and then getting back in shape is a modern thing.

Creating new sports is a good example of trying to solve the exercise problem

A new trend has emerged trying to solve the exercise problem

Rucking

Walking with a huge weight on your back. Let's see if it works for the masses or if it will fade away

All this money in tech and video games and no one has figured out a way to exercise for fun

Exercise being essential to human life

So much AI hype. So much technological progress

But no one has figured out the exercise problem yet