Are the results in this study really a shock? I think Huxley’s famous quote captures the gist of the problem.
“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” – Aldous Huxley
Technological progress has included televisions with 600 stations, the internet, cell phones, iGadgets, SUVs, Minivans, drive-thru donut and fast food retailing, and mass produced food products. Why run anywhere? You can’t text while your running. Selfies don’t turn out well when you are running. Soccer moms are so terrified of letting their babies walk to a ball-field a half a mile away, they have to fire up that Chevy Suburban and safely transport them. School administrators no longer let kids run around outside at recess. Someone might get a boo boo.
When I was a kid, I rode my bike to grade school from 6th grade until 8th grade. It was over a mile away. I walked to my baseball practices that were a mile away through a cemetery. We played full court basketball for hours. We played street hockey for hours. We played touch or tackle football for hours. None of it was organized by parents. We only had one car and my dad drove it to work. I was never shuttled anywhere. Our black and white rabbit ears TV got seven or eight stations. No cell phones. No internet. We played hide and seek. We used sticks and pretended to be soldiers. We played kick the can or half-ball with a broomstick. I would throw a ball against the side of my house for hours. For high school I had to walk half a mile to the trolley.We didn’t choose to exercise, we just did it.
Our adoration of technology has undone our capacity to think, our need to exercise, our interest in wandering among nature, and we’ve been trained to love our oppression. We are amusing ourselves to death.
Children unable to run as fast as parents’ generation, study shows
“Economic Reasons” my fat ass! It’s the nanny state, pure and simple. I grew up in So FL in the 50s. We had no TV and radio was AM. So what! I literally grew up outside, along with my friends. Riding bikes, playing football, fishing, and eventually SCUBA diving. Going to the beach with friends and girlfriends in HS. My point to todays parents is this: turn off the TV, computers, video games and spend some time outside with your kids. My wife and I take care of our 2yr old grand daughter. She loves the outdoors and we try to take her to a local park or to Gymboree every day. Does this cut into Grandma’s time? Of course it does, but it’s worth every minute with her.
Jim
How fast can you run a mile TODAY?
Or …. at which point in that mile run would Avalon have to call 9-1-1?
Just curious ….
I prefer long walks these days. I haven’t tried to run a mile in years. In my twenties I would run five miles a few times per week. Marriage, three kids, time consuming jobs, and long commutes combined to eliminate that activity over time.
I wonder where they found kids that could run for a mile. In Colorado maybe? Not in the Mid West or South. I went and saw the Hunger Games yesterday with my kids. One of my daughters wanted to see it. I had to laugh, the title with hunger in it, and 85% of the people at the movie were morbidly obese.
A boomer couple cut to the front of the line because they were “disabled”, meaning they weighed 350lbs each and were so fat they could barely walk. Yet, they had monster Cokes and the jumbo bucket of popcorn. They had a smirk on their faces as they passed everyone by. There are more obese kids now than I’ve ever seen in my life. The parents are obese, so they allow their kids to get obese so they feel better about themselves. Kids with moobs already and they’re 10 years old. They couldn’t run to the car without stopping, out of breath.
Mom and dad weigh 400 lbs, staring blankly at their phones at God knows what. And the funniest part of all, they’re wearing Under Armor hoodies, hats and running pants, as if they think themselves to be athletes. It’s all normal now. Our society is so dysfunctional it’s mind boggling, what is normal is pathological. Some day reality is going to hit these people up side the head, after their health is destroyed and they’re sick and disabled, and waiting for their government check and SNAP refill so they can go to the Wal Mart and buy a few more cases of Coke, a few more cases of Little Debbie’s snack cakes, and stop by the pharmacy to get their insulin.
As far as exercise goes, people would rather deform their bodies with gastric bypass surgery than have to get off their asses and exercise. There is nothing better for a human, nothing more necessary than exercise. But exercise takes effort, and some discomfort sometimes, and that’s just un-American. We need to be coddled, our egos bolstered with Facebook, and watching shows about idiots so we don’t have to do any real learning. If only they’d make a pill for exercise, or fingering your phone counted as exercise. When people can’t be bothered by having to work for a living, and consuming is the only purpose the sheeple have in life anymore, they are going to consume as much as their credit cards/SNAP/EBT cards will allow. It’s pathetic–millions of years of evolution has led to this pitiful excuse for humans.
AWD, spot on.
I personally know three fat women who had liposuction and looked normal for about three months before loading up on the fat again, only this time they look even more disgusting because of the misappropriation of the lard deposits.
When I was real young I lived near a bunch of mean Mexicans. I had to know how to run. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I have 3 kids, 2 girls one boy all are athletes. It has been my personal experience that the kids today who are inclined to be physically active have more of an opportunity to not only stay physically fit but to become highly specialized and trained in the sport or sports they choose.
No my kids do not walk to the ball field, their parents drive them and they do not have free time to just run the streets or through the woods using their imaginations as I did as a kid growing up in the late 70’s early 80’s.
However, they play their sports on a high level all year round. They have been playing travel leagues since they were 7 years old. There are indoor sport complexes were they can play sports in the northeast that use to be seasonal because of weather, today these facilities are packed with kids night and day playing organized high level, highly competitive sports. There are clinics where they can continue specialized training striving to become better at their chosen sport. There are artificial turf lighted fields, games don’t get rained out and they can utilize the fields late into the night all year round.
I was an athletic kid growing up in the 70’s & 80’s, I walked or rode my bike to games and practice and had a lot of free time to run around the streets using my imagination and it was great, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. However there was a down side to all of this free time.
By the time I was 13 I started smoking, when I was 16 I started hanging out drinking which soon lead to smoking pot. I didn’t have the opportunities my kids have to train and work at the sport I loved all year round. My kids are more fit and better athletes then I was when I was there age.
I am actually amazed at how dedicated they are to there team and their sport, at how disciplined they are, following directions and taking orders from screaming coaches. It’s almost military like, like they are being trained for some other purpose that society will need them for in the not so distant future.
Anyway, yes I am sure there are many kids who sit in front of video games all day and never get out and run around, but I can tell you that there are plenty of them that do a lot of high level physical activity. If you are not raising kids today in this environment I would ask you to visit your local basketball gyms, all propose HS athletic fields and indoor sport facilities and watch these kids play. I think you will be impressed.
Nomad
Are they having fun?
My kids all played organized baseball, hockey and basketball. It’s run by adults for adults. It’s almost a job for the kids. They tend to burn out in their mid-teens and quit. The parents are always more disappointed than the kids.
Sports are supposed to be fun.
My kids are very active. My oldest daughter rides and shows a horse, plays softball, piano lessons, and does 4H in the summer. My youngest daughter, bless her heart, isn’t the greatest athlete, but still does gymnastics once a week. She’s more of a girly-girl. Neither of my kids are even overweight. Their friends aren’t overweight either, but the rest of the kids at their school are obese, at least 2/3 of ’em.
My ex-wife is way overweight now, and does no activity. I go the gym, and ride my bike 2-3 days a week 8 months a year. Once you exercise a little, you get addicted to it, and have a hard time stopping. That’s because it is natural to exercise, it’s hard wired into our brains, and there are so many benefits it’s unbelievable. Being a fat slob is not natural, no matter what a scan of the American population may reveal.
AWD:
I don’t think you would like me as a patient. You would say truthful things to me which I would NOT like. I really enjoy your insights, though.
Bye the bye, I look like an out of shape Jabba the Hutt.
LLpoh wrote:
“When I was real young I lived near a bunch of mean Mexicans. I had to know how to run. Necessity is the mother of invention.”
That was you!!! Damn, you were fast. Never could catch your skinny ass. Sorry if we scared ya.
I saw a Jabba the Hut the other day, a baby boomer on disability. He got disability because of lymphedema. He was morbidly obese, and as a result fluid gets trapped in his lower extremities and they swell up huge and leak fluid. He was an insulin dependent diabetic, and weighed about 375lbs.
He’d been on disability for about 15 years, with countless hospitalizations, more than I could document in 30 mins. He’s had heart catheterizations done, gall bladder removed, and could barely walk. His legs looked like the elephant man, only worse. Infected, calcified, and smelled worse than you can imagine. High blood pressure, cholesterol to the moon.
He was pissed off because the “rides bus”, the limo coaches that drive the FSA around town was late picking him up. He admitted to drinking a pair of two liter cokes a day, and said the “rides bus” took him to Wal Mart to do his shopping. I felt sorry for the guy, he was such a mess. It was just pathetic, really. I said I’d do what I could to help him. It’s just amazing that people never realize there are consequences to their behavior, whether they like it or not.
dirtscratcher says:
LLpoh wrote:
“When I was real young I lived near a bunch of mean Mexicans. I had to know how to run. Necessity is the mother of invention.”
“That was you!!! Damn, you were fast. Never could catch your skinny ass. Sorry if we scared ya.”
We’re not bad people, we’re not dirty, we’re not mean
We love everybody, but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishing or go swimming in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for living, yeah, that’s our philosophy
I could never run for shit. I did have a lot of upper body strength from gymnastics (parallel bars and side horse). Imagine a 6’1″ gymnast with a barrel chest and long skinny legs and that was me. Living in a motel here and eating at restaurants for a month when I got here caused me to get out of shape and gain weight. In Portland I swam a mile 3 or more times a week. Just today I found an LA Fitness nearby that has a lap pool. I’m going to start doing that again.
Juan – I can tell you from personal experience that there are some mean Mexicans out there. Before I figured out to run I got my ass beat, and before I got fast enough I got it beat a few more times. Even after I got faster, I got caught. I quickly determined that fast and aware is the right combination to keep from getting my ass beat.
dirtscratcher – that was you? It was not so much as I was scared as I really preferred not to have the shit kicked out of me every day.
I hope you weren’t the kid I snuck up behind with the brick. That had to hurt. Us sneaky injuns are best left alone.
Llpoh
So, how many Mexican work at your factory? Do you beat their asses now?
AWD – a few. Good folks. I do not hold a grudge. I figure the brick incident (and a couple of other levellers) evened the score.
Because it is far to late to begin jogging.
I’m anti-running in general as it destroyed my damn ankle. Like many/most of you, I practically lived outside if I was not at school. It did not matter if it was -30F blinding snowstorms in Montana or torrential downpours and lightening in SC, I was always outside playing football, baseball, wall ball, riding bikes, building forts, swimming in swamps & ponds and doing a million other things. My parents were lucky if they knew what county I was in sometimes. During high school in Spain I even backpacked around Europe in the summer. Except for the ankle problem, there is nothing I’d change about my childhood and I’m so glad they never had cell phones or pagers back then.
I feel sorry for kids today. They have no idea what they are missing.
I_S
IndenturedServant says:
I feel sorry for kids today. They have no idea what they are missing.
I was in Eugene, Oregon on the friday just before the Tennessee game. I took the afternoon to wander through campus. I walked to the dorm where I lived as a freshman and wandered around the neighborhood for the first time in decades. The little dorm room that had two beds when I lived there now has four. Little of the campus had changed…a few new buildings but there were about 14,000 undergrads there in 1975 and now there are 24,000. Gone are all the funky hippie restaurants. Now there are a bunch of noodle joints…there must be a lot of asian students now. Gone are the funky old houses where we used to live off campus, nearly all replaced by multi-story apartment buildings. I paid about $250/term in tuition and now it costs over $4,000. Downtown Eugene sucks. Gone is the pedestrian mall and all the big stores have relocated to suburban malls. Other than some new government buildings it looks run down and seedy.
I remember thinking that if the students there today could be transported back 40 yrs or so they would think they had died and gone to heaven.
I thought
Zara said:
“I remember thinking that if the students there today could be transported back 40 yrs or so they would think they had died and gone to heaven.”
Unfortunately you’d have to erase all knowledge of iCrap from their brains first.
I_S
Zara has to wear depends diapers now.
We made a deal with Iran, shutting out Israel and leaving them in the cold, but who’s working closely with Saudi Arabia, including visiting their military bases as they prepare for a strike against Iran, against the wishes of the US. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
AWD, isn’t it great. It’s a baby step, but better than nothing. Fuck Israel to hell (and Saudi Arabia – possibly the most repressive country on earth outside of N. Korea, and the center of islamic terrorism) too!
Naturally the neocons are apoplectic and Netanyahu is acting like a little baby denied his favorite rattle. Fuck him too.
PS, I predicted after the french buttfucked the last deal that this would happen. I win.
Admin
I guess their having fun, they say they are but they don’t know any other way. Like I said I wouldn’t trade my childhood for theirs, I believe I had a lot more fun then them.
All that aside, as far as physically fit that they are. Them and the thousands of other kids I have run into week after week on soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and football fields and basketball courts all over upstate NY.
I lift weights and run on tred mill. I don’t want to wear my joints out pounding on pavement. I have a commercial grade tred mill in my living room on one side and 400lbs of free weight, bench and squat rack on the other. ( I am a redneck that’s the way we roll ).
AWD do you ride horses or only your child.
At peak, I could run 3 miles in 18 minutes around the track, talking the whole time. That was after a week of laying brick, throwing hay, and building fence.
Why would anyone thumb down TPC’s last post?
TPC – good stats. At peak, I could down 12 beers and stagger 200 yards to the next bar for 6 or so more.
TPC posted a fat chick saying her would not turn her down, what a cool dude, I would not thumb him down.
Llpoh says:
“When I was real young I lived near a bunch of mean Mexicans.”
boo-hoo-hoo, sounds like your well on your way to writing that sappy great american novel, Oafrah is waiting in the wings to promote it. Be sure to mention how they were probably all illegal and on welfare. If it weren’t for us chasing your scrawny pigtailed ass, you would not have made the effort to hightail it out of there, you owe us.
Juan – I owed you a swift kick in the balls. And I repaid that with interest. So we are all square now. The sneaky brick trick did work a trick. I think I was around 9 or 10 years old. Got up behind one of those older spic pricks and dropped him and beat feet. Never knew what hit him. Did not see him around school for a few days. I think he might have been concussed and in need of a couple of stitches.
He may not remember me, but he sure would remember the headache.
I ran back in high school-Cross-country, marathons, longer distance track. My knees couldn’t take it. Been walking (sometimes pretty fucking fast-sub 10 minute miles) ever since. My 23 yr old daughter commutes by bicycle, weather permitting, and my 6 yr old is learning to cross country ski (with big sister and myself). Both girls are into shooting sports too-my older daughter outshoots all her stepbrothers with large caliber revolvers, and 6 yr old is a natural with her chipmunk 22. For her 6th birthday, she wanted a bow & arrow set, and a baby moose target. She figured being a kid, she should only shoot baby moose-ain’t that cute? She had to settle for a deer target.
AKAnon says:
“I ran back in high school-Cross-country, marathons, longer distance track. My knees couldn’t take it. Been walking (sometimes pretty fucking fast-sub 10 minute miles)”
I don’t know how fast AWD rides but my buddy McClay said you can’t do over 10mph on a ten speed – that was 1978 – bikes got lighter in the 80’s. there were some kids doing about 40mph going downhill on transmountain road in el paso.
I just wanted to say 6mph is humping. then again, my buddy from ny said cold weather is no time to be half-stepping.
Yesterday I did my 3.5 mile run in the 22 degree weather into a stiff wind. I run because I am too cheap to join a gym. Fortunately there is a great track about a mile from my house in the woods where there are stations for various exercises like push-ups and pull-ups. My daughter the captain of her gymnastics team will run with me occasionally, but cannot keep up. I am not fast but steady and strong. At my best I could do 3 miles in 21 minutes down at the Cape Cod Canal after work, but I am a bit slower now. I walk at lunch at least three days a week about 3.5 miles randomly stopping to do pushups. It is easy to get exercise in Admin taking a walk at lunch is a great way to decompress and helps the afternoon productivity. There must be a gym on your campus that you can use.
AWD, glad to see some kids still do 4H I did 10 years when I was a kid, great experience. Funny, my daughters friends are mostly athletic and in good shape, but I notice that more of the girls are overweight in her school than the boys, the same with my sons college. I don’t think it is any harder for kids to get in exercise these days, I think they do what they see. When I was in my twenties I would go to the same gym as my mom. She roller skated 3 to 4 days a week and was National Champion in at 67. This is what I saw growing up so I assumed it was the normal thing to do, just like working hard. Many kids see their dads with a huge fat gut sitting watching TV drinking beer and assume that that is normal. I don’t think you can force kids to exercise, but just like when we were kids and had gym class everyday, when exercise becomes part of the routine it just seems like the normal thing to do.
AWD, you must be getting soft showing compassion for a fatty. I knew there was a kind heart in there somewhere. It must be your girls bringing out the best in you.
Bob.
Be honest LLPOH…you now employ Mexicans and have them by the balls now…..hope yah’ aint too mean to them .
My nephew runs track…the sprints…fast for a white kid….qualified last year for the state finals. I ran sprints too so it’s in the gene’s !
As I said before I’m glad the FSA is expanding….they’ll be dead quicker when TSHTF .
Run Forrest run:
Bob.
Buckhed – my employees love me. They would elect me king if they could.
Actual picture of Llpoh at work
Admin,
Suggestion: Time to bust out the P90X at least 3x/wk. No gym, no expensive equipment needed. Workouts 40-60 min long, but even less would do more good than walking
Spin,
You can do most exercises without equipment. When I run I usually about 200 push-ups in three or four sets, 3 sets of pull-ups and about 200 crunches in a few sets. You can use anything for equipment, a swing set for pull ups, a bench or chair for dips, nothing needed for crunches and push ups. If the PS90 works for you great, but the only money you should have to spend is on a decent pair of sneakers. I have had three back operations including a two level fusion and later some of the hardware removed because of the pain. I figure if I can do this anyone can. There is no excuse. Plus my commute is about 1 to 1.5 hours each way so I try to use my lunch break or get up extra early when there is light in the morning. Fortunately most of the guys in our office are about the same age so if you disappear for an hour at lunch to walk no one complains. I can walk about 4 mph which on hilly roads will break you a pretty good sweat, that’s why I don’t run on break or it will be a full sweat. Not pretty.
AWD, I figure the cardio will serve me well when the FSA goes on the march. Plus I keep an old mountain bike as backup that I can ride for hours if need be.
Bob.
Bob.
Apparently I stutter.
Bob
I always sucked at running. Completely wrong body type to be any damn good at it.. always sort of envied those itty bitty guys who just floated along effortlessly on a long run…
Dad had me lifting free weights by 6th grade. Then came High School and football. More power lifting, more free weights.
Always had trouble running in the army. Didn’t stop or give up, just slow. In Airborne school, I puked and lost bladder control on the first run- but didn’t give up. I was always the go-to guy for lifting heavy objects or carrying heavy equipment long distances…
Don’t much care for running, so I don’t. But I’ll encourage my own son to get into cross country- his body type is a better fit and it is a skill that I think will pay him dividends later on…
I know just how you feel Billy.