Technology isn’t helping America’s fitness, obesity problem

Recent fitness articles report that about 75% of the population is overweight or obese.  That means that if you are a weight that is considered normal for your age and sex and height you are in the minority. How did this startling statistic come about?  I read a chapter in the book, “Spark” that mentioned that former African Olympic or World champions in long distance racing grew up relatively poor and had to walk or run if they wanted to go somewhere.  The ironic point of this is that most of their children are not fast runners.  The difference is that the parents grew up in a culture where they walked or ran everywhere.  Now that the parents are famous and wealthy, their kids now go to school in a family car.  The kids grow up in a culture of luxury and the need to walk or run is not part of their environment.

I remember getting my first bicycle for my birthday.  It was a one speed ACE bike that weighed almost 20 pounds.  If you had to pedal up a hill you stood up on the pedals, pulled up on the handle bars and put all your weight on the pedals.  It was a great leg strength builder.  To go faster you pedaled faster.  Then technology came on the scene.  First it was a three speed bike that made it easier to find a gear to help you pedal up the hills.  Then 10 speed bikes appeared and there were not many instances where you had to stand up to pedal.  Eventually bikes came with 12 to 20 speed gear ratios.  While this seems like a great deal for bike enthusiasts it is misleading for the average rider.  The gears are like a stick driven car.  You need to be in a proper gear and be able to shift to another gear.  The same applies to the bike’s gears.  The gears are there for different road conditions.  Depending if the road is flat, downhill, slightly uphill, steep uphill, or level for a long distance the rider needs to shift to the correct gear. Many of today’s younger drivers cannot drive a stick shift car.  If they have a hard time shifting a three or four speed stick shift in a car you can imagine how confusing a 10 speed bike is for them.  Some of the bike riders I have seen find one gear and stay there for the duration of the ride.  Having 10 gears on a bike is a nice addition but it seems too many riders only use two gears.

My son grew up in an era where skateboarding was the in fad.  It was good exercise as you had to push off with one leg to gather speed.  The constant pushing and bending of the legs was great exercise.  When the skill level increased and the jumping in the air with the board involved most of the body in some manner.  You did not see many overweight skate boarders at the skate parks.

In recent years technology has increased the ease of transportation on bikes, scooters, and skateboards.  Sitting on my front porch on nice evenings I see electric skateboarders travel up the slight uphill grade as fast as a car.  Not much exercise standing on a skateboard riding up a street at a fast speed.  It reminds you of Marty McFly and his hovering skateboard in the movie, “Back to the Future.”

The same is true for the electric scooters that are popular now.  They can ‘rent’ a scooter to ride back to their apartment or home, leave it there, and ride it back to school or work the next morning.  It amazes me that the speed these scooters can move down the road.

The advertising for electric bikes is also at the peak now.  I see bikes of different sizes riding down a road with no pedaling.  The rider sits on the saddle and about the only exercise is if they have to turn the handle bars to go around a corner. There are electric bikes for kids, mountain bikes, and road bikes for the once upon a time riders that used bike riding as a good form of exercise.

This modern way of travel from young age groups to older populations is one reason that the majority of the populations is overweight and obese.  It starts at a young age and continues on through adulthood.  The method of walking, running, or pedaling a scooter, skateboard, or bike is now a thing of the past.  I remember walking a few miles to go to a movie uptown.  Then when the young child reached the age of 16 or 17 years and could now get a driver’s license anything farther than two blocks was the need to drive to that location.  It now became unpopular to walk or run to get somewhere.

Technology is good for many things but the consequence is calories are not burned in the exercise realm and weight gain is not a healthy result.  The older means of travel had some benefits.