The fitness market was worth £682m in 1996, £1.6bn in 2001 and is now stable at £2.5bn (these are Mintel figures). In the UK, 5.2 million adults have membership of a private gym. That market penetration is phenomenal. I don't want to labour the point about how this correlates with obesity, because some people – myself, for instance – have membership and don't use it. But put it this way: whether we're using the gym or not, as a cohort, it's not making us any thinner.So someone who promotes 60 fitness centres, for example, could be fuelling that there global 'obesity epidemic'?
One of the reasons for this is that vigorous exercise stimulates your appetite. So a 20-minute run might use up 200 calories, but your hunger won't necessarily – indeed, almost certainly won't – restrain itself to that amount of extra food.
Hmmm, kinda reminds me of this article I read yesterday.
Can regular exercise avert or undo some of the harm associated with binge drinking? Perhaps even better, could exercising beforehand pre-emptively reduce your urge to overindulge in alcohol later? Or does exercising actually drive you to drink?What? You mean that those who profit from gyms are doing so, at the expense of the country's finances, by contributing to the binge-drinking epidemic, too?
[...]
Half of the rats were given access to running wheels for three weeks. The others were kept in cages without wheels. After three weeks, the running wheels were removed, and half of the animals from each group were allowed unlimited access to alcohol for 21 days. [...] the exercising animals turned to alcohol with significantly more enthusiasm than the sedentary rats, mainly during the first week of the experiment. “It was a bit of surprise,” Dr. Leasure said.
But the findings are right in line with those from a recent, large-scale national survey of human subjects published in The American Journal of Health Promotion.
The bastards!
No wonder Bannatyne drones on about smoking so much, it's - quite obviously - merely a diversionary tactic to disguise his own selfish disregard for the health of the nation. Innit.
15 comments:
From my dealings with gym-users, it is generally viewed as a question of enduring pain to justify a reward rather than as part of an overall "healthy lifestyle plan".
"Dr. Leasure"???
F-ing genius.
WV: dress
Curmudgeon: The quickest I ever drank a pint was in 1986 after playing football for 2 hours in the park one Sunday. Went down almost in one gulp. It was the day of the World Cup Final and I ended up more pissed that night than I've ever been, before or since.
MW: Yeah, that made me snork too. :)
Agreed. The mainstream gym-user uses half an hour of half-arsed 'exercise' as an excuse to indulge their fat arses in even more juicy treats.
Any excercise plan only works with a sensible diet - ie taking on enough food to fuel muscle development. Unfortunately this is not the mainstream excercise industry's viewpoint, or at least not what the industy indoctrinates its lard-arse lambs to believe.
From my dealings with gym-users, it is generally viewed as a question of enduring pain to justify a reward rather than as part of an overall "healthy lifestyle plan".
This is my experience as well. Point this out to the gym user and they usually 'see their arse big style' as we say in these parts. Great fun!
Ah bollox, that's the first decent reason, other than being a pervert, for going to the gym.
He really is a sanctamonious cockgibblet.
At my gym you have to go through the bar and restaurant to get to the exercise areas!
I won't be renewing my membership though.....£900 a year is my latest quote for renewal!!
I walk (fast) six miles every morning from my house in hove to the seafront, off to hove lagoon and then to brighton pier and back. I pass a gym on the promenade with its windows open. People looking like fkin lab rats on wheels and paying for the privelege. Idiots. I am fitter than most of them and what I do is free and enjoyable. (I also do two sessions of martial arts each week) which costs me but nowhere near as much as a crappy gym membership.
I suspect that BANNeverything TYNe's business model depends on gym members who never turn up. Also the guy's obviously an utter C***t.
You've got to read this article - brilliant: http://www.mindpowernews.com/JoyOfLaziness.htm
"It is the news that all sloths have been waiting for. Scientists in Germany have found that too much exercise is bad for you and that doing less could lengthen your life." "If you do a lot of sport or are permanently stressed, then your body will produce more free radicals and that is one reason why your life could be shortened."
Cherie
Well as the first article alludes to, it's pretty well known that the fitness industry doesn't really make money off people who actually use the product, but off people who buy the 12 month contract and then don't show up.
Drinking is fun and so is exercise. If one leads to the other that's gravy as far as I'm concerned.
Zoe Williams seems like an idiot.
But people will still go on doing it! (Going it gyms, that is). I tried a gym once on a fee trial offer. It seemed to me that there were two types there - the Adonises, who strutted their stuff, and the 7 stone (or 20 stone) others, who hid their heads in shame. Once was enough. (I am one of the 7 stoners). But, years later I tried again - paid for three months and went once. The place said that it was a 'social environment' - it was nothing of the sort. It was a misery of individuals - no social environment at all. Nobody talked to each other at all.
Never again!
But the critical thing is that MAN is a walking animal. Our physique (upright on two legs) is not really a design for running as fast as possible. We are designed to walk about, see a pig, and then run as fast as necessary to catch the pig. That is how we are physically designed. We are walking animals essentially.
So the three states are:
1. Doing nothing - bad.
2. Walking - good.
3. Running - bad.
Thus it is clear that gyms, is so far as they promote running, are bad news AND SHOULD BE BANNED ON THE GROUNDS THAT THE NHS IS BEING STRETCHED AND NO EXTRA TAXES (DUTIES) ARE BEING PAID!
What an absolute total fucking mess this country is in! And yet, it need not be so. Really Sad.
Nah i'm running around like a bloody hamster on a treadmill ,how boring is that.
Just eat what you need and no more.
My exercise routine is strict - first I use my muscles to open a pack of cigarettes, then I lift the lighter up to the cig, and then maybe later I'll crack open a beer and see how fast I can drink it. Quite the workout really.
The Guardian appears to have a monopoly on the new year batshit insane opinion columns.
That piece is unbelievable. So gyms are now part of the "capitalist conspiracy" now, eh?
The problems she highlights are caused by one thing and one thing only: weak-will. However in typical Guardianista style, instead of leaving responsibility for this with the individual, some larger entity must always be blamed.
So, what did we all do after a strenuous game of soccer, rugby, tennis or squash? Hit the bar or pub of course. Same today. I wonder why this requires formal research?
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