The healthiest people in the world don’t go to the gym

This is not just about personal choices though but also about how society is structured. E.g. when I lived in the US I found it hard to be healthy other than going to the gym because there was little opportunity for natural exercise as all of society is built around car usage and consumption of fast-food.<p>In contrast when I lived in the Netherlands I found it VERY easy to be healthy. Life is organized around biking there: it is safe, easy and convenient to do. I probably biked around 1 hour every day, just from doing errands, meeting friends, going to university etc.<p>If I wanted to grab some food, there was usually a lot more healthy options available. E.g. even in tiny stores in the Netherlands they have great vegetarian options.<p>A lot of this is not stuff as an individual you can decide on. It depends on zoning laws, building of bike lanes and a multitude of policies and traditions you cannon easily change without collective action.

Healthiest != longest-living != “best.”<p>Going to the gym, running marathons, and other strenuous activities are generally done for the challenge, difficulty, or achievement of completing them. Personally, I’d take 60 years of a challenging, but meaningful life over 90 years of relaxation and low stress.<p><i>The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships out into uncharted seas! Live in conflict with your equals and with yourselves! Be robbers and ravagers as soon as you cannot be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge! The time will soon pass when you could be content to live concealed in the woods like timid deer.</i><p>- Nietzsche

Anecdatum: my dad never did any sports and never did any physical work that was harder than carrying a shopping bag to the first floor. He lived up to 90, was never seriously ill, and never experienced any back pain in his entire life. He did enjoy hiking, though, and ran many errands on foot or on his bicycle.

The people who are actually old in these blue zones were around literally before gyms or recreational running became a thing. I&#x27;d like to compare that against someone who has been going to the gym their entire life in those blue zones and see if they live even longer.

Pointing out people in blue zones are consistently active even if they don&#x27;t run marathons or go to the gym is a very weak argument against marathons and exercise. Instead of the tortured analogy the author could have tried looking at data directly related to the topic:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.outsideonline.com&#x2F;2358586&#x2F;dont-worry-about-exercising-too-much" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.outsideonline.com&#x2F;2358586&#x2F;dont-worry-about-exerc...</a>

&quot;...the best work commute you can have is a 15-minute walk each way...&quot;<p>Interesting ... and sadly laughable considering modern cities.<p>I wonder if my 15 minutes walk to the station each way counts!

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is easier when moving is built into your daily activities. You might go to the gym and run marathons in your 20s and 30s but it&#x27;s nearly impossible to keep up with that routine for 30-40 years.<p>The title of the article makes it sound like walking is better than gyming and is misleading, just like most Quartz articles these days. Sigh, I live in a world where Quartz is becoming Buzzfeed, and Buzzfeed is becoming Quartz.

The healthiest people are those who don&#x27;t go to hospital. Hospitals are full of people with health problems.

Survivor-bias logical fallacy.<p>Focusing on the outliers doesn&#x27;t really prove a thing.

No talk about averages and medians... that&#x27;s weird... Oh, I see, it&#x27;s just hasty generalization. Ohhhhh it&#x27;s on Medium, should have guessed

So is walking frequently throughout the day better than lifting weights and HIIT (for a long healthy life)?

No, the gym comes to them.

walking to school and then walk to work only if you have the privilege to pay for a decent house or apartment, not an option for the people living far away from the downtown areas

I prefer grappling it&#x27;s a full workout and more stimulating than lifting iron or pounding the treadmill.<p>Any BJJ people here?

healthy == longest lived ?

40% of my friends go to gym.<p>Out of them:<p>90% of my male friends go to gym to build aesthetic bodies, it helps them attract females.<p>Out of them:<p>97% of them take whey protein, fish oil, vitamin D, creatine, withania smonifera<p>70% of them take anabolic steroids.<p>30% still end up with escorts and hookers.<p>That said these are my Dutch friends in Amsterdam.<p>So i would say very few actually go to gym for longetivity.<p>Particular my male friends, smoke and do drugs, they all say they wanna live a short but exciting life where they get everything they want, let it be money or girls.