What do you do to stay fit? Do you jog? Hit the gym? Start the day with stretching, push-ups or yoga? Go for walks or runs? Play sports?
What benefits do you get from these activities? Would you like to improve or change up your approach to fitness?
In “Are Americans Doing Fitness Wrong?,” Talya Minsberg writes that Americans are generally not getting enough exercise:
For many people in the United States, staying in shape means getting in your car and driving to the gym. Movement is something on a to-do list, siloed off from the rest of daily life.
That mentality is quintessentially American, according to Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a professor of history at the New School and the author of “Fit Nation.”
“There’s this crazy paradox where America is, in many ways, the center of the commercial fitness industry, but it’s also a place where by pretty much every measure people are extraordinarily unfit,” she said.
Only about a quarter of American adults get the recommended amount of physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and inactivity contributes to 1 in 10 premature deaths.
Part of the problem, Dr. Mehlman Petrzela said, is the “pay-to-play experience” embedded in American fitness culture. There are endless gyms, classes and products that promise to make you fitter, as long as you hand over your credit card.
But there are other ways of approaching exercise. In many nations, movement is baked into everyday life — as a way to commute from one place to another, to build community or to connect with nature.
Ms. Minsberg shares some lessons Americans might learn from four cultures — Finland, Japan, the United Kingdom and Brazil — according to fitness experts. Here are excerpts:
Finland: Walk wherever you can, even when it’s freezing.
When you live in a nation like Finland, where daylight only lasts for some six hours in the dead of winter, you learn to embrace extremes.
So it’s no wonder that the Finnish have a “no bad weather, only bad clothes” type of mentality, said Mika Venojärvi, a professor of exercise medicine at the University of Eastern Finland. It’s always popular to explore the outdoors, Mr. Venojärvi said, even in frigid temperatures.
Japan: Embrace short bursts of exercise.
Every day, a short exercise routine known as radio-taiso is broadcast across Japan on YouTube and Japan’s national radio station. In parks, office buildings and schoolyards, groups of people join together throughout the day in a three-minute, 13-move calisthenic routine — no equipment required. Movements include arm circles, forward bends, backward bends and star jumps, which are similar to jumping jacks.
The United Kingdom: A workout can be a community event.
Twenty years ago, a runner named Paul Sinton-Hewitt invited a small group of friends to what he called the Bushy Park Time Trial: a five-kilometer run with the promise of coffee afterward. They had a great time, and Mr. Sinton-Hewitt decided to do it again the next weekend, and the weekend after that.
That event gradually grew into parkrun, an organization that now hosts roughly 2,500 free running events every weekend in public spaces across 23 countries, including Ireland, Malaysia and Namibia.
Brazil: Make fitness feel like a party.
Brazil’s beaches are routinely packed with people jumping, sprinting, squatting and skating. Beach volleyball and soccer games dot the sand, sandwiched between walkers on boardwalks and surfers in the Atlantic.
There’s so much activity that “if you go to Rio de Janeiro and Copacabana at 5:30 p.m., it will be hard to walk in a straight line,” said Luiz Guilherme Grossi Porto, a professor of physical education and public health at University of Brasília.
Students, read the entire article and look at all of the photos and videos. Then, tell us:
Is physical activity a part of your daily or weekly routine? If so, what do you do? Play sports? Walk your dog? Lift weights? Dance? Ride your bike? Do you enjoy the exercise that you do? Or do you do it grudgingly?
How important is regular exercise to you? What benefits do you get from it?
Ms. Minsberg begins her article by writing: “For many people in the United States, staying in shape means getting in your car and driving to the gym. Movement is something on a to-do list, siloed off from the rest of daily life.” Does that ring true for you?
Ms. Minsberg writes that in Brazil, fitness feel like a party, and in Japan, people embrace short bursts of exercise. Which lessons from other cultures would you like to incorporate into your approach to fitness — and why?
Only about a quarter of American adults get the recommended amount of physical activity. Do you think Americans would benefit from a public, group-fitness activity like the radio-taiso routines that the Japanese practice?
What tips do you have for other teenagers — or adults — who want to be more active but don’t know how to make exercise a fun, meaningful or essential part of their life?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
