Ethical Issue: Exercise…is the concept working?

How often do you exercise? What do you consider exercise? Exercise is any activity that makes your body move. The different types of exercise are put into 3 categories: Aerobic, Strength, and flexibility. Our environment has evolved so that exercising is not part of our daily routine. There are several factors that are believed to be the cause of this.
The way that our communities are built is one reason why we do not exercise enough. With the convenience of drive thru windows and fast food there is no need to get out of the car and produce and kind of physical activity. These conveniences allow us to be as inactive as possible. We have the ability to have what we need delivered to our homes allowing us to be even less active.
Older communities were built with no sidewalks or bike paths. Making exercise dangerous because of passing vehicles. There were not many parks built so it was inconvenient to go to the park and exercise.
Home entertainment that is advertised heavily is another reason why we are so inactive. DVD’s, video games, even television does nothing to promote being active. People would rather sit and watch a movie than go hiking. Kids are learning to be inactive at an early age, which will make obesity rates go up. If they get into the habit of not exercising when they are young it will be hard for them to change the habit when they are older.
The convenience of drive thru windows, not enough safe places to exercise and home entertainment are a big cause of why we are no longer active. We want convenience and exercise has become an inconvenience.
People can exercise in many ways. Being active by walking to the mailbox instead of driving or going dancing once a week is considered exercise. I think that if we do not educate our children and control the amount of video games and television that they watch the obesity epidemic will get worse. We need to continue to build more communities with more parks, bike paths and sidewalks. We need to show our children the many different ways of exercising that can be incorporated into our everyday routine, like taking the dog for a walk or playing a game of basket ball with their dad.