Personal fitness regimes appear proportional to the rise of
our dependence upon fossil fuels for energy.
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| The massive amounts of human energy expended on events such as 'Tough Mudder' will be needed soon to simply survive. |
The latter has led to the former as there is an obvious relationship
between our addiction to fossil fuels and the collapse of the need for human
energy to undertake work.
Hence the emergence of regimes, or places, to repair
subsequent human feebleness, a natural by-product of the sedentary life that is
dependent on energy from somewhere else, that arose in lockstep with our
habitual use of fossil energy.
Becoming increasingly dependent upon fossil fuels for
energy, human muscle fell into disuse and following the emergence of boxing
gyms in the 1930s, exercise regimes became an increasingly regular part of life.
In the past decade many have profited handsomely from an
increasingly bizarre array of exercise programs that have proliferated,
including curiously named events such as “Tough Mudder”.
The personal energy we now use for what is mostly recreation,
in which many exhaust themselves to collapse, was in earlier times needed to
simply survive, although many continue to deny that our hungry wants are taking
us back to what once was.
The discovery of fossil fuels, along with an understanding
how they could be used as a substitute for human and animal energy, liberated
mankind from the demanding daily necessary exercise regime of hand-to-mouth
survival.
Fossil fuel energy companies plead a contrary view, but the
simple facts, supported by undeniable realities, illustrate that the storehouse
of ancient energy is becoming exhausted and on a human time-scale we will have
little choice but to return to personal manual labour.
The gymnasium of ancient Greece, beyond being a place where
people trained for major public events, encouraged political discussion and
frequently had a library attached, which was quite different from the stack of
magazines in today’s gymnasiums.
Much discussion presently goes on between those pursuing
various exercise regimes, but most of it is shallow, of little consequence and frequently
is of little relevance to fundamental human needs.
Human energy will soon be again in demand for although we
might see and explosion of renewable energy sources, it is unlikely that beyond
some energy source not yet imagined, our daily needs will still only be
satisfied through the use of our muscles.
Obesity and diabetes are modern problems that equate with
too much time doing too little, unlike our predecessors who had to spend a few
hours every day to ensure food was available.
That usually vigorous endeavour included much incidental
exercise denying obesity and diabetes, but left time to connect with family,
neighbours and friends.
Our exercise in the future will come vicariously as we bend
our backs to ensure personal and community resilience and Tough Mudder-like frivolities
will be unimaginable, irrelevant, and unnecessary.
