Years ago, when I was buying life insurance, one of the questions was whether I do regular/professional sport (sorry, I forgot the exact words). So afterwards I asked whether doing such sport would be good or bad, from the perspective of insurance. The agent told me that it increases the cost of insurance. I don’t remember exactly whether it literally implied shorter expected lifespan, or just more likely permanent accidents, which were also covered by that specific insurance.
That was the first time in my life when I heard something negative about sport from the perspective of health.
The second (and the last) time, when I discussed with a doctor what kind of sport would be best (efficient, but also safe) if I want to lose some weight. The doctor was like: “well, you could do this… but that can damage your joints, so perhaps you should rather do this… wait, that can also damage your joints, so perhaps...” and the final conclusion was that the only sport that does not damage joints is swimming. Now of course, for an overweight person, the strain on joints is greater, but the risk exists for everyone.
On the other hand, in health, trade-offs seem quite common; few things are unambiguously good. For example, my dentist, after checking my teeth, asked me whether I grit my teeth a lot. When I said no, she was like: “well, this is weird… unless you perhaps eat a lot of fresh vegetables”. I said of course I do, that is the healthy thing to do, aren ’t we all supposed to do that? Apparently, it’s not optimal for your teeth. (And apparently less frequent than gritting one’s teeth… which is a scary thought.)
I personally like to distinguish between activity, training and exercise.
Exercise being movement done purely for health. It should be safe and effective.
Activity is movement done for another reason. Could be practical (cycling to work), or recreational (playing sport). Typically has similar effects to exercise, but comes with injury risks.
Training is practicing specific movements to get better at a certain activity.
People tend to confuse all of these, unsurprisingly, and end up doing things like crossfit “because exercise is good for you”...
People also tend to have strong beliefs about which is “best”. Really it’s a matter of personal preference/values.
Years ago, when I was buying life insurance, one of the questions was whether I do regular/professional sport (sorry, I forgot the exact words). So afterwards I asked whether doing such sport would be good or bad, from the perspective of insurance. The agent told me that it increases the cost of insurance. I don’t remember exactly whether it literally implied shorter expected lifespan, or just more likely permanent accidents, which were also covered by that specific insurance.
That was the first time in my life when I heard something negative about sport from the perspective of health.
The second (and the last) time, when I discussed with a doctor what kind of sport would be best (efficient, but also safe) if I want to lose some weight. The doctor was like: “well, you could do this… but that can damage your joints, so perhaps you should rather do this… wait, that can also damage your joints, so perhaps...” and the final conclusion was that the only sport that does not damage joints is swimming. Now of course, for an overweight person, the strain on joints is greater, but the risk exists for everyone.
On the other hand, in health, trade-offs seem quite common; few things are unambiguously good. For example, my dentist, after checking my teeth, asked me whether I grit my teeth a lot. When I said no, she was like: “well, this is weird… unless you perhaps eat a lot of fresh vegetables”. I said of course I do, that is the healthy thing to do, aren ’t we all supposed to do that? Apparently, it’s not optimal for your teeth. (And apparently less frequent than gritting one’s teeth… which is a scary thought.)
I personally like to distinguish between activity, training and exercise.
Exercise being movement done purely for health. It should be safe and effective.
Activity is movement done for another reason. Could be practical (cycling to work), or recreational (playing sport). Typically has similar effects to exercise, but comes with injury risks.
Training is practicing specific movements to get better at a certain activity.
People tend to confuse all of these, unsurprisingly, and end up doing things like crossfit “because exercise is good for you”...
People also tend to have strong beliefs about which is “best”. Really it’s a matter of personal preference/values.