Dan Burkhart 

So there's hope for the future, yes?

texaspandj

Well when I first read it I thought it was cruel. And then I thought some more and wasn't sure what that said about him or his co-workers. Then I thought some more and maybe they deserved what was said about them. And better he express it here than another way.

Wildwood 

Funny, I guess the oil embargo and gasoline shortages didn't skew those numbers.
Good on us for exercising, shame on our politicians for letting the oil back in! Afterall, bike sales might have gone up.

TakingMyTime

I can out run, do more push-ups, do more sit-ups than my grand kids. 2 of the boys are 9 and 10. When I was 10 we took the presidential fitness tests and all the boys in the class were trying to keep up with the 1 sit-up a second for 1 minute milestone someone set earlier in the day. My 2 grand kids couldn't do 10 sit-ups if I paid them.

bulldog1935

my daughter is a nationally ranked (cadet) HS wrestler and can whip all her grandparents together.

and she never lived in a box in the middle of the road

Retro Grouch 

So what should we do now?

If you're not working toward a solution then you're only whining about a problem.

TakingMyTime

We've bought them bikes, we take them over to a huge regional park near our house whenever they visit. We buy them skateboards. Unfortunately, both their parents are obese and lazy so any good the wife and I try to start dies when they get back in their front door and turn on their Xbox.

There is a very large nature center which is part of this regional park. We took them hiking through it and they started getting scared thinking they were something like 100 miles from civilization. The car was parked about 200 yards away.

Rowan

Beautiful. A former boss of mine, now deceased because he, well, you know, neglected to keep fit even after a major heart attack, used to bellow in the meeting room:

Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions!!

Machka is a member of myfitnesspal, initially to help motivate some relatively minor weight loss, but now more as just someone posting her experience. The point is, that there are quite a lot of people who are trying to improve their fitness and longevity.

The stories that Machka tells of her experiences on MFP suggest that there is a huge knowledge gap in the American psyche that makes the task extremely difficult. Including doozies such as having never eaten vegetables in their lives... ever. This has become generational, and when it reaches that point, a change (back) is almost impossible to construct.

Who's to blame? Who knows. I get a sense that society is being dumbed down by the baby boomers and their off-spring and now their offspring who didn't want to do stuff at school, but were made to... and vowed when they became adults that they would never let their children experience the same disciplines.

There's also that "make life easier and simpler" paradigm that is still promoted by the marketeers and their products. We're heading quite rapidly to the outcomes of a song created decades ago by Zager and Evans, In the Year 2525.

And a diet and fitness industry that has been built on misinformation, selective research and marketing. Trying to sort through the dross is virtually impossible for someone who has determined that they need to make a change. A bit like BikeForums -- and the broader bicycle industry -- in a way.

MinnMan

I know exactly where you are coming from, but be careful. Those of us who have found cycling and seen the benefits to our mental and physical health tend to develop an attitude about others who have not. If only they would see the light and start cycling or doing some other exercise! They wouldn't be unhealthy/fat/unhappy/etc. Those of us in this forum know that you have the facts on your side, but facts don't always change minds. On a human scale, this sort of judgmental attitude is usually unwelcome if you try to share it outside of the circle of those who already have found an active lifestyle. It can have a flavor not unlike evangelism.

I doubt any of you took to cycling because some know-it-all told you that they knew what was good for you better than you knew yourself. You had to find your way to this lifestyle by yourself.

B. Carfree

Yes, I doubt if anyone ever took up cycling and stayed with it because some snooty person told them they must do it for their health. I honestly don't know if riding is the right choice for someone else. I do know for certain that being sedentary is unhealthy, so if I am asked or if someone appears to have some interest in how to improve their health I will volunteer that much. I'm also not bashful about posting up such notions on social media, but folks can read or ignore that as they choose since it's not directed at anyone personally but is just there to read if one finds it interesting.

As far as cycling evangelism goes, I try to confine it to how much I enjoy it. I always allow that other folks get their pleasures in other ways and I feel fortunate that what gives me joy also keeps me healthy. I really don't meet many people who are actively trying to convince people to ride. I do meet a lot of people who spread misinformation about the relative dangers of cycling versus other activities and I will correct them each time I encounter such nonsense.

B. Carfree

I see Machka has met two of my nephews. Who would have thought such dietary choices were even possible?

Rowan

But oddly, thin and fitness shaming has become an art on social media. Being overweight or obese has become such a norm in western society, that anyone who is thin, fit and healthy is regarded as abnormal. So the judgmental attitude goes both ways.

eja_ bottecchia

Good post. We are the proud parents of four millennials. They are all accomplished, hard working individuals. We are proud of them--even when we disagree with their political views.

bulldog1935

wow, you guys hang with different kids than I do.

The kids I hang with are bright, driven, and set goals around limiting their muscle mass to meet weight class.
Halfway through the HS season, my daughter is undefeated.
(OK the girl she defeated last night for the tournament medal has West Point for her goal.)
I think my daughter's edge has always been that she likes the training the way some of us like cycling.

She's always been a charger at everything We started kayaking together when she was 9 in a tandem rig.


By the next year wouldn't hear of riding in the back and paddled her own borrow boat until I bought her own.
In her boat at 12-y-o starting the morning paddling into the coast wind across a 5-mi flat, she beat 3 grown men across the flat.


When she was 15, I had to get myself a Werner paddle, too, just to get my edge back - otherwise, I couldn't keep up with her



she's a heck of a shot


built her own bike for a summer project

NHS, near the top of her class...

you think maybe the problem isn't the kids?





this isn't me again, this is my buddy Stevo - I'm behind the camera

bargeon

I'm sure neanderthal parents worried that their kids would grow up lazy, spoiled and unable to kill mastadons because they were so dependent on that new fangled technology, the wheel.

Maybe they had a point, it just took longer than they thought.

MinnMan

Yeah, I'm with Bulldog1935, here. Rowan, I think that you must frequent different quarters of social media from me. I have seldom encountered what you describe, apart from the occasional comment that riding 50 or 100 miles on a bicycle up hills is "crazy". But those comments and commenters are, in my virtual world, greatly in the minority.

Further, if you speak with the women around you, I think you'll hear that fat shaming is rampant, that fitness shaming is close to non-existent, and that fit and trim is regarded as the norm - even though it is not actually the norm.

genec

Nice thought, but sadly it takes more than one ride. "One ride" becomes the bar story "yeah I did that, and man was it painful."

It really takes a while to make exercise a habit that one wants to follow...

Good luck though... if you can just get one person going...

Loose Chain

You are correct, little sugar britches and snowflake are over protected and coddled little wussies. There have been some studies on this phenomena, pretty much there is a perception that the world is much more dangerous than it used to be. Some of it is driven by the CNN/FOX/MSNBC 24 hour news as entertainment business that has warped the minds of so many people.

Bullying is good, it made me tough. Walking and riding bicycles made me fit. Independence allowed me to think for myself.

J

MinnMan

Just curious. Do you have kids?

kingston 

I think your kid's an anomaly @bulldog1935. I've got a senior in high school swimming at UNC next year, who outside of swimming is the laziest kid I know, and my other 3 kids aren't any better. They're all in these "elite" travel athletic programs that are these year-round super expensive clubs that everyone around me is convinced these kids need to be competitive. My next-door neighbor kid who's 15 was interested in bikes so his mom took him to a local trainer where they charged her $300 to give him a fitness evaluation and recommended that he buy a new $3,000 bike and join their $225/month training program. It's unbelievable. What ever happened to kids just doing something athletic because its fun? I agree with @Loose Chain, they're a bunch of over protected and coddled little wussies. When they're not being spoon-fed in these for-profit athletic programs they're glued to their screens.

FBinNY 

Why are we blaming the kids? It's the parents that set the agenda, and decide what the family culture will be. Of course there's pressure to offer kids "all the opportunities...." and there plenty of people who'll provide them for a buck or thousand.

But, unless parents foster or support this culture, the kids will adapt and grow with whatever is provided. Part of the issue isn't the peer pressure that we all say the kids feel, it's the peer pressure of the parents who want don't want to be seen as shorting their kids.

bulldog1935

very simply, this is all my daughter's drive, her dream, her ambition. She is going to take it as far as it will take her (I think her goal is Tokyo, but that would be pointless to discuss right now).
I'm just along for the ride.
Yes, she has trainers and she trains - in the summer, 3 times/day. Three times/week in the school year along with team practice. She's been to 3 Team USA training camps when other kids were having their Christmas and summer vacations.

The amount of work that it took her to get here, you can't ask anyone to do. It has to be all from her.
Even on the mat - in the first tournament this year, she wrestled 10 lb over her class, giving up 10 lbs of muscle in 4 matches, because a week earlier she was 3 lbs over and, on paper, you can't lose more than 2 lbs/week.
She won that tournament, and the senior she beat for the medal (10 lbs over her weight) placed in state last year.
She dug deeper than she knew she had in her to beat that girl by a final 2-pt takedown. The only point match she's won this year - every other match this year, she's won by fall.
Something else that's fun this year, the drive, focus and condition is secondary to her skills.
Last year in district, she let the older girl walk her around and took 2nd. Then beat the girl in region, and they both went to state. This year, the older girl is a senior, my daughter's only serious regional competition, and she's already beaten her twice this year.

kingston 

I agree 100%. It's the parents not the kids. We are to blame.

I like @Biker395 's comments. It is easier to do things for your kids than to teach them to do things for themselves, and I like a lot of other parents, have more money than time. So it's even easier to pay someone else do to it for your kids.

kingston 

I'm not all that impressed by the organized athletics @bulldog1935. It's all the other stuff that's impressive to me. All my kids perform at the elite level in organized athletics, but they won't do anything else. That's what I see as the problem we have created, at least in my family.

bulldog1935

fair enough.
She's also the sweetest person you would ever want to meet.
total contrast from her monster face when she's in focus.