I agree, Greg. Although not a runner, fearing what that ground-pounding might do to joints and organs, I like my swimming & cycling in the open air.

By the way, does anyone else wonder about the contradictions in life that exercise poses? Our technical advances means that most of us have sedentary occupations where we need to stave off physical atrophy by putting aside time for excercise. Whereas once we exercised enough in our work to stay reasonably fit, now we have to engage in a lot of physical activity that produces nothing except perspiration, and, I suppose, fitness.

That's progress.

Greg perhaps you have used the wrong word: “But it is hard to imagine that working out, in close proximity to others, in a room full of re-circulated air is as enervating experience as should be gained given the physical, not to mention monetary effort, required.”

From www.dictionary.com ‘Sometimes people mistakenly use enervate to mean “to invigorate” or “to excite” by assuming that this word is a close cousin of the verb energize. In fact enervate does not come from the same source as energize (Greek energos, “active”). It comes from Latin nervus, “sinew.” Thus enervate means “to cause to become ‘out of muscle’,” that is, “to weaken or deplete of strength.”’

Walking or running along the beach is the exercise I like most!

Heya Greg.

Fair view from an Australian perspective but you dragged the 'developed world' into your argument & I feel compelled to reply.

You're forgetting that in some parts of the world, the elements are nigh on intolerable for significant periods of the year.

A nice jog for an hour or so through a pretty Scandinavian suburb will possibly kill you. And I pity the poor Muscovite who attempts a swim before work. Thus the 'sanitised world of a gym' is the only feasible option for many.

Unless we debate Aussie immigration laws some more?

I agree up to a point. Gyms are rather too mucb like a rat running around in a wheel. The exercise has no extrinsic purpose, is artificial and not in the optimum environment. My ideal form of exercise would be walking or running out in the bush, communing with nature, or perhaps working in the vegie garden. But given that the gym is the only practical option for many people, surely it is preferable to having little or no exercise at all?