Do less young people to excersize nowdays than years ago?

[Dan B]

I was one of the generation that went from ZX Spectrum and Donkey Kong through to Commodore Amiga and while I'm sure most of the people that were kids in the 70's would have been more active its probably that they didn't have the availability of video games and daytime telly.

Think I'm probably about your age, then. But I don't remember our generation being as overweight as the current lot are said to be, and I know from experience (my A level results will attest, thank you Lemmings) that it was easy to waste weeks on computer games even without the benefit of the subsequent 16 years of Moores Law.

So what is it, then? Portion size? The school run (which practically speaking, did not exist as such back when I was a teenager)? The Interfacebeboweb? The paedo menace(sic)? The traffic? Or just social pressure and the public perceptions of acceptable risk? I hope my kids (who don't yet exist, but a few years down the line) will be able to piss off for solo bike rides in the country just like I did when I was 12, but I don't want social services to take them into care as soon as they find out ...

 

[longers]

I've only done easy stuff and would brick it at anything serious I'm sure.

I did go in a man made pot-hole somewhere once. It's on the top of the list of my least favourite places - claustrophobia aplenty.
A line of us went in one after the other and there was nowhere to turn, could hardly go forward and couldn't back up either .

 

[Noodley]

Psst, Noodley, ColinJ doesn't live in the Peak District...

It's the same thing....Dales, Peaks, Pennines, West Yorkshire - all hills.

 

[ColinJ]

It's the same thing....Dales, Peaks, Pennines, West Yorkshire - all hills.

Yebbut... for some reason there aren't many young people up these particular ones!

I'm not making it up. It only dawned on me a couple of years ago when a few teenagers rode past me and said hello, and I realised that it was about 10 years since the previous time.

 

[marinyork]

It's the same thing....Dales, Peaks, Pennines, West Yorkshire - all hills.

I wouldn't say seeing young people in the peaks is even that common except on Bank Holidays and particular choice Saturday and Sundays.

Nice days, like around ladybower I've seen upto about 1000 cyclists in the area.

 

[Davidc]

It's not just kids though, is it? We're a nation of fatties...

I'm sure you're right.

One of the biggest differrences I notice from a few decades ago is the reduction in the numbers, all ages, getting around on foot or by bike. At its worst for the so called school run.

Part of this, I'm sure, is the (incorrect) perception of danger, especially among parents and the elderly. That's partly fuelled by our irresponsible sensationalist press.

We may not have had computers and Wiis in the 60s and 70s, but there was plenty else to sit at home doing, and many did, BUT nearly everyone still used their legs to get around when they did go out.

When a teenager I liked doing things which were very active, but I found it just as difficult then as teenagers do now to find friends who thought a 90 mile round trip to the coast on a bike was enjoyable, or swimming several miles was a good way to spend an afternoon! Some did though.

 

[Globalti]

Colin, maybe your lack of local exercisers is due to the fact that the South Pennines is not included in the areas considered worthy of a visit by outsiders with cash and transport? People travel to North Wales, The Lakes, The Dales and The Peak District but whoever goes to The South Pennines? Coupled to that is the fact that local towns like Bacup, Tod and Rawty don't exactly fit with most people's idea of pretty with tea shops. Okay Hebden Bridge fits some of the bill but it still isn't in the major National Park league like Ambleside or Buxton or Hawes for walkers. A shame because the scenery, the walking and cycling and the history are quite superb in your area. It's just the gritty industrial heritage that puts 'em off, I guess. The well-publicised kicking to death of the teenage girl in Bacup didn't help. Could the South Pennines ever become a National Park? They'd steal all the signs.

I once attended a lecture by the president of the National Parks where I learned that 70% of people who visit our Parks never venture more than 100 yards from the car park!

 

[Apeman]

My lad came back from Uni a few years back and I suggested that we take to the bikes(both mine) for a spin one day.He looked at me and went white at the thought of it and rapidly declined the offer. I did hear him say that I was fit as an old fiddle! I didnt like the old bit!!!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

<Snip>

So what is it, then? Portion size? The school run (which practically speaking, did not exist as such back when I was a teenager)? The Interfacebeboweb? The paedo menace(sic)? The traffic? Or just social pressure and the public perceptions of acceptable risk? I hope my kids (who don't yet exist, but a few years down the line) will be able to piss off for solo bike rides in the country just like I did when I was 12, but I don't want social services to take them into care as soon as they find out ...

Probably a combination of all those factors, and I'm sure the combination varies from case to case. For example, we know of plenty of people - parents of our kid's friends - who can't perceive how you can possibly be having fun if you're not paying for a day out: walking up a mountain is a complete mystery to them. Or playing in a stream. Or going for a muddy bike ride. It's all dangerous, and dirty. Ewww, germs!!!

There's lack of opportunity to take into account, as well. I attended a company meeting in Austria with a few colleagues last year. We were in a hotel in a mountain-based activity resort, a little over half way up a 7000ft peak in the Alps. We had a free day so I took off to get to the top, and many of my colleagues joined me. Most of them had never done anything like that before, and - though knackered by the 7 mile round trip - thoroughly enjoyed themselves. But it's not something they'd have done had I not been there, so it's not something they'd ever have done with their kids ..

It's just not something many people want to do - or rather, think they'd enjoy. The Little-LCs school (primary) does a sponsored walk every year. It's called 5 miles, but it's not quite: still, it's far enough given that even Year R (some of whom will still be 4yo) do it. And many of the kids will not have walked a continuous mile in their lives. You get them turning up in wellies "because they're going in the woods" even if it's not rained for weeks 'cos their parents have no idea of what the terrain will be like. That said, none of the kids have much trouble finishing it: the natural energy of that age group carries them through.

<Snip>

I once attended a lecture by the president of the National Parks where I learned that 70% of people who visit our Parks never venture more than 100 yards from the car park!

.. that fits with our perception whenever we go somewhere like that: the number of people you see tails off rapidly as you move away from the Car Park / Visitor Centre. Littlest-LC once asked me, when she was about four, "Do other people not like walking daddy - nobody ever goes as far as us, do they? But they miss the best bits." (Obviously, plenty of people go further than us - especially when we had a 4yo in tow - but she'd spotted the diminishing crowds).

 

[Globalti]

Yet this morning we heard that mountain rescue services have never been busier rescuing ill-prepared walkers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8226011.stm

...but is this because more people are going walking or because more are prepared to call for help on mobile phones encouraged by the plethora of "Highland Emergency" type programmes, rather than get themselves down off the mountain?

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Yet this morning we heard that mountain rescue services have never been busier rescuing ill-prepared walkers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8226011.stm

...but is this because more people are going walking or because more are prepared to call for help on mobile phones encouraged by the plethora of "Highland Emergency" type programmes, rather than get themselves down off the mountain?

Yeah, I heard that on the radio this morning. Good point. If fewer people are venturing out, you'd expect the ones that do to be the better prepared ones ..

Could it be that IF more people had "stay at home" holidays this year, some additional "novices" did venture out for a walk.

 

[PaulB]

I've only done easy stuff and would brick it at anything serious I'm sure.

I did go in a man made pot-hole somewhere once. It's on the top of the list of my least favourite places - claustrophobia aplenty.
A line of us went in one after the other and there was nowhere to turn, could hardly go forward and couldn't back up either .

That's just how I'd feel. I take my hat off to those that enjoy it though and I have been in several pubs in the limestone areas of Yorkshire and seen the pictures and the enthusiasm of the people who do it but it's not for me. I'm not claustrophobic, I just don't fancy the thoughts of being lodged in a tight space.

 

[Globalti]

I've been mountaineering on foot, bikes and skis for 45 years and over that time I've met plenty of people who I considered incompetent. These are people who are ill-equipped, ill-trained or simply haven't bothered learning how to use map and compass and who don't have the right mental attitude to mountain travel. For many it's "do or die, must reach that summit" with no possibility of moderating their itinerary to suit the weather or the weaker members of the group. Others have little understanding of the scale of the dangers and panic at the smallest setback like a sprained ankle or feeling unsure about the route. Having seen it on TV they then have no concerns about dialling 999 and asking for a lift home.

Actually mountain bikers still have some of the self-sufficiency ethos, although I was out on the MTB once and I came across a bunch of MTBers in a town, one of whom was shuffling along the pavement on his arse while his mates looked on, clearly embarrassed. Turned out he had taken a fall and was moaning that "there's a hole in my leg". He had a small tear in his tights and no sign of blood. At that point the ambulance he had called turned up with the crew's faces an absolute picture as they took in the scene. I was too embarrassed to hang around any longer.

 

[marinyork]

Actually RR you might have a point about the South Pennines. I've been in walking groups that visit Peaks/Dales/Moors and areas they pretend are in national parks. They'll happily go down the road from ColinJ to Haworth but refuse to budge on going anywhere else. So if ColinJ says he sees no young people in Haworth I'll find that very odd but not the other places.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

The increase in MR call outs is primarily because of more people in the hills these days. But the increase is people of all ages, including (he says rather self consciously), older people who continue to do stuff later in life than was considered 'abnormal' years ago. Blokes like Patrick Stevens, ASC1951, etc, would have been dribbling in their bath chairs a generation ago, but now feel they still have the prowess to perform outdoors. This has resulted in a marked rise in the number of heart attacks MRTs have to deal with as these people's various organs rebel against the demands being placed on them.

But it's not just more people and more old people. Nor is it just a greater readiness to call for help these days. The MRTs also want to provide a higher level of care. When I was a MRT deputy team leader in the Lakes, we were far more prepared to say, "well if he hasn't turned up by tomorrow, we'll take a look for him", whereas now they turn out much earlier. There has also been a massive increase in the level of medical intervention possible on the hill by the team medics and to not provide it, would be unacceptable. We were quite ready to declare most heart attack victims DRT (dead right there), whereas now, the manpower needed to implement advanced life support is incredible, complete with telemetric links to consultants in hospital, etc.

So, the fact that more being done to more people, results in a marked increase in workload for the MRTs. Having said that, there is a traditional in mountain rescue to moan about their lot (unlike the RNLI that tends to keep it in check). Stewart Hulse at Ambleside & Langdale always used to be in the paper moaning about scouts, or D of E, or someone. Since his retirement, his mantle seems to have inherited by Julian Caradice at Wasdale. But they need to remember that this is their hobby - if they don't like it, they don't have to do it. But secretly, their worst fear is NOT being called out. It's the raison d'etre of their existence. Without call outs, the Lakes / Snowdonia teams become like some of the sad Pennine teams that have to cruise round at the weekends in their fancy Landrovers hoping to poach a casualty from someone else's area.