They say February and March are when a lot of gyms in their shoes start gathering dust,

but economist Emily Oster argues in an op-ed the real problem is not our willpower.

It's the way that exercise research is framed and actually sold to us.

All right.

So instead of focusing on how to keep people moving for the long haul,

she writes studies and headlines obsess over which workout is best.

Running versus swimming, walking, jogging, zone two, something else. They say the problem is that most of

this research is nonsense. The gold standard randomizing trials that we need to truly compare

these regiments are so large and costly they rarely exist.

So what we mostly have, Oster explains, is the blur, the line between correlation and causation.

Swimmers in one study look worse off than runners.

Not because swimmers don't work, but because swimmers tend to have more health risks to begin with.

Similar flaws underpin

Buzzy claims about step counts and one minute of vigorous equals an hour of light or running,

then walking, then running, then walking. Their advice is that people find an exercise tailored

to their own likes and lifestyle and just stick with it. It does not matter what you do. You just need to do something. There you go. That's basically what it comes down. How many steps do you get a day? You're what? 10,000? 20,000 every day. 10,000. What does that add up to roughly in Miles? Does it translate that on your app? It can. I just haven't looked in the second hang out. If you just walked in the straight line, took 10,000 and steps, how far away are you? Miles is about, dig-d-da-five miles. Okay, because I found when we were in, we went to Mexico City four, five, six years ago with the kids. Kids are younger. And my wife and I, when we visit a place, we just like to walk. That is what we do, right? I don't know this town, Let's just check it out and walk. Kids are with us. So they pissed and moan and bitched the whole first day to the point where, you know, as a dad, I'm like, I'm going to kill them in their sleep. God damn it. So it occurred to me the next morning because they already look like, oh, no, we're going to do this again. I'll say, guys, how many steps did you get yesterday? They just look at their phones. they had however many thousand steps. I said, all right, today, let's try to get blank.

Now they're all in.

Right. How many steps did you get yesterday? They used to look at their phones. They had however many thousand steps.

I said, all right, today, let's try to get blank.

Now they're all in. Right. All right. So now they're all in, and they want to beat each other. And it's ridiculous. They're like, my daughter at one point started doing like smaller steps. She wasn't moving any faster, but did smaller steps or a step count went up. but at the point that my wife and I are like okay we are wiped are wiped out, we are ready to go back to the hotel. They're like, no, man, I want to hit. However many thought. So almost backfired, but I found like just that little challenge, if you do have a certain number of steps you want to get. People go for. Like we say, Mike walked up and down the hall and circuits in the building. Hour and 15 minutes a day walk. I'm going to assume. If you walk like a 14 you walk like a 14 minute mile yeah somewhere in there yeah there's been a time or two that we just knocked it out and yeah it's about hour hour and 15 okay it's not so that yeah like if i'm at the track like that's half a mile yeah like if i'm trying to like hustle you can knock out five that's right you do that what every morning? Not every morning. No. How many?

But I only do it two or three days a week.

I should do it more. But still. But yeah. But I'm like, I just like to get it done. Right. Yeah. Then every other step he takes bonus. Correct. And I just have a very tough time getting home once I'm done. No. held it like oh now I'm I'm going to go do this. What do you do? What did you do that you needed to get through your day? So as far as walking goes. Now, that's exercise is one thing. But I took a job. I was 22 years old. It was one of my first full-time jobs. It was an overnight shift. Not the biggest deal in the world, except for where this place was, was about four miles from where I lived. Okay. And my car kept having all these problems. Transmission problems, get a rebuilt. There goes another $800. I just had to get rid of the car. It was done. Yeah. So I didn't have a car. But the problem was that it was about four miles there.

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