Use it or lose it.  We have individually and collectively been seduced into a culture of laziness by our great leader, Consumerism.  We have been sold ‘laziness’ as a virtue by repackaging it as ‘convenience’ or a host of other deceptive terms. 

Muscles were made as a most efficient means of converting food (carbon bonds derrived ultimately from solar energy) into motion, pressure, force… to say nothing of sight, hearing, thought and hopefully wisdom.  But instead of using muscle, which grows stronger and more agile with use, we have been sold a host of ‘labor saving’ (as if that were a virtue) machines.  Get rid of all the gadgets.  Store them in a closet if you cannot bear to do that.  Give you electric can opener to some elderly person who may really need it.  Don’t put it in a thrift shop to tempt some other person into laziness.  Opening your cans by hand will probably also have the benefit of improving your sports game, grip and the strength of your wrist.

Again, the hidden cost of this convenience is massive amounts of excess carbon dioxide emissions from the mining of material, manufacture, transportation, sale, powering (if they are electric or gas operated), and final destruction and burial of the broken item… plus all of the energy that went into the human infrasturcture (businesses) that conducted each of these steps.

If people just ran or walked to the location of a health club one or more times a week, it would probably give about as much health benefit as actually joining one!