and some glowering observation on other expensive exercises.
Last week I tried to raise my running pace to 5-7 minutes/km than my usual easy jogging pace at 11-12 minutes/km. Not even a full minute, my feet began hurting a lot, throbbing and felt swollen. I thought I was injured or hurt myself somwehere, but it got better when I tried to walk slowly. I changed my running shoes last year for jogging, turns out this new one doesn't fully support the bounce back effect that my feet requires when I hit higher pace. After reading articles and consulting with active runner friends, it's concluded that I need a new running shoes if I wanted to run faster, which of course, better sole support means higher price than the current one.
Browsing for the new shoes was ✨ annoying ✨
I have healthy feet, my shoes are in good condition, and a decent asphalt (no running track available nearby) in which I contributed on the taxes for maintenance, why do I also need "better" shoes? Our ancestors ran cross-country barefooted. Is this how modern human evolved, with all the comfortable development and civilization we had for centuries?
Pay to play
A few days ago a coworker invited everyone to join for tennis session. I searched the place and how much would it cost for equipment rental and booking the court. Again, why do I have to pay so much just to exercise with friends. One of them asked if I dislike badminton because I always reject invitation to join the weekly practice. I said no, what I dislike is when I have to pay to play sports. I could borrow racket from a friend, but I still have to pay for the court rental. We could also talk about padel, or perhaps golf equipments. Even yoga or pilates, where you stay at one place and focus on body balance, requires money—mats, some membership fees, ... maybe non-slippery socks?
Why do I have to pay hundreds of thousands rupiah to enter, say a marathon, where I would run on a public road, sweating over jersey with some brand's name and be their advertisement board for free? I am simultaneously the customer, the product, the employee (but I paid?), and the advertiser. I understand that there are facilities, security services, prizes, and other maintenance during the event that definitely make sense because it requires money to operate. Eventually, the runners are the spectacle and the one putting the work. I can't help but wonder, how did we get here?
Star-player athletes (in relatively popular sports) are paid hefty sum. A football player's transfer alone could worth billions. Along the line, comes observation about the gears they use. What shoes do they wear? What watch? Their t-shirts look comfy, is it better to use that brand when I sweat 30 minutes on the threadmill? As sports brand grew into massive corporations like the checkmark and big feline silhouette logo, to name a few. They transformed exercises from a simple activity into a lifestyle.
The sports industry has been extremely successful at convincing common people that without the "right" equipment, you'll be prone to injury; or successful athlethes use X product, so you should too if you want to perform better. Wray Vamplew, a sport study scholar who wrote a book on global history of sport, also discussed about this commodification of sport and how economics has turned sports into a huge consumer industry.
I should not be too eager to be snarky only on capitalism for this whole expensive exercise, though it does play a huge part, possibly providing the whole mechanism. It is not only about the gears and equipments, exercise also shifted toward private (paid) spaces rather than public ones. We don't have enough proper open space, parks, and courts to run around, casually smack a volleyball on weekends, or a neighborhood basketball cup. Urban spaces nowadays tend to be designed to favor commercial use over public use.
On individual choices
Since I am frequently seen cycling, my coworker mentioned that cycling also costs a lot. 100%, there are brands and parts in the range of a brand new car. It will be costly if you're racing, or a serious cyclist. My bicycle, I called it Vaira, is 20 years old this year. I don't mind spending money on some maintenance and upgrade when necessary, mainly because Vaira is transportation, a vehicle first and foremost. The fun cycling is just ocassional exercise, but this bicycle is what took me through middle school, high school, university, to groceries shopping, to book rentals, to malls, and to work sometimes.
Exercise is biological necessity. It's also, maybe, arguably—totally my personal statement with barely scientific evidence whatsoever—the most prescribed treatment by doctors around the world. We know exercise prevents costly health problems down the line, yet we've made it expensive to access. It's just backwards.
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