tandempower

My son and I debate this issue regularly. He usually wants to go the shortest/fastest route and go by bike to save time. My response is to ask him what's the use of saving time to play more video games. He understands it when I explain to him that the more he uses his muscles and pumps blood through his body, the better his health is going to be, but he argued the other day that he's not fat so he doesn't really need so much exercise. I told him that he's young so his pancreas and kidneys are still strong in filtering all the unused sugar out of his blood, but he'd still be better off burning that sugar instead of filtering out through his kidneys.

I also tried explaining to him that when a non-living machine, like a car or bike, gets used more, it causes wear and tear that have to be fixed by human labor; but when a living machine/body does exercise, it circulates blood and nutrients to repair damaged tissue; and that the exercise itself damages the tissue just enough to cause muscles to strengthen, joints to grow more protective lining, etc. So really the way we maintain and optimize our bodies is by using them during exercise.

So trying to save time/distance when biking/walking is really only good when you need the time for something productive. If you're just trying to save time to waste it on something that does you no good, like video games or media consumption, then I think you're better off taking the longer/slower route and getting more exercise in the process.