In past blog posts, I've talked about my various qualms with the current state of the world. I worry that these might come off as solely negative and lacking optimism, so today I'm going to write about something I'm very passionate about: exercise, and especially how it is one of the last bastions of individual self-determination and growth in the modern world.

Also, a little precursor to this one—I am very aware that I am EXTREMELY lucky that I can exercise. So many people do not have that privilege, and if that is you, I am deeply sorry. This blog is not in any way aimed at those people, and I hope that it does not come across in any harmful way, as this is more of a personal love letter to exercise than anything else.

Exercising is great. It's incredibly good for you, it can be done for free (or at least at a very, very low cost), it's fun, there are endless different ways to do it, and most importantly, it makes you feel better. Oh also—while this may be shallow or whatever—it makes you look good too. Sorry if I'm being vain, but that's a pretty sweet bonus.

I think, personally, the mood boost from exercise is its most valuable element. Whenever I feel a bit low or upset, I know that I need to go out and either go for a run or push a bunch of weights around. Obviously, in that lower moment, you have no desire to go out and exercise, which can easily lead to days or weeks of skipping it—only making that mood worse! But as soon as I've turned my brain off for 30 minutes to an hour and run or lifted, I get nice and comfy after a shower and, even if I'm still down, I feel noticeably better.

It's not like feeling crap and putting on a movie in the hopes that it might cheer you up, or trying to cook yourself a nice meal—which runs the risk of tasting bad. It is a surefire, guaranteed way to lift yourself. Even if the workout itself is awful and uncomfortable, the feeling afterwards is almost always worth it. As far as I have figured out from my brief time alive, exercise is the singular best way to get a quick mood boost.

Now, onto what I was saying about capitalism... again.

At the moment, it often feels like you can't do anything without payment. You can't achieve, and it's much harder to grow without some money—or at least privilege, family wealth, and so on. Alongside this, and the rising costs of building anything (e.g. a family, a business), self-development has become more and more of a focus for a lot of people, especially younger people. But even this often requires a bit of money in the bank. Education, cooking good food and various other hobbies are all costly. To do gardening you actually need a space to do so; to take photos, you need a camera—or at least a decent phone; to play music, you need instruments or software; to learn, you need to pay for classes—you get my point. While I appreciate that many of these can be done cheaply, I stand by the fact that these hobbies have largely become heavily intertwined with capitalism.

Let's say you pick up photography. You start with just your phone, but you get pretty good. After a while, you want to upgrade to take better photos. So, maybe you buy a second-hand camera. You continue to get better—it becomes a real passion—maybe you even enter some competitions or try to exhibit your work in a gallery. You need a better camera for an exhibition though, right? Your personalised ads will certainly tell you so. So now you need to buy a new, expensive gadget—and so that cycle goes on. This is just one example, of course, but to actually feel like you're developing something in life—be that a hobby or something bigger—you will nearly always encounter the consumerist and capitalist world at every stage.

Exercise differs slightly here. Don't get me wrong, nearly every element of it has also been turned into a culture of BUY BUY BUY: clothing, shoes, food, equipment, and much, much more. But the most basic forms of exercise—like running or, say, calisthenics—not only bear little to no startup cost, the development of oneself and the benefits one feels as a result are yet untouched by capitalism (broadly speaking).

If you want to work really hard in your career to earn big and maybe own a home, that dream has become less and less possible in recent years. In many cases, the hard work you put in will not lead to anything close to a proportionate benefit. Exercise, though—you get out exactly what you put in. You do the hard task of going for a run, you get a nice mood boost and sweat out some stress. You do that two or three times a week, you'll start to get fit. If you lift weights consistently, you'll see nice results. I think the point I'm trying to make here is that on the left, I don't see anywhere near enough people shouting about how great exercise is—or sports more generally!

Fight back against the machine, stop consuming and start moving.

Getting into certain sports is fantastic too—team sports particularly. Team sports build community, friendship, teamwork and more. While a lot of sports will start to fall into the issues I was discussing earlier about startup costs and the costs of upgrading to new equipment as your own skills improve, there are still great benefits to be reaped.

Another aspect of how exercise lets you fight back against the machine is in things like your diet. If you stay in healthy shape, your cravings for ultra-processed, unhealthy foods will drop dramatically. I've noticed this myself: lately, my craving for chocolate or sweets every night has gone. Eating less of this kind of stuff is better for your mind, your heart, and your wallet—exercise and physical health feed everything.

Working out also gives me a lot of hope for when I'm older. I hate the thought of being really old and struggling to move well. I know this will happen someday, but the longer I can put that off, the better. One of the number one reasons I run? Because one day I won't be able to anymore.

I appreciate that, for all its great benefits, exercise doesn't solve everything—but when there's a scientifically proven way to improve your life across all aspects, and it only takes 30 minutes to an hour a few times a week—why wouldn't you do it?

Anyway, what a nonsensical ramble that was. Go and exercise—you'll feel better for it, and who knows, maybe it'll give you a break from the constant, mind-numbing, stressful capitalist world!