Poll of the Day > After much soul searching, I'm at peace with ppl who say fitness isn't a hobby

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about this on my daily walks. Until a few weeks ago I've never really thought much about the subject, and been perfectly content thinking that when someone asks about your hobbies, fitness is a perfectly fine response.

Then I got into a discussion where some argumentative person refused to accept that as an answer. They thought that it was like saying "doing chores" is a hobby. Individual activities or sports could be hobbies, like running, biking or soccer, but fitness in general couldn't.

I couldn't quite get through to him why I disagreed, and the topic eventually changed. But I kept thinking on it on my own.

And I have concluded that I really don't need to care. The answer should have been obvious, but I was put on the defensive in the moment and didn't think to respond that way. It doesn't matter what he thinks!

I enjoy researching, planning, executing, and evaluating my behavior around the general sphere of optimizing physical and mental well-being. Of course that doesn't mean it's the only thing I do or think about, but if I had to compare it to my other things done in my spare time, it would be the most prominent.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

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Walking even once can lead to irreversible foot repair costs

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Mead posted...

Walking even once can lead to irreversible foot repair costs

You haven't had cybernetic feet replacement surgery yet? What is this, 2016?

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Hobbies are all about how much time and effort you put into something.

For some people, cooking is just a way to get caloric intake in order to sustain their body. To me, cooking is a hobby where I will casually spend a couple hours a day just learning about cooking, and watching other people cook. I'm not any more right than they are about what they like, but, I enjoy doing it.

Fitness is broad enough that it's definitely a hobby. Fitness is something you can actually study and get a degree in... so yeah it qualifies as a hobby I think

I approach cooking from both perspectives, honestly. Dinners and weekends are where I get creative and do more involved, elaborate or adventurous things, whereas my lunches are the same every day.

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I would agree that "fitness" is too broad of a concept to describe as a hobby. The individual activities that make it up would qualify (including the theorycraft part of it), but not the overall concept.

Think of it in terms of usefully answering the question "what are your hobbies?". Saying "fitness" doesn't actually inform the person you're talking to what things you enjoy doing. I get where you're coming from, in that many of the activities that you do for fun all under the umbrella of fitness, but you need to be more specific in order to give a useful answer to the question. Following up something like "I'm a fitness nut" with ": I spend a lot of time lifting weights, min/maxing my health, and telling people on the Internet about it" would be a valid response, but not just leaving it at "fitness."

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so brave, this must have been very hard for you to come to terms with

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I think fitness can be a hobby. Should be fine, I guess... I mean, I guess you could be specific and give examples, but it's whatever...
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adjl posted...

Think of it in terms of usefully answering the question "what are your hobbies?". Saying "fitness" doesn't actually inform the person you're talking to what things you enjoy doing.

This is kind of a silly metric. You could say the same thing of someone saying crafting is their hobby. Doesn't really tell you much

I think anything can be a hobby if you approach it with a hobby mentality. I mean, take cooking for example - it's a necessity and/or a job or you could just LIKE to cook, but you could also make it a hobby

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adjl posted...

I would agree that "fitness" is too broad of a concept to describe as a hobby. The individual activities that make it up would qualify (including the theorycraft part of it), but not the overall concept.

Think of it in terms of usefully answering the question "what are your hobbies?". Saying "fitness" doesn't actually inform the person you're talking to what things you enjoy doing. I get where you're coming from, in that many of the activities that you do for fun all under the umbrella of fitness, but you need to be more specific in order to give a useful answer to the question. Following up something like "I'm a fitness nut" with ": I spend a lot of time lifting weights, min/maxing my health, and telling people on the Internet about it" would be a valid response, but not just leaving it at "fitness."

Yes, this is the entire conversation I've already had


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OhhhJa posted...

This is kind of a silly metric. You could say the same thing of someone saying crafting is their hobby. Doesn't really tell you much

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's not a useful answer, so saying it doesn't count is reasonable. There's room to logically justify it, but that logic doesn't have much by way of practical application.

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A hobby for me is about enjoying it. So that said fitness CAN be a hobby but isn't necessarily always the case as some poeple find no joy in it but do it for health.

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