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There’s an inherent flaw in the exercise equipment industry that also happens to be the reason why I don’t own any exercise equipment nor do I have plans to own any. Consider the following back and forth discussion:

Why do we, as a society, have exercise equipment?
To stay in shape and keep our bodies healthy.
Why do we want to stay in shape and keep our bodies healthy?
So that we can live long and satisfying lives.
And we spend a noticeable amount of time in our life exercising and working enough to pay for the equipment that we buy.
Well, yes.
Now that we have established the foundation of the situation, allow me to get right at the heart of the issue. Why do we build and use equipment that is supposed to improve many aspects of our health, such as strength and flexibility, when we have been living for thousands of years without this equipment? Not only had we been doing fine during those thousands of years, now the world (and especially our country) is filled with fat lazy assholes. These are the same assholes that have infinitely more resources at their disposal yet still keep their body in worse shape than the average caveman. The funniest part is that it’s these same assholes that buy most of the exercise equipment. Not only are they fat and lazy, but they’re dumb enough to fall for the infomercials.
But the exercise equipment allows intelligent and proactive people to keep their bodies in even better shape than they would be able to without the equipment.
First of all, I would argue that the number of these people is incredibly small compared to the number of the aforementioned fat lazy assholes. But more importantly, what are we doing with these super fit bodies that this equipment allows us to mold? We, meaning the majority of modern American society, are not the hunter gatherers of the stone age nor are we even the simple but hard-working farmers of a couple decades ago. We use these bodies for several different things but they all achieve the same end: making you desire your body to be in similar shape and making you feel bad when it isn’t like that, which is usually the case.
So you’re saying that we should all stop buying exercise equipment and turn into fat lazy slobs together?
No, certainly not. People should still exercise; my argument is against the equipment. Instead of buying some ridiculous “Aeronox version 2.0 Extreme Sport Utility Edition” or whatever they call them these days, maybe you could go take a jog and then use rocks, small logs, cinder blocks, or similar materials for resistance. Or, if you really want to be proactive, (literally) run down to the store, pick up some milk, bring it back, and then clean out the garage. If you plan it right, you’ll use all the same muscles and give them just as good a workout. The only difference is that instead of moving the same heavy thing back and forth over the same distance of around 6 inches about 200 times, you can actually get something productive done.

So that’s as far as I have the conversation going so far. Feel free to add your replies in the comments.

I believe that every action in the world can be entirely represented using just two terms. As there isn’t any acceptable word in American English that properly carries the weight of either of these two concepts, simply ascribe that role to the letters ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Every time ‘X’ is mentioned or referred to, think of it as one of these two otherwise unnameable ideas. Apply this similarly to ‘Y’ and note that ‘X’ is not only different than ‘Y’ but is essentially the opposite.
‘X’ actions follow the pattern of adding energy into a system, thus complicating it more and giving it more potential energy, to compare it to Newtonian physics. ‘Y’ actions, as you might guess are those that follow the pattern of releasing energy from a system. I describe them as following the pattern of transferring energy one way or the other because I mean to apply this to all that qualifies under the broad term “actions.” Specifically, I mean to include political actions, interpersonal relationships, and one’s internal thought process, among many other things.
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