With the momentum of modern technology snowballing at the rate it has been for the past hundred years, it is becoming increasingly pointless for people to get up off their backsides. Why go to the shops when everything one could possibly need is on the telly? Why walk anywhere when a car will get you there faster? Who needs to cook when pizzas can be instantly delivered, burgers picked up at the drive-through, pre-packaged dinners thrown into the microwave? The Orwellian nightmare of humans becoming no more than blobs of fat who let machines do everything for them is slowly turning into a reality.

To battle this, then, the trend to exercise is growing more and more popular. With everyday life getting less and less physically strenuous, people are finding daily workouts to be an energising way of staying fit, healthy, and active.

That's one theory.

The other is that human nature laments the state of our increasingly humanitarian society, and deep down inside finds certain nostalgia for the Dark Ages. So the hot tub has replaced the vat of boiling oil; the rowing machine is used instead of the Rack; the chin-up bar is a modern-day version of the Manacles; the bench press substitutes for the Iron Maiden; and people now go to the gym instead of the Tower.

This entry has been classified as 'Mostly Harmless' while it awaits additional research.

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