A few years ago, I went skiing and rode a chairlift with a novice skier and some of her friends.

She kept complaining that, as soon as she got into a rhythm, the ground would change and she couldn't maintain her rhythm.

She didn't "get" one of the fundamental points of skiing; one that is so basic that it's rarely explained. Part of the fun of skiing is that the ground changes and varies and is not repetitive. A ski trail is not an exercise machine.

The archetype of the article is the fallacy that, when someone learns something new, they think the same kind of patterns will emerge that formed some other activity. Golfing is a low-impact sport, rowing isn't. Skiing isn't repetitive and mindless like an exercise machine.

▲

kjkjadksj 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I wouldn’t call golf low impact. If you walk 18 it’s 5 or 6 miles with 25lbs on your back. Many pros tend to blow up their back and require surgery in their early 30s. Even amateurs can suffer from back or hand issues. It may not be intense cardio like rowing but the body is certainly being used towards its limits along some vectors and being put at risk for injury. Swinging a weighted metal rod at 100+ mph sometimes with all that force going right back from the ground you chunked into your wrists and spine.

	▲	JonoBB an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It’s lower impact than most other sports (excluding sports like darts or bowls, of course). There’s a reason that (i) professional golfers have a longer career than most other professional sports and (ii) many sports people transition to golf later in their career and (iii) there is a high preponderance of older players in golf.