The following appeared in the editorial section of a health and fitness magazine.

“In a study of the effects of exercise on longevity, medical researchers tracked 500 middle-aged men over a 20-year period. The subjects represented a variety of occupations in several different parts of the country and responded to an annual survey in which they were asked: How often and how strenuously do you exercise? Of those who responded, the men who reported that they engaged in vigorous outdoor exercise nearly every day lived longer than the men who reported that they exercised mildly only once or twice a week. Given the clear link that this study establishes between longevity and exercise, doctors should not recommend moderate exercise to their patients but should instead encourage vigorous outdoor exercise on a daily basis.”

The above article appeared in the editorial section of a health and fitness magazine. The arguer wants to suggest that doctors should not recommend moderate exercise to their patients but should instead encourage vigorous outdoor exercise on a daily basis. The arguer gives various reasons to support his stand. The first argument presented by the arguer is the study which was conducted on 500 middle-aged men over a 20-year period. The arguer further states that the subjects represented a variety of occupations in several different parts of the country and responded to an annual survey. The second argument presented by the arguer is that the men who were surveyed reported that they engaged in vigorous outdoor exercises nearly every day. Hence they lived longer than the men who reported that they exercised mildly only once or twice a week. Therefore, the arguer recommends vigorous outdoor exercise. The arguments presented by the arguer are baseless and unconvincing.

The first argument presented by the arguer is a study which was conducted on middle-aged men over 20 years. The arguer fails to give the exact age of men who were surveyed as 30-45 years can be taken as middle-age and a man of 30 years is certainly capable of doing strenuous exercises as compared to his older counterparts. The arguer has not mentioned whether those who were surveyed were people who were doing sedentary job and they needed vigorous outdoor exercise to keep themselves fit. The arguer has also not mentioned whether all those who were surveyed had longer lives because they exercised. The arguer wants to recommend vigorous exercising but the study conducted depicts the relation between exercise and longevity and not longevity with vigorous exercise.

The second argument presented by the arguer is that the men who were surveyed and and reported that they engaged in vigorous outdoor exercise nearly every day lived longer than the men who reported that they exercised mildly only once or twice. The arguer has not mentioned whether those who exercised vigorously never exercised mildly or those who exercised mildly never exercised vigorously. The arguer also mentioned that those who exercised vigorously did so nearly everyday which means that they were also not very regular. The arguer has also not stated how much longer those people lived. The arguer has also not mentioned whether people who were doing mild exercise had some health problem or not and also those who were exercising heavily also had health problem or not.

Finally, the arguer states that doctors should not recommend mild exercise to their patients but the arguer fails to bring into notice the fact that if a patient is seriously ill he can not be recommended vigorous exercise. It is also not possible to recommend same exercises to all patients as the health requirements of all patients are different.

The arguments presented by the arguer are not relevant. The recommendation by the arguer concerns the health of the patients therefore, careful analysis is of utmost importance before any decision.