I’m an electrician and a lot of the older guys at my job have so many knee and back issues but I always see older people who went to the gym every day look and feel great
In: Biology
> I’m an electrician and a lot of the older guys at my job have so many knee and back issues but I always see older people who went to the gym every day look and feel great
In addition to the other responses, there are two other reasons I can think of for your observation:
**1. Survivor bias.** When you see older people who went to the gym every day who look and feel great, you’re only seeing the ones who didn’t stop going to the gym due to knee and back injuries. For all you know, there is an entire other set of former gymgoing oldsters who do have such problems. This means that the older electricians and older gymgoers populations may not be all that different as it appears. Also, even if the populations don’t differ as much, it may be that people in a gym setting feel less likely to complain about their bodies (maybe as a point of pride) as someone would at work.
**2. Possible different subpopulations in terms of voluntary health behaviors over the lifetime.** It’s possible is that older (60s+) electricians, as a subpopulation, aren’t nearly as likely to go to take care of their health and fitness (including their weight, which can have a huge negative effect on knees and back) as carefully as dedicated older gymgoers. Similarly, older electricians, on average, may not be being as dutiful at doing really rigorous strengthening exercises to provide as much support for their vulnerable joints as older gymgoers.
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