Classic middle aged couple at the beach

My wife and I just took a quick trip over to Rehoboth Beach along the Delaware coast.

One of the things we love to do is people watch, and there is no better place to do that than along the boardwalk at a popular beach town.

With that in mind, I thought I’d relay some observations after a couple days of people watching in Rehoboth.

First of all, it’s important to note where most visitors to Rehoboth are coming from… Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, DC, Delaware and Northern Virginia.

Therefore, the people watching is a more of a reflection of where people are coming from, rather than people who live at Rehoboth.

Here are my observations…

No more than 25% of the overall population engages in strength training

It’s apparent that few people lift weights.

Outside of the lifeguards, there were few indications among the people we watched who appear to lift weights, as few people have any muscle tone.

This is particularly the case among women.

This figure drops off quite a bit as the age of people goes up.  It looks like less than 10% of the people over 60 lift weights.

Among people 50 and over, it is clear that walking is their only form of exercise

Exercising on the beach

I saw quite a few couples and individuals who were walking as a means of exercise.

If they happened to be a bit leaner than others, they still had a belly and little muscle tone.  In other words, they were skinny fat.

Walking is great for weight management and general overall exercise, but it should not be the core exercise in a fitness program.

That appears to be the case among the older crowd.

GLP-1 medications have not yet caught on in the Mid-Atlantic

I am sure there are many people in the region who are being prescribed these medications, but the fact is, there is still a lot of obesity.

Sadly, it was very prevalent among the younger people under 30.

I observed several younger women under 30 who were clearly hitting over 300 pounds.

Most of the middle-aged men (40 to 60) at the beach had large bellies.  The women in that age group were generally leaner overall than the men.

Conclusions

Walking appears to be the predominant exercise among people fifty and over.  The message has clearly gone out that walking is beneficial.

However, it’s clear that many people have latched onto the idea that walking is some magical elixir at the expense of all other forms of exercise.

Meanwhile, the message on the benefits of strength training and lifting weights has not yet reached the masses.

While there is no shortage of gyms where I live, and most appear to be busy, most people have still not learned the benefits of legitimate strength training.

Yes, they are lifting weights but not actually training for improved strength.  Most are either chasing a pump or just doing circuits on machines to burn calories.

Lastly, my observations of influencers on social media suggests they may be focused on the wrong thing, which tends to be the strength numbers.

This likely intimidates many people who then conclude that you will only benefit from strength training by getting your deadlift up to 405 pounds.

In my view, strength training is the most beneficial form of exercise for long term health, particularly for people over 50.