Running Battle

Fitness and its discontents

Among the byproducts of jogging are a sense of wellbeing, a pair of tired feet and an intense inflammation of the non-jogger. Though no one seems to know exactly why runners and nonrunners have developed such an intense public loathing for each other, Pollster Lou Harris has a rough idea of how many troops each camp can claim: there are 17.1 million runners and joggers in America, 8 million of whom, reports Harris, are certain that nonrunners consider them "oddballs" and "nuts," and 73 million people who think joggers do indeed tend to be fanatics. Says Harris: "The runners and joggers are well aware of others' thinking they are faddists."

The poll, to be released next week, offers solace for both sides in the running war. Five percent of all sedentary Americans declare they will desert to the enemy and take up jogging during 1979. On the other hand, Harris finds that the jogging craze--and growth of interest in all forms of physical exercise--is slowing down. "Involvement will continue to increase," says Harris, "but less rapidly than it has in the past."

Harris' Perrier Survey of Fitness in America (done for the French mineral-water firm that co-sponsors the New York Marathon and other races) is based on personal interviews with 1,510 people and a telephone sample of 180 runners. The study finds that 41% of Americans get no exercise at all, 44% are somewhat active, and only 15% are seriously involved in regular exercise. This latter group of fitness freaks tends to favor calisthenics, running and basketball, while those who are less committed to physical exertion favor bowling, walking and swimming. On the basis of the poll, Harris sees a bright future for calisthenics, softball and basketball and a slow rise or a decline for tennis, bowling, bicycling, hiking and swimming. Other findings:

> Americans who exercise more or less regularly smoke as much as those who do not.

> In the past two years more women than men have taken up some form of exercise for the first time.

> 82% of parents want their daughters to take up sports and exercise, almost as many as favor physical activity for their sons (89%).

> The family is "one of the most important but overlooked influences" on physical fitness; children tend to take up sports if their parents do.

> For boys as well as girls, football is one of the top two physical activities that parents oppose for their children. Wrestling is most opposed for girls, boxing for boys.

> 28% of highly active Americans say that exercise has improved their sex life, "a claim," admits Harris, "we could not check out in this study."

Harris presents a mixed future for physical fitness: enthusiasm for exercise is on the rise, but a grumbling resistance to the trend is also digging in. The pollster offers a carrot of sorts to the anti-jogging, antisports crowd: the psychological benefits of exercise are so obvious, he asserts, that many troubled, chair-bound Americans may wish to take it up as a form of therapy.

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