Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!

It is great to hit 5000 steps. We all need to exercise. We are getting too accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle, with all the consequent deleterious impacts on our health. Get up, walk, move the body, if only to improve your physical and mental health. But here is the catch.

Social media has turned exercise, sports, even hobbies, into forced march performative displays for online audiences. You did 5000 steps? Why didn’t you achieve 10 000? After all, social media influenza and TikTok celebrity w*nker (insert the name of your favourite social media nonentity here) does 20 000 steps everyday, drinks organic kale milkshakes, and walks her/his vegan labradoodle as well.

This is a cycle of perceived underperformance. Why cannot I be as successful as the guy with the hot Lycra pants on Instagram? We drive ourselves into a self-induced existential crisis of confidence.

When I was a child, I could not swim. I would avoid going all the way into the deep end of the pool. However, with the help of some good teachers, I eventually made it all the way. In swimming-mad Australia, where Olympic swimmers are superstar celebrities, being hopeless at swimming made me feel excluded.

A few years ago, I started regular exercising, using the exercise machines in the park near where I live. There is one exercise, the chin lift, which not many people can do. Basically it involves lifting your entire body above high handle bars way above your head. You can grip the bars with palms facing yourself, but I usually grip with the palms facing outward.

It is a difficult exercise, but I manage to do it nearly everyday. 10 or 15 repetitions sometimes. It is an exercise that puts me in a minority group, something not many people can do. That is the way I take revenge on my childhood. Well, the expression ‘taking revenge’ is a bit much. Perhaps the term I am looking for is compensation.

No, I have never spoken about this before, and I do not intend to share reels on TikTok of myself exercising. It is a goal I have set for myself, and if other people exercise the way that I do, that is fantastic. It is great to exercise on the rowing machine, but just be careful of the impact on your back.

I am quite certain that Australian Schwarzenegger copycats are able to do 1000 repetitions of the chin up in one afternoon, and then devour a protein shake as dessert. Schwarzenegger can remain where he is, and I happy for him. His example is not a template for everyone. Rowing is a great sport, and if you are able to go kayaking around Sydney Harbour and not work up a sweat, good luck to you.

Each person has their own goals, and achieving them is wonderful on your own terms. If you enjoy rowing because you find it rewarding, that is awesome.

Not every sporting activity has to be a social media competition. Please do not misunderstand; I never begrudge anyone their success or achievements. Please do not turn every sport into a performative hobby-competition.

Go out, enjoy the sunshine, walk, jog, run, whatever takes your fancy. If you do not post about it on Instagram or Facebook, that is fine.

Not every activity is Instagrammable content showcasing passion which will inevitably lead to entrepreneurial, seamlessly integrated synergies leveraging multiple technological inputs to generate profit maximisation….get the idea?