I WRITE concerning the article (Hereford Times, December 30), Get Moving for the Sake of the County's Health by Pete Blench.

If one looks hard at the health, fitness, slimming, walking craze etc, they started around about the same time as the coming on to the market of exercise machines.

As for a longer life, one never hears of sports people living longer and, in fact, in the national press there are worries about manual labourers dying a few years earlier than average - there's no sign of exercise helping there.

Like machines, the human body wears out. Good health comes by sleeping well, eating well, and riding everywhere - in that order.

ALFRED WOOD, Llangrove, Ross-on-Wye.