[rza]

The downvotes are because you are insulting a part of many peoples lives which you pretty much claim to know very little about. For one, I want bother linking because any simple search will yield the results, exercise is, not surprisingly, the root of many physical and mental health benefits. I've read numerous stories here on HN showing how it can help lift people out of depression, and exercise is important to many professions and hobbies.

But aside from the direct benefits, does marketing show healthy and fit people? Yes it does, but I'd go out on a limb and say that even without that, people of the opposite sex will find healthy physical features attractive, so you're always going to have people do it for that reason as well. It's not the most noble motive (however you define that), but you shouldn't ignore the other very honest reasons for exercise just because you hate the stereotypical gym jock.