So, during our monthly reading of industry technical papers and studies (just kidding, we don't read), we found an actual study done by actual researchers at Brigham Young University looking at whether or not riding an eMTB is as good of exercise as riding an analog MTB. Turns out, according to this study, it is!
You can read the research paper yourself at the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (I know! Legit as heck!). The good people at singletracks.com published a great synopsis of the study here. Basically what it says is they measured the heart rates of mountain bikers after riding a course on an analog MTB and also an eMTB. And what they found was that after riding the same distance on the same course on an eMTB, heart rates were almost as high as when the testers rode the analog bikes. What this means is the level of workout on the eMTB was very comparable to on the analog MTB. Plus, of course, testers finished the course much faster on the eMTB, so in real world biking you'd probably be ready to go hit some more trails on the eMTB. And as we all know, more trails = more fun!
None of this is new to owner JP, of course. He's been proselytizing this message of equality for years now. The eMTB is more fun to ride and faster, making you want to stay out and ride longer, giving you an awesome workout that's even more fun than regular mountain biking. JP has always been ahead of his time.