How does it work? I make the stew with 3 red herbs... they exercise, but only once did someone get building skills.
Do they get skills in different areas also or just building and which direction do they need to go to get a certain skill??

Sorry, I just found this out last night too, but a little confused as to what they are gaining when they are running around... I had one person gain a little building skills (after NUMEROUS) attempts with different villagers.

Thanks!

They have to be "successful" to gain a skill, so if they have no building skill, it's like trying to teach them the first time...it might take 4 or 5 tries to get the skill increase.

Maybe it's just me, but I've only had villagers gain building skill if they carry the boulder: the ones that go running or swimming never seem to gain skill. But maybe I missed something...

Just keep trying, I guess

If I have time to kill and an extra villager... could you "exercise" them up to Master Builder??? Has it been done??? Just curious!

On a slightly different note, sometimes the villagers take off and exercise on their own, without any stew. Has anyone seen any increase in building skills though that? Come to think of it I suppose it happens so rarely that it's unlikely to be noticed.

My villagers have exercised by them self but i never checked if they increased in a skill. Next time i catch them excersing ill check it out.

Arnie, you know, I never really checked mine after swimming or running. I'll have to make a mental note to do so.

Also, if you use the exercise stew, nursing moms and children can gain in skill by exercising.

The adept builders seem more consistently to have successful exercise sessions - not surprisingly, I suppose, but most peeps who exercise on their own (without the exercise stew), seem to do ok

With that stew, I have notice what happen following one villager:
(It's valid for all kind of exercises except when he bangs the sewing-hut) when he finishes to exercise, sometime he says "no" with his head and I suppose that it means he doesn't increase his building skill, and sometime he sits down and there is a notification: "this villager improves at building" (on the bottom of the screen). I don't know if it is the same when he exercises by his own but, next time I see that, I'll try to follow him.

Yes! My Bati, who was uncovering ancient ruins, start suddenly to exercise. I follow her and after she carries rocks I can see "this villager improves at construction" ! May be because she was set in building.