Finding Time For Exercise:assessing Physical Damage And Accepting The Value Of Exercise
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals buy a top of the range car that has some of the best automotive engineering available today, watch them read the maintenance manuals thoroughly.
They take their car for inspection even if it purrs like a kitten and book it in for checking as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very worried.
That car is their most loved possession, a representation of all the long and hard hours they put in at work so they could finally acquire it. It cost an arm and a leg, so looking after it is logically, their # 1 priority.
But how valued is the person that drives that car? Shouldn’t that person – shouldn’t YOU – be the #1 priority?
The average lifespan of men and women is 80 years, give or take a few years. The painful truth is, a significant number of men and women look and feel 80 before they even reach the first half of their life! You can spot the give away signs from their physical appearance:
* drooping dry skin
* bad posture
* uneven and unsteady walk (they need to drag around all that excess weight)
* aching joints
* displaying the “I’m not happy because I look terrible” look
Now, if their outward look is this bad, just think what the inside machinery is like! Most likely, it’s even worse:
* clogged vessels
* inefficient heart
* mounds of fat parked in or around vital organs
* Conditions such as diabetes, nervous tension, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease that are silently brewing.
If fitness gurus had it their way, they’d create legislation to make exercise compulsory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not during the teens when obesity is likely to strike.
But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age limit. You can commence at 10 or at 29 – even at 50 and 60 – the principle being that fitness should not be seen as the cure for a condition that’s already come about. As the saying goes, don’t wait for illness to strike.
Brad King and Dr. Michael Schmidt in “Bio Age, Ten Steps to a Younger You” (Macmillan, Canada, 2001) created a questionnaire for assessing physical damage to a body as a result of lack of exercise. Some of their guidelines include:
Begin with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these apply to you?
* Am I overweight, pear or apple shaped?
* Do I have a spare tire around my waist?
* Has my skin become very dry, almost paper-thin?
Then, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exercise?
* Am I constantly anxious and worried?
* Do I feel tired and sluggish most of the time?
* Do I suffer from mood swings?
Last question, “How am I doing?”
* Are simple walking and climbing stairs difficult?
* Do I have problems concentrating?
* Is running impossible for me now?
* Am I unable to sit in a good posture, preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?1
You’ve finished your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness gurus will have developed their own parameters or indices for assessing your body’s overall state and one isn’t better than the other.
As long as they include all dimensions of the self – physical, psychological and mental – they are as valid as the next person’s assessment charts.
Now you need to create your very own ACTION PLAN.
References: 1 Brad J. King & Dr. Michael A. Schmidt. Bio Age – Ten Steps to a Younger You. Macmillan, Canada. 2001.
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