Getting Into the Groove of Physical Activity
There was a time when an article like this - about exercise - would have been totally unnecessary.
You had to do it to catch lunch! If you didn't catch lunch you starved.
And if you starved for too long, you died.
Ah those were the days when exercise just happened.
There were no gyms (can you just image - 'Thor's Mammoth Taming Clubathon: Classes 3 times a day, for breakfast lunch and dinner!).
There were no Reebok's - in fact you were lucky to have feet! And there were no boring, goody two-shoes fitness instructors, telling you how good you'll feel if you just chase that plodosauraus around the cave.
So where have we gone wrong? In fact it's where we've gone right that's the problem.
Advances in technology now mean that mankind has achieved everything s/he has sought throughout evolution - a meal on the table at the end of the day without having to do anything (physical) to get it.
Trouble is, there's a downside to this.
By not being 'pulled' to be active to stay alive, we now have to be 'pushed', to avoid the problems of inactivity.
And what are those problems? Well the first, and most obvious, is obesity.
In a society in which there is plenty of energy-dense, enticing food, and machines to do everything for you (except chew it), genes that were developed for storing fat, in case we get caught in the bad paddock, take over to make sure we have plenty for next time.
The build up of fat on the body, but particularly around the waist, is the first visible sign that something is going wrong internally.
Diabetes is usually then the first metabolic sign.
And this can lead to loss of a limb, loss of eyesight, kidney failure and eventually death.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that exercise - or more correctly physical activity - can act as an antidote for this.
For someone starting from a base of nothing, this means a gradual re-introduction to how your body was meant to move.
Walking is something most of us have to do, and it's usually the best place to start because it requires no medical certificate.
Get yourself a pedometer at any electronic store, for measuring the number of steps you do in a day.
Leave it on your belt all day and measure the number of steps you do over a normal week.
If you're the average inactive slob, you'll be flat out getting it to stop rusting up from inactivity.
If you're below about 50,000 steps a week (the bare minimum for good health), try increasing what you do by about 30% for a couple of weeks, then 30% again, and so on.
The ultimate goal should be more than 70,000 steps a week, although if you want to lose weight (or have been overweight and lost it and want to keep it off) you should probably go to about 80,000.
It doesn't really matter when you get the required number of steps (it's 'accumulated', not continuous that's important).
Physical activity was once part of living.
With modernisation, it now has to be extra-curricula.
But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.
I'm sure Thor enjoyed catching the mammoth (although probably not as much as eating it!).
You had to do it to catch lunch! If you didn't catch lunch you starved.
And if you starved for too long, you died.
Ah those were the days when exercise just happened.
There were no gyms (can you just image - 'Thor's Mammoth Taming Clubathon: Classes 3 times a day, for breakfast lunch and dinner!).
There were no Reebok's - in fact you were lucky to have feet! And there were no boring, goody two-shoes fitness instructors, telling you how good you'll feel if you just chase that plodosauraus around the cave.
So where have we gone wrong? In fact it's where we've gone right that's the problem.
Advances in technology now mean that mankind has achieved everything s/he has sought throughout evolution - a meal on the table at the end of the day without having to do anything (physical) to get it.
Trouble is, there's a downside to this.
By not being 'pulled' to be active to stay alive, we now have to be 'pushed', to avoid the problems of inactivity.
And what are those problems? Well the first, and most obvious, is obesity.
In a society in which there is plenty of energy-dense, enticing food, and machines to do everything for you (except chew it), genes that were developed for storing fat, in case we get caught in the bad paddock, take over to make sure we have plenty for next time.
The build up of fat on the body, but particularly around the waist, is the first visible sign that something is going wrong internally.
Diabetes is usually then the first metabolic sign.
And this can lead to loss of a limb, loss of eyesight, kidney failure and eventually death.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that exercise - or more correctly physical activity - can act as an antidote for this.
For someone starting from a base of nothing, this means a gradual re-introduction to how your body was meant to move.
Walking is something most of us have to do, and it's usually the best place to start because it requires no medical certificate.
Get yourself a pedometer at any electronic store, for measuring the number of steps you do in a day.
Leave it on your belt all day and measure the number of steps you do over a normal week.
If you're the average inactive slob, you'll be flat out getting it to stop rusting up from inactivity.
If you're below about 50,000 steps a week (the bare minimum for good health), try increasing what you do by about 30% for a couple of weeks, then 30% again, and so on.
The ultimate goal should be more than 70,000 steps a week, although if you want to lose weight (or have been overweight and lost it and want to keep it off) you should probably go to about 80,000.
It doesn't really matter when you get the required number of steps (it's 'accumulated', not continuous that's important).
Physical activity was once part of living.
With modernisation, it now has to be extra-curricula.
But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.
I'm sure Thor enjoyed catching the mammoth (although probably not as much as eating it!).
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