Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals acquire a sports car that boasts 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 take it for checking as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very worried.
That car is their most prized possession, a badge of all the long and hard hours they put in at work so they could finally own it. It cost a LOT of dollars, 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 for 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 see the give away signs from their physical appearance:
* drooping dry skin
* unsightly posture
* uneven and unsteady walk (they need to drag around those extra pounds)
* aching joints
* sporting the “I’m not happy because I look terrible” look
Now, if their external look is this poor, just think what the inside 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 developing.
If fitness authorities had it their way, they’d create legislation to make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not during the teenage years when obesity is likely to hit.
But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age limit. You can start at 11 or at 26 – even at 50 and 60 – the idea being that fitness should not be seen as the solution 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 determining physical damage to a body as a result of no exercise. Some of their guidelines include:
Begin with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these apply to you?
* Am I overweight, looking like an apple or pear?
* Do I have a spare tire around my waist?
* Has my skin become excessively dry, almost paper-thin?
Then, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exertion?
* 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 an impossibility?
* 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 specialists will have devised 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 work out 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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Post from: Health Fitness Help
