Exercise Advice: Assessing Physical Damage And Accepting The Value Of Exercise

Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals get a sports car that has some of the best automotive engineering available today, watch them read the maintenance manuals cover to cover.

They take their car for inspection even if it purrs like a kitten and take it for repairs as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very concerned.

That car is their most loved possession, a mark of all the long and hard hours they put on the job so they could finally acquire it. It cost a LOT of dollars, so looking after it is logically, their # 1 priority.

But how important 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 large number of men and women look and feel 80 before they even make it to 40! You spot the tell-tale signs from their physical appearance:

* sagging dry skin
* poor posture
* uneven and unsteady walk (they need to drag around those extra pounds)
* painful joints
* displaying the “I’m not happy because I look terrible” look

Now, if their outward look is this awful, 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 quietly developing.

If fitness authorities had it their way, they’d introduce legislation to make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not during the teenage years when obesity is likely to strike.

But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age limit. You can begin at 11 or at 26 – even at 50 and 60 – the principle being that fitness should not be seen as the answer 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, pear or apple shaped?
* Do I have a spare tire around my middle?
* Has my skin become very dry, almost paper-thin?

Next, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exertion?
* Am I continually worried and anxious?
* 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 difficulties concentrating?
* Is running an impossibility?
* Am I unable to sit straight, preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?1

You’ve finished your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness specialists 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 devise 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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