Kenneth Gardner - THE FITNESS CLUB I WAS reminded recently of my training for high school sports in deep rural Jamaica over 30 years ago. At that time a neighbour asked my brother if I was training for the army or just going crazy. Now that I look back, I wonder what my neighbour would say about the many senior citizens whom I now see exercising. I still have not joined the army and I can't remember anybody else wondering if I was going crazy.
However, as an exercise physiologist, I have been asked numerous questions about the benefits of exercise. Numerous terms have been coined to elucidate the value and benefits of exercise such as 'the miracle drug', 'the panacea', 'the fountain of youth' and 'the longevity formula'.
Many persons who exercise, speak about the physical and psychological benefits from their routine. Others are convinced that they have added even years to their lives. It is now almost common knowledge that exercise can slow and even reverse the physical effects of ageing.
It is quite conclusive that physical activity when done as exercise will improve the quality of the years of your life. We need to recognise that the life in our years is far more important than the years in our life. Man was made to work and he will enjoy a healthier life when he includes physical activity as a part of his lifestyle.
When we use our body to do work or to exercise it works better in the long run. It is better to work out your body which is pleasurable and healthy than to allow your body to be inactive and rust out. When you rest too much you rust.
All things being equal living longer basically depends on avoiding degenerative diseases which are basically attributable to lifestyles that display ignorance of diet, exercise and particular kinds of behaviour. Exercise will in fact lower your chances of avoidable illnesses or lifestyle diseases. Research has shown that individuals who do not exercise suffer twice as many heart attacks as those who exercise.
Even smokers, those who are overweight, persons with high blood pressure and with family histories of heart disease and other well-known coronary risk factors benefit from exercise. Persons who exercise have been found to have increased volumes of high-density lipoprotein, the good cholesterol which protects our heart against heart disease. High-density lipoprotein prevents the narrowing of the arteries by the deposition of low-density lipoprotein which is high in animal fats.
Exercise is a potent medicine which should be prescribed by a trained expert if it is going to be done seriously. The wrong prescription could kill you especially if you are near middle age and sedentary. A good prescription will prevent the associated risks yet provide the efficacious effects of an improved lifestyle. Epidemiological evidence have shown that regular exercise mitigates the development and progression of many chronic diseases.
The public health benefits of increasing physical activity within the general population are frighteningly enormous due to both the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle and the impact of activity on disease risk. Similarly, the threshold necessary for the health benefits of exercise, significantly lowering chronic disease, is the standard prescription of 30 minutes a day, three days per week.
Clearly there is an inverse relationship between exercise and mortality risk across activity categories and the risk profile indicates that some exercise is better than none and more exercise is better than less, all things being equal. A part of the public health effort must be focused on getting more people more active more of the time.
Everybody needs to exercise. However, if you are over 35 and sedentary, we can do a stress test to establish your fitness index and design an exercise programme expressly for you. As you plan for the new year, think about increasing your wealth with good health, and indulge in some exercise, and don't be surprised if you become addicted
to it.
Kenneth Gardner, Exercise Physiologist at
The G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport.
