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

Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals get a top of the range 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 servicing even when it purrs like a kitten and take it for checking as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very concerned.

That car is their most loved possession, a badge of all the long and hard hours they put on the job so they could finally own it. It cost an arm and a leg, so taking care of 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 sad truth is, a significant number of men and women look and feel 80 before they even make it to 40! You can see the give away signs from their physical appearance:

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

Now, if their outward look is this poor, 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 brewing.

If fitness authorities 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 hit.

But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age limit. You can start at 10 or at 29 – even at 50 and 60 – the idea 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 determining physical damage to a body as a result of no exercise. Some of their guidelines include:

Start 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 excessively dry, almost paper-thin?

Then, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exercise?
* Am I continually anxious and worried?
* Do I feel fatigued and sluggish most of the time?
* Do I suffer from mood swings?

Finally, “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 completed your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness experts 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 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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