Exercise important for all

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 47

Exercise important for all

Besides a range of nutritious foods in the right amounts, sufficient suitable exercise is essential for keeping both healthy and fit.

One definition of fitness is: “Having the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigour and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure pursuite and meet un-

foreseen emergencies,” (U.S. President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport.)

The activities chosen to achieve this level of physical and mental efficiency may also have creative, intellectual, social or emotional benefits.

In any case, exercise should be pleasant, once the basic skills involved have been mastered.

For one thing, people are far more likely to carry on with an activity, and do it regularly, if they enjoy it. For another, when doing something they like doing, they will more easily relax into the movements, which are then more beneficial.

Different people suit different forms of exercise, depending on build, temperament, life style, and present level of fitness. The value of a particular form of exercise is in the amount of movement involved, not the strain.

Gentle movement, slower and less forceful than that

involved in most competitive sports, allows a gradual improvement of fitness without dangerous strain. It also helps to dispel — not compound — such ailments as pain in the back, neck, shoulders or joints.

Gentle exercise is also more suitable for those suffering from mental stress.

The choice of more relaxed forms of exercise helps to reduce tension as well as improve fitness. It even helps to dislodge the habit of doing things with undue force or speed. As a result, the lives of people under mental pressure can become less tiring and stressful. Little and often is the ideal. Aim to have some exercise each day, with much of it built into the daily routine: a 10-minute walk to the shops, doing the vacuuming, or taking the stairs instead of the lift. These all count.

Variety is important, too, to ensure that all muscles get some exercise, and to

avoid any possibility of boredom.

For total well-being, let exercise complement work or other necessary activities.

A person in a stressful, mentally demanding job may enjoy a bicycle ride at a moderate speed, or a solitary walk. By contrast, a housewife on her own much of the time may well enjoy sociable activities, such as netball, bowling, or “shape-up” dancing. An athletic-type person in a sedentary, boring job would be likely to enjoy an energetic and intellectually demanding form of exercise, such as fencing or Scottish country dancing. Any exercise is good if it suite the person’s needs, and he — or she — enjoys it.