We look
at Doctors as guardians of our health, and expect them to follow what they
preach: Eat Well and Exercise.
A
recent study published in the USA, makes you realize that what the ancient wise
men had repeatedly said: There is no meaning to words if they are not followed
by action.
NEARLY
ONE IN TWO PRACTISING PHYSICIAN DID NO EXERCISE AT ALL. AND MORE OR LESS THE
SAME PROPORTION, ONE IN TWO, WERE OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE.
It was
interesting to note that the physicians who were happy in their professions did
exercise more and were leaner!
If the doctors can’t
follow their own advice, how can you expect the
patients who are counseled by them to do?
Nearly
2 out of 3 persons living in richer countries are not doing sufficient physical
exercise. Even though they have come up with this magical number of 150 minutes
of physical activity per week, one has to make this part of your everyday
activity such as eating.
I
remember the Humble Man of Bogor telling me, if you just do what you can EACH
day you would soon realize that it will become like an “addiction” and you will
begin to feel the absence. (Sure enough, within a few weeks of beginning daily
activity, when the winter set in the northern hemisphere, I lamented each day
that I could not do some physical activity)
Not
every one should aim to look like body builder or behave like one (Arnold Schwarzenegger
comes to mind!) but the ancient sages including the American Indian elders when
talking about Harmony in our lives, talked about the slow and smooth flowing of
daily life.
Breathing
exercises or Greeting of the Sun in the morning or offering of prayers of
gratitude were all parts of the cultures, some of which survive amidst us to
this day.
It is
not only that the modern lifestyle leaves you with less time, but also with
less harmony in life. So one has to strive for harmony: within oneself, with
ones environment and workplace and of course harmony with friends and family.
Let us
concentrate on Physical Activity for a minute!
Lancet,
the British Medical Journal, had a report of a symposium of some leading
researchers in this field:
The team of
33 researchers drawn from centres across the world also said governments needed
to look at ways to make physical activity more convenient, affordable and
safer.
It is
recommended that adults do 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk
walking, cycling or gardening, each week.
The Lancet
study found people in higher income countries were the least active with those
in the UK among the worst, as nearly two-thirds of adults were judged not to be
doing enough.
This above statement is no surprise, as we
know that Physical Inactivity is the GREATEST contributor of ILL HEALTH not
only in richer countries but also in emerging countries such as India, China,
Malaysia, Indonesia etc.,
How much should you weigh? On the average, you
should weigh
100 lbs. for the first five feet of your height and
then
Six pounds for each additional inch if you are man
and five pounds for each additional inch if you are a woman
So if you are five foot five woman, the ideal body
weight is 125 pounds and for a man of the same height, it would be 130 pounds.
These are not hard and fast rules but a general guideline. If you are five foot
five and you are very athletic, your muscles would contribute your weight and
you may weigh more than 130 pounds, in which case you have to make sure that
your adult weight has remained stable over a period of time.
Body Mass Index is calculated by dividing your
weight in Kg by square of your height in metres and expressed as Kg/M2.
For Europeans, normal is considered to be 25, but
there is an attempt to bring it down to 24, as 25 kg/m2 of BMI does not clearly
take into account the body fat, which is far more important a measurement with
regards to health.
Asians, normal Body Mass Index is considered to be
22 kg/m2, unless you are very fit in which case the muscle mass will increase
it slightly. But for an average person BMI of 24 is overweight and a BMI of 27
can be considered Obesity if you are Asian or part Asian.
What sort of activity should you do?
First of all, it is very important to understand
the role of Activity in Health. It is not good to think of exercising to loose
weight, even though it might be a beneficial side benefit of it. You should
exercise to feel good and contribute to your own health.
Depending upon where you live, your social and
cultural situation (Saudi Arabian Women are not known to exercise, for cultural
reasons and the Malaysian girls are already sweating under their head to toe
coverage under the hot and humid sun) you can choose the level of your
participation in physical activity.
One thing is very important. Whatever you decide to
do, what is MOST important is not the amount, intensity of your physical
activity but the fact that you have to be consistent with it.
You can read in any ancient philosophy and they
repeatedly advise you to be consistent, it is not enough to do it once in a
while whether it is being good to your fellow human beings or breathing
exercises (Pranayama) or walking or High Intensity Exercise.
As the Humble Man of Bogor explains: Hey, Doc, you
have to do it every day!
Whether it is New York or Singapore, one refrain I
hear is: I don't have time.
I silently ask them: What do you have time for?
A person who says they don't have time, it also
means that they don't have time for you, and your friendship.
But we cant neglect our friendships with them, even
if they don't have time for us, so we have to find ways of counseling them
about exercise and physical activity.
This lack of time has given rise to some High
Intensity Work outs and they last only seven to ten minutes at a time. Presto. Scientifically
shown to decrease Insulin Resistance and BP and in general increase well being.
In 12 exercises deploying
only body weight, a chair and a wall, it fulfills the latest mandates for
high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the
weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on
science.
“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity
interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance
training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise
physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author
of the new article.
Work by scientists at McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ontario, and other institutions shows, for instance, that even a few
minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces
molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of
running or bike riding.
Interval training, though, requires intervals;
the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of
recovery. In the program outlined by Mr. Jordan and his colleagues, this
recovery is provided in part by a 10-second rest between exercises. But even
more, he says, it’s accomplished by alternating an exercise that emphasizes the
large muscles in the upper body with those in the lower body. During the
intermezzo, the unexercised muscles have a moment to, metaphorically, catch
their breath, which makes the order of the exercises important.
The exercises should be performed in rapid
succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity
hovers at about an 8 on a effort and discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan
says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, difficult but bearable. The
upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.
Believe it or not, our humble man from Bogor has been doing just that.
Once stuck in a hotel gym
because the outside weather wouldn't permit him to do his exercises, he struck
up a conversation with an American who instructed in the quick intense exercise
programme. He brought it home to Indonesia and each and every morning, after
the running and Jogging around the Sentul Lake, the managers who have joined
him for the Sentul Lake reunion, come back to the office and Pak Joe leads the
gang in quick succession of high intensity exercises. It lasts no longer than
20 minutes with intervals for rest and chatting. He is able to do it without
discomfort but I see varying degrees of discomfort and when I participated in
it, muscles I knew not to exist began hurting. But the effect was immediate.
After just two days, I could feel the effects on the abdominal wall.
On my last visit to Bogor
and my friends there, the humble Man of Bogor agreed to do a video for the
staff of the American Indian Programme on prevention of Diabetes among
Adolescents. He was very careful to modify the High Intensity Programme knowing
full well that even staff members involved in the prevention of Diabetes may
find the intensity too much; he only included exercises, which ANYONE can do.
So even if you are partner
in Crunchem and Stealem EYMG Accountants, in New York or Kuala Lumpur, you can
spare four minutes per day, The life you save would be your own, and you no
longer have to sleep alone with your iPhone or iPad as others may find you more
attractive than before!
It was interesting to see Dr Moseley who is a
Medical Correspondent for the BBC, undergoing tests to prove or disprove the
High Intensity Training; he was pleasantly surprised that his Insulin
Resistance did come down, making him less liable for future Diabetes. This is
what he had to say:
Based on
what I've learnt I've been trying out my own 'Twenty Plus' campaign; 20 seconds
of intense activity when I can (running up stairs, cycling like crazy for short
bursts on my bike), a minimum of 20 minutes of walking every day, and no more
than 20 minutes of sitting at my computer or in front of the television without
getting up and moving around.
Dr
Michael Moseley BBC
Good
Advice!
20
minutes of walking per day, High Intensity Exercises at 20 second interval
spurts and not sitting in front of TV or Computer more than twenty minutes at a
time.
Say
also NO to Facebook, Google Plus, Yahoo Messenger. Make your iPhone your helper
and not the Nazi Dictator it has become!
Spend
more time with your friends, face to face, even if you have to travel a long
distance to do that.
The
Humble Man of Bogor had this to add for my American Indian friends: (echoing
the studies done in Florida University)
When
you are doing this short Body Works Exercise programme, you are not using just
leg muscles but also the upper body muscles, including the muscles of your
neck, so that 80 per cent of the body’s muscle cells are activated. If you do
only running or jogging, only about 20-40% of the muscle cells are activated:
walking or moderate intensity jogging or normal bicycling.
Welcome
to Bogor, Welcome to Indonesia, Welcome to our Group of Friends of Pak Joe. And
regain your health or improve your health.
See
you at 6 am at the Sentul Lake, from where you can see the majestic Gunung
Salak looking benignly at you!
My good friend in KL, MC, who was my Yoga Teacher would recognize certain of these poses as Asanas prescribed by Patanjali. As it is said in Yoga Sutra, without understanding the philosophy behind ones action, stretching exercises such as Modern Yoga practised by the Fake Yogis of the West would be just stretching exercises only bereft of the great benefits Yoga can render to a person, their personality, their personal life and not to mention the health benefits.
For a person who is unaware of Yogic Philosophy, he seems to be a Practitioner of it, fully integrating Practice with Action.
This is the BP and Pulse rate of the Humble Man of
Bogor
98/68 mmHg
62/min
Needless to say these readings are Excellent for a Man of any age!
