Use it or Lose it
20/05/2009
Some months ago, whilst getting a haircut, I was extolling the value of exercise. The hairdresser lives just across the road from a sports centre but has never been tempted to go in, even from curiosity. When I asked why, he said ‘it would have to be fun’ and this has given me a great deal of food for thought.
Many of my colleagues in the Fitness Industry, often far more qualified and experienced than I, are overlooking a basic fact ie. that the main reason people do things is because they want to. There is a psychology component in our training but this is aimed in great part at those who have already made a commitment, if only to go and have a look. But we are not always preaching to the converted. To some we are no better than snake oil salesmen! The door of a gym may be seen as the threshold to an alien world and despite promises of improved posture, mobility, endurance etc. their own criteria may be something completely different, as with my hairdresser friend.
The same applies to nutrition. Fitness professionals tend to regard food primarily as fuel, any other considerations being peripheral. But whilst we speak of simple and complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and amino acids, the prospective client’s main concern may well be, ’but what does it taste like?’ The professional advice in both instances may be honest, sincere and perfectly accurate but it is a good idea to attempt occasionally to look at exercise and healthy living from ‘outside the box’. The quality of empathy should never be underestimated.
Henry Thoreau wrote that, ‘If I knew a man was coming to my house with the sole intention of doing me good I should run for my life.’ One of the most common objections to physical activity is ‘I’m not competitive’. I was listening to David Walliams on the radio describing his feelings before attempting to swim the Channel; hoping for something unexpected to happen so that he wouldn’t have to do it. If it was a natural event, such as freak weather, he would be blameless. Yet there would always be that nagging feeling that perhaps he could have done it and how would he ever know unless he tried.
I understood perfectly. I spent the Christmas and New Year break sliding down an extinct volcano in New Zealand, part of the Tongariro Crossing. There were twenty-eight of us and people were asking ‘aren’t you excited?’ Yes, but apprehensive would be more truthful! The Crossing is advertised as ‘the finest one day walk in the world!’ It is certainly one of them (it was Mordor in Lord of the Rings). David’s success is well documented. I finished in a state of total exhaustion, long after everyone else. Talk about Eddy the Eagle!
Different events, different personal challenges at completely different levels, one solo but very public the other in company but private, but in both cases there are several intrinsically linked factors.
Most importantly, fitness competition is with yourself. David Walliams was very fat (his own words) and decided to do something about it. He succeeded, in spades. Next to an Olympic athlete his time would be insignificant but this didn’t deter him. Some things are better judged by distance travelled rather than current position.
Then there is a second, very positive, factor: the sense of achievement. I was last; so what? The important thing (to me personally) is that I did it and this leads to a third point, other people.
Chances are that whatever you attempt someone else will have done it previously and better. There have been numerous Channel swims and thousands of people have walked the Tongariro, some older than I am and with worse arthritic knees. Again, so what? Other people can be an inspiration but they remain just that, other people. I tell clients that an instructor, even at the most personal one-to-one level, can describe, demonstrate, repeat, coax, encourage, cajole and push, but they cannot do it for you. If someone asks, ’can you get me fit?’ the answer is, ‘no, but you can. What I can do is to show you how.’
Then there is the feeling of confidence, something else that can’t be bought. I don’t know how David Walliams feels about his swim, but I am going to do that walk again in five years.
One of the most positive views of exercise is to see it as an insurance policy, or savings scheme: there when you need it. Occasionally, if you push yourself a bit harder, such as on a challenging swim or mountain trek, you will have the wherewithal to do it. Of course there are no guarantees that you will never suffer any ailment, anymore than not smoking is a guarantee against lung cancer but, in both cases, you lengthen the odds against immeasurably. Fitness gives you the reserves to fight back and recover quickly.
I have used gyms in several countries but the one where I train in Leeds is unique. It is the oldest in the city and, as I understand, the cheapest but more importantly it is the friendliest. The ‘daddy’ is Dennis, a master tailor and ex-professional wrestler. If anyone remembers ‘the Wrestling’, (Kent Walton, 4pm on Saturday afternoons in the 1970s ?), they may well remember Dennis the Menace. A great physique, he used to do shows with Reg Park. Last year he missed his regular training. It turned out that he had a gastric ulcer and could have died quite easily. Yet he recovered and was back at the gym within two weeks and is now at his previous level. He is in his late 70s.
My most senior client wouldn’t say how old he was (he refers to it as ‘times around the sun’). We like to have a social Nordic Walk from time to time with a meal included. The last one was in early December, just before I left for New Zealand, and the beginning of the really cold weather. He turned up with his walking poles, boots and woolly hat, negotiated ice and mud, had the meal (and a pint of Guinness) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just five miles, but he has a hip replacement, plus a hearing aid amongst other senior accessories. He recently showed me a birthday card last week and said that he wouldn’t be 90 until next year!
The news yesterday spoke of increasing levels of diabetes due in great part to obesity and people having their stomachs stapled, some of them quite young. Many had low levels of attainment at school. Just a little food for thought.
I believed years ago that physical and mental health were linked and now it has been proved. Thirty-one pairs of nerves, called Rachidian Nerves, grow out of the spinal cord. They grow between the vertebrae. Some send messages to the brain via the spinal cord while others send impulses from the brain to the muscles. So it makes sense that a healthy spinal column makes for better communication between the brain and other parts of the body. Conversely, a weakening of the back muscles would reduce mental activity. Just a little more food for thought.
Mental exercises, especially memory games are being used increasingly to guard against the onset of dementia. I acquired yet another tee- shirt in New Zealand. It reads ‘Not all who wander are lost’. If you think that I am wandering and wonder where all this is going, bear with me, please.
What I am trying to do in these articles is, not to pontificate from a distance but, firstly, to stress that I am one of you (assuming that you are 50plus) and feel stiff getting out of bed in the morning, and my knees hurt when walking downstairs: and, secondly, to establish facts so that any decisions that you subsequently make are on that basis and not based on misconceptions (such as being too old).
Just in case anyone is interested, I used to live in New Zealand. It is an awesome country and I go back whenever I can afford it. In January I officially became a pensioner and decided to celebrate in my favourite place. There is an international Nordic Walking community. We have an e-paper, run in great part from Roundhay! Ironically there was an article by a Kiwi instructor describing Nordic Walking on the beach at New Year plus the projected Crossing. It fitted perfectly. (Even more ironically we did have to abandon it on the date planned due to a mountain storm. Exactly the kind of natural calamity for which David Walliams secretly hoped). I spent my actual birthday in the Tall Ships Race in the Bay of Islands, on my Kiwi mate’s boat, the best birthday present ever. Serotonin ’ the feel good hormone’ is released when we are active. Sometimes this can become sheer joy. (See Billy Conolly in Baffin Island). I wouldn’t mind being 65 again!
William Blake said that, ‘There are as many truths as there are people’. This is mine, or part of it. What’s yours? Do you know? Other factors not withstanding, will you be able to make it happen or just wish? Your body, your choice.
Tony Pattison