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Fitness Tips: Pathways to health
by David Garred,
Club Manager Dusit Resort Sports Club.
Howdy! The key to achieving a healthy lifestyle is to recognise that
exercise and healthy eating are two large pieces of a big picture. This
picture also includes healthy relationships, a healthy way of dealing with
stress, a healthy form of spiritual expression, a good dose of laughter -
regularly and especially a healthy attitude about yourself.
When you are striving to keep all these elements in balance, you’re
positioning yourself for optimum health. That holds true even in the face of
illness and disease. There are countless studies proving the healing effects
of such things as laughter, friendship and self-love.
Stress management:
Stress has received an undeservedly bad reputation of late, due to
the strong links that have been uncovered between stress and illness.
However, stress itself is not usually the direct cause of disease. Many
people live very healthy, very stressed lives. It is how we deal with that
stress that most directly affects our health.
A Russian proverb says: “The mind talks to the body and the body talks back
and sometimes it’s a fatal conversation.”
When stress is not dealt with, the body suffers. Heart disease, stroke,
substance abuse, injury and depression are all possible long term effects of
poorly managed stress.
People also tend to neglect the care of their bodies when they are under
stress by sleeping less, eliminating exercise, eating excessively or
skipping meals altogether. Interestingly, they are depriving themselves of
the very things that will help them cope - rest (recovery), healthy foods
(replenishment) and exercise (release).
Setting aside time for meditation or quiet breathing can often turn a
stressful body into a serene one. For some people, it takes as little as
fifteen seconds of deep breathing or two minutes of watching the birds out
of their window to begin feeling more relaxed.
The health benefits are profound: relaxation lowers your pulse, blood
pressure, breathing rate and meta-bolism.
Laughter:
What stress does, laughter undoes. Laughter serves many practical
purposes. It lifts many people’s spirits, relieves stress, encourages
creativity and helps draw people together.
Studies show that a hearty laugh also stimulates the heart and lungs -
increasing heart rate and circulation, contracting arteries and boosting
immune cell production. It has even been referred to as “inner jogging”
because the body responds the same as it does during an aerobic workout.
Laughter has helped terminal patients improve the quality of their lives
and, in some cases, has extended the lives of the critically ill patients,
as in the famous case of Norman Cousins.
Not all is known about the healthy effects of laughter, but scientists have
learned that laughter stimulates certain hormones which in turn release
endormorphins (natural pain killers produced by the brain) and enhance blood
flow.
Laughter may not prevent death or cure all disease, however it is clear that
it can help you feel better both emotionally and physically. Don’t just take
my word for it, why don’t you go give it a try yourself? Try going out and
watching a good comedy movie or even plan an activity with your friends
where you can expect a good laugh. After it is over, have a look at
yourself. Do you or did you have a smile on your face? Do you feel better
for it?
I still have a few more things that are “outside the box” of my regular
scheme of things so you can expect some more next week.
Until then, have a wonderful week, a day at a time.
Seize the day.
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Give children a reason to participate in sport:
A life of fitness and a world of fun
by Robyn at World Class Gym
Do your children a favour and let them participate in sport.
Medical research has proven that our children are in danger. This danger is
directly related to a shortcoming in physical movement. In industrial
countries 40 % of the children in the age group of 5 - 8 are at risk of
developing heart diseases due to too high cholestral levels, high blood
pressure and too high a percentage of fat. In the modern world, where
children sit all day watching television or playing computer games, they are
encouraged to sit still, keep quiet and thereby, starting at a very young
age, to develop an inactive lifestyle.
What can we do to prevent this from happening? Pure and simple, let them
take part in sport. Children who play sports are far less prone to chronic
sicknesses and are in better stead when it comes to participating in daily
activities. They have a stronger and more positive image of themselves,
display more confidence and their physical abilities develop more rapidly.
How do we motivate our children? Purely by being a good example. Concentrate
on the positive aspects of sport. For example, try to make sure the the
whole family takes part. There is an unbelievably large variety of things to
be enjoyed that will enhance the freedom that you and your children have, to
do what they enjoy, with the utmost of pleasure. Avoid boring your children
with sport by displaying it as a match. Sport has nothing to do with how
good you are. Winning or losing is not the aim of the game but how you play
and the enjoyment you derive from it is what is really important.
Let your children know that it is fun and pleasurable to be active. You
don’t have to do push ups and abdominal exercises with your children, but
you can go cycling together, running, skating, dancing and skipping,
swimming, walking, the list is endless. Give your children compliments when
they try to be physically active and appreciate everything that they try to
do. Tell them that they do it well and motivate them to continue for the
rest of their lives.
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