PHYSICAL EXERCISES
According to a Director of Eko Hospitals Plc, Lagos, Nigeria, Dr. Sonny kuku who chaired a public lecture of the City Club, Lagos, stated the benefits of physical exercises, saying that 30 minutes of brisk walking four or five times a week was capable of prolonging life by 20 years.
He advised people to sweat it out stating that “any form of exercise is better than none”.
He however cautioned against rigorous exercises, warning that the inventor of jogging, died doing jogging.
Dr. Kuku reiterated that a person could go on slow biking or running, just as he opined that persons who engaged in sex as they aged, tended to live longer than those who abstained totally.
Speaking in the same vein, a guest lecturer, Dr. Banjo Kale, Medical Director, Lagos Clinic, Victoria Island, asserted that exercises helped remove infections from the body and likened a well exercised body to a flowing river without any hindrance. He further stated that when you keep moving you become fit and even when one is surrounded with house keepers there was the need to carry out some activities by yourself suggesting that when you get your system moving, the benefit is that you can stay healthy till death.
Dr. Kale counseled adults to aspire to be healthy till death because it was possible and better than being struck suddenly by a disease that could confine one to bed or on a wheel chair.
He warmed that the best some children of nowadays could offer their parents was to dump them at old people’s home, without qualms.
Elsewhere, an authority on fitness plan for elderly people stated that elderly people should do 4 1/2 hours a week jogging and cycling to remain fit as a 25 years old.
He opined that such exercise need not be strenuous.
For some others, he further suggested 30 minutes trek, jogging or the use of static bicycle for exercise. As mentioned earlier, he strongly advised one to be in motion to keep one fit always.
Performing Simple Office Exercises:
Again, it has been advised that office workers should carry out simple office exercises to energize their work day. Experts in physical fitness are of the opinion that in doing so, backache, stiff neck, wrist pain, poor circulation, sitting for a long stretch of time every day in an office, especially at a computer, that can take a toll on one’s body could be minimized.
Another area is that of poor sitting posture, stress which could trigger aches and pains, saying that these are some of the health hazards that can come with having an office job.
The expert in physical fitness further counseled that there are simple office exercises you could do in no time, to keep you fit, warning that just 10 pounds of extra weight could increase your chances of developing osteoarthritis in your hips, knees and endanger your health generally.
He suggested that by increasing activity moderately you will notice a difference in your overall health including your joints.
The benefits when such simple office exercises are conducted regularly cannot be over emphasized. Apart from energizing and relaxing some one, it eases your joints, ease pain and stiffness, enhance blood circulation, relieve sore, tired eyes ad headaches and help to improve your work performance.
Some Of Such Simple Exercises Include:
Ankle circles, involves sitting upright in chair with feet stretched out in front and that person, circling feet in one direction for 20 times as well as in another direction for same 20 times.
Next is knee raising, which involves sitting on the edge of a chair or stool with your back straight and lifting your knee as high as you can without bending your back. In doing this, one could assist the knee higher with your hands.
Keep the abdominals tight; slowly lower your leg back to the starting position. Shoulder stretching is another form of exercise, enables you sit or stand with forearms pressed together in front of the body, then you bring your elbows back.
There is also the breathing exercises that helps to calm, relax and energize the body.
Breathing exercise regularly could help you reduce stress, tension, tiredness, anxiety and nervousness, improve your sleep and boost your immunity, the experts asserted.
The breathing exercise may take this format, while sitting on the front edge of a firm but comfortable chair, keep your back straight and your hands on your thighs or knees; looking straight ahead and relaxing your shoulders.
Next, exhale forcefully through your mouth to empty your lungs; at same time contract that is, tighten your abdominal muscles and bend forward. When your lungs are totally empty, immediately inhale through your nose till your lungs are no more than half full, immediately start exhaling again through your mouth. Do it 10 rounds to begin, then build up to 3 sets of 10 rounds, 2 – 3 times a day. In between each round and at the end of the final round take a couple of slow, deep breath to balance your breathing.
Benefits: expels stale air and impurities from your lungs and blood, clear your nasal and sinuses; flood your system with fresh oxygen; energizes and balances you and tones your nervous system. ###
By Azuka Dibie
