FITNESS PROGRAM & CAPACITY-BUILDING

FITNESS PROGRAM & CAPACITY-BUILDING

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Magandang umaga sa inyo! Good morning to you all!

Let me re-echo the theme of physical fitness in this note, with my contention being that fitness regimen contributes immensely to capacity-building. Conversely, the neglect of a fitness program—sustained across time—would incapacitate a person in no small measure, leading to even greater risks of physical degeneration and short life-span.

I have already tackled fitness programming numerous times in the past, notably in speeches on development, health and wellness. I’ve likewise wrote notes about the matter, with one note posted in my wisdom & self-development blogs (“Health & wellness: promoting longevity, prosperity, harmony,” in http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com, http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com).

Rest assured, I shall never get tired of re-echoing the theme. Whatever one wishes to use fitness program for, whether for advancing one’s material well-being (profession, craft, business) or spiritual self-development, the lesson should be as clear as the most transparent water: build and sustain a fitness program to capacitate you for your short- and long-term goal attainment.

To note, urban life and the rat race are skyrocketing to take up the largest chunks of peoples’ attention, and that chunk of attention includes neglecting fitness in favor of conspicuous consumption and toxin build-up of the biophysical body. Every kind of rationalization is advanced by the working folks to justify the neglect of fitness program, and they’d blame every external factor (work, their boss, career, money…) to cover up for their personal weakness in neglecting a very basic practice in life: fitness regimen.

I do resonate with the physical education professors, such as Prof. Mar Panganiban of the University of the Philippines Manila (a former colleague at my home College of Arts & Sciences), when they cogitate that “the amount of inputs ingested in the body should be commensurately followed by an equivalent quantity of outputs.” Input means, of course, sums of food intakes; outputs, the burning of calories and detoxification through physical exercises.

To take the argument further, “should you put excessive inputs in the body but output is less than the input, than you build up unwanted fats and toxins.” That is classic systems analysis, where a system breakdown if the output can’t churn out much to correspond to high input levels.

So the logical conclusion is: ensure that output level (exercises and related detoxifications) should catch up with, or level with, the level of input. If a person inputs 2,000 calories per day or 14,000 calories per week, but output consists mainly of work routines and mobility exertion routines (driving or riding to work and back home), then chances are that the output is lower than the input.

The average weight for that calorie level is middle weight (for man or woman), or approximately 145-160 pounds. So if a person of this weight range ingests such levels of inputs, the demand for output is clear: let fitness exercise be added on top of your work regimen and mobility exertions. Aside from that, find ways to detoxify through regular drinking of herbal teas averaging two (2) mugs a day.

Avoid sweets, carbonated drinks (eliminate them if possible) and junk foods. If it can’t be avoided that you take caffeine (to waken up for the day) accompanied by sugar, then that’s alright, provided that you burn the sugar and detoxify the excess through herbal teas at night time (they can serve as beverage accompanying dinner).

And please drink enough water every day. In my experience, I drink a minimum of fifteen (15) glasses/mugs of water daily. That includes water used for mixing my coffee before breakfast, milk choco accompanying breakfast, two (2) coffees in to go with afternoon snacks, and the two (2) mugs of herbal tea at night. My last glass of water is consumed in sips every time I wake up at night to pee. The coffee and herbal teas that I drink are diuretics that aid the water to be released, taking out the toxins in the process.

As a testimony, it was my fitness programs (swim & jug in the 80s, powerlifting since 1990) that capacitated me to work longer hours daily. Without a fitness regimen, I would already feel fatigued before 5:00 p.m. (I really felt such a bad state in 1981 & ‘82 as a starting young professional). With fitness program in hand, I can begin work at 6 a.m. (prep for breakfast & work) and end up at past 10 p.m. (I’d be meeting fellow professionals or development clients, or drafting documents).

After decades of fitness regimen, my body has become so primed up that today I had cut down on exercises and still remain physically adroit the whole day. I’ve also cut down on inputs (diet) to accompany my cutting down of burning regimen. Whereas I used to gym for four (4) days a week, today I sustain it with only two (2) days plus another three (3) days of walking (at least 45 minutes leisurely walk).

It surely pays to listen to your body, conscience and experience that are your teachers along your way. And, it pays never to listen to your ‘inner demon’ that would do everything to get you out of a fitness regimen, make you lazy and rush you to hospitals later for repetitive ailment attacks.

So the choice is really yours. Change your lifestyle now, include fitness regimen in it, or retain your lazy bone lifestyle and deposit as many fats and toxins in your system. Go ahead and make the choice.

[Philippines, 18 September 2010]

[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com, ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]