Walking - A Natural Therapy

Walking is a delectable madness, very good for sanity

COLIN FLETCHER

Walking helps you take control of your life and put some fun back in it. You start saying no to the things that get you down and you get out on the road and walk and smile at the world. Your body is not built for sitting around all day; built for movement, especially walking, your body functions best when it’s walking rhythmically at 3.5-4 miles per hour.

       A main theme of this book has been the idea of rhythm and is power to heal. The healing power of rhythm unlocks destructive emotions and creates harmony out of disorder. When you walk you rediscover a sense of rhythm – your sense of rhythm, a rhythm which moves through every fibre of your body energizing you.

   Walking recharges your physical and mental batteries, a good walk refreshes your body and mind, and is the best antidote to tension. Even a short, aerobic walk can drain away tensions before they turn into headaches, back aches, high blood pressure and insomnia.  Aerobic walking is a powerful therapeutic tool:

·        Aerobic walking can reduce tension, anxiety and mood swings

·        Aerobic walking can reduce headaches, back aches and muscle tension

·        Aerobic walking can reduce depression

·        Aerobic walking can reduce emotional fatigue

·        Aerobic walking can reduce boredom

·        Aerobic walking can reduce insomnia

And aerobic walking will improve or increase your

·        Self-confidence

·        Self-image

·        Feelings of independence

·        Optimism

·        Relaxation

·        Creative energy

·        Immune system

·        Control over your life

Walking uses up stress hormones which otherwise stay in the blood, keeping us tense. Aerobic  walking works by decreasing the stress hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) and increasing relaxation hormones in the brain (beta-endorphins) these hormones help to elevate your mood and give you a sense of well being – a sort of ‘walker’s high’.

    You will feel the tranquillising effect of walking not just in your mind, but in your body due to the improved oxygen supply and the reduction of carbon dioxide in the blood. Increased oxygen supply improves memory, thinking ability and concentration. Away from pressure and stress, you give your mind a holiday – a mini-vacation.

   It is the continuous, vigorous, rhythmic motion of aerobic walking which breaks down the pattern of stress and puts you in a new frame of mind. No other game, sport or activity can give you the benefits that aerobic walking can give you. Away from the television, telephone and nagging domestic and pro-fessional worries, your problems become a thing of the past.

stress buster

Take Control of your Life

To all who feel overwhelmed and work weary, the exhilarating exercise of walking offer both a stimulus and sedative

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

From the moment we rise in the morning to the moment we go to bed life grinds us down. Physically, the force of gravity grinds us down – at the end of the day we are up to three-quarters of an inch shorter due to the compression of cartilages in our spine. And mentally, we all experience the increasing pace and pressure of life which can leave us feeling tense, tired and listless. In simple words – we feel stressed.

Ninety million working days are lost in the UK each year through undue stress in the workplace – that’s 30 times more than time lost through strikes – and the total cost to industry has been estimated at 7.5 billion a year .Doctor estimate that 75 to 90 per cent of people visiting them suffer from stress-related problems.

 But what is stress?

Stress is the disease of the 20^th century. We all suffer from it, but it’s not so much the amount of stress in our lives which is the problem, but our ability to cope with it.

We feel stressed when everything simply gets too much for us- we feel tense, anxious or depressed. The increasing pace of life, social change, work, financial worries, divorce, retirement and bereavement all contribute to stress. Even some types of exercise can be stressful. With the average woman now work – ing up to 15 hours a week longer than a man, juggling the demands of a home, children and job, is it any wonder that in the end mind and body cannot take any more.

Although there are many causes of stress, one of the major causes is physical inactivity. Sitting for much of the day in one from of chair or another – domestic chairs, office chairs, cars, buses, trains and taxies- we drag our sedentary, over – stimulated, over-stressed bodies back home in the evening where many of us then spend another three hours a night sitting in chair watching  television.

  A recent report by the British heart Foundation said that lack of exercise a day, having high blood pressure of high levels of cholesterol. And one of its main recommendations was for people to walk quickly.

In the USA the problem of physical inactivity is now so serious that the America heart association recently changed the status of physical inactivity from a ‘contributory factor’ for heart, blood vessel diseases and stoke to a ‘risk factor’. This puts a sedentary lifestyle on a par with high bold cholesterol, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking.

 Throughout the western world a sedentary lifestyle (inactivity) is now recognized as a major cause of ill health. Inactivity slows down your metabolism. You feel tried and lethargic. By the evening all you want to do is slump in a chair and go to sleep.

Inactivity breeds inactivity and it breeds tension: your muscles are wound up, your mind is wound up, you have a stiff neck and a stiff back, and to make matters worse your body burns less calories so you put on weight. In time, your muscles and bones begin to atrophy so you get old before your time.

To cope with stress and inactivity you need to take control of your life. When you feel stressed, you are out of control – circumstances are controlling you. Research from the US shows that the feeling of having no control is the major source of stress for women. Although there may be many circumstances that you cannot change, one area of your life that you can change is your level of activity.

Normally, when the body cries out for a break from tension and stress there are two types of response. One is to ply the body with coffee, snacks, alcohol or cigarettes – which only make matters worse; the other is to relax, become more active and ease away the stress naturally. And the easiest way to do this is to walk.

The simple pleasure of getting out of the house or the office and using your legs give you the feeling of being in control. Walking is more effective than a gin and tonic and is less demanding than jogging or a game of squash. Walking gets you away from the the world of competitive work and competitive sport, and gives you the peace and quiet to relax naturally. Walking is the natural way to cope with stress.

5 Steps to a longer life

The best way to lengthen out days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.

 

CHARLES DICKENS

 

         i.      CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR

If you have been inactive for some time, or have a diagnosed medical problem which may inhibit you talking exercise, or are unsure about your current state of health, then check with your doctor first. Show him this book and seek his advice before staring out with a vigorous walk-ing programme.

    2.  BUILD SLOWLY

              Even if you are reasonably fit and active, you will still need to start slowly and ease yourself gently into a regular walking programme. Doctors agree that there are no risks with regular exercise as long as you warm-up first and gently.

       So put on a comfortable pair of walking shoes and do the warm-up exercises in Part 1. Then start out with a 10-minute walk and gradually increase your walk to 20 minutes over two weeks. At this point you are not concerned with distance, speed or target heart rates – simply walk – ing and building a regular habit.

  As you increase your stride and get into a good rhythm, walk at a speed that feels comfortable. Listen to your body-it’s the best judge of how you feel. When you’ve finished your walk you should feel relaxed and refreshed. If you feel tired, you are going too fast. Conversational walking pace is a good guide: you should be able to hold a conversation without getting out of breath.

            Since some of you are likely to be using muscles that you haven’t used for years, you can expect some soreness as part of the natural process of strengthening muscles, but too much is unhealthy. If you experience this, then give your- self a few days rest before walking again.

        After two weeks you should be able to walk for 20 minutes comfortably without straning yourself, but for those of you who still find this difficult, then continue walking foe as many weeks as you need before moving on to the more vigorous walking workouts in Chapter 1.

3. WATCH YOUR WEIGHT

 You will feel better and have more stamina and energy if you attain your ideal weight. One of the best ways to lose weight is regular aerobic walking. For every 30 minutes walking you lose around 200 calories on average, and if you com-bine this with The Wall Slim Diet, then you will 

 Burn off extra calories and easily be able to get back to and maintain your correct weight.

         The average woman in her 20s has about 27 per cent body fat. But the time she’s 50 that has increased to a whopping 42 per cent! For men, 18 per cent grow to 30-35 per cent for men, 18 per cent can grow to 30-35 per cent by the age of 50. As muscle is replaced with fat and metabolic rate tends to slow down with increase- ing age, then it is even more important to exer- cise and eat healthily.

4. WALK WITH OTHERS

The historian, G. M. Trevelyan, who was a great walker, said: ‘Walking is a land of many paths and no paths, where everyone goes his own way and is right, ’Some people will want to walk alone; like Trevelyan they find a sense of independence in the great outdoors. But many people will prefer company, and walking with a friend, spouse or the family is an excellent way to get mptivated and build a habit to last a lifetime.

       You may want to organize your own walking club in the area where you live, or at work. Some people form walking clubs to walk during their lunch hour or after work.

5. KEEP IT UP

At least 25 per cent of people who start exercise programmes give up in the first week. So don’t exercise too hard and then give up through boredom or injury. Take it slowly, keep motivated and keep walking. You will soon start to see results, and as you discover for yourself how easy it is to walk regularly, you will find that you want to get out as often as possible and knock up all those aerobic miles.

        Don’t be disheartened if there are days when you don’t want, when your enthusiasm fails you. Another day will come around and you will be bursting to get outside in the open air and clock up more miles. As your aerobic fitness increases, the feeling of increased stamina, energy and vitality will be enough to get you out and about.  

Special Considerations

It has been estimated that 50 per cent of the decline in biological functions between the ages of 30 and 70 is due to disuse. The so-called ‘diseases of physical inactivity. The following conditions can all be relieved by walking regularly, but this advice is not a substitute for expert medical advice. If you suffer from one of these conditions you should consult your doctor before starting a walking programme.

Can walking help my back pain?

Four out of five people experience back pain at some time in their lives. Back pain accounts for 6.5 per cent of all visits to the doctor, and it causes the loss of 67 million working days a years in Britain at a cost of &3 billion

Year of inactivity – too much time spent sitting and too little time spent exercising – causes back problems due to bad posture which weakens back muscles. Back pain can be alleviated by building strength and flexibility in the muscles that support your spine, particularly the hamstrings, quadric- ceps, abdominals, lower back and laterals.

‘Taking a walk regularly is one of the best things you can do for your back,’ says Dr John Regan, a surgeon at the Texas Back Institute. ‘it promotes muscular development and increases circulation.’

Walking, which is a low-stress, low-impact activity, will help strengthen your back and help tone stretch your back muscles. And regular walking promotes weight control and good posture and helps reduce muscle tension – key factors in maintaining a healthy back. Carrying around excess weight streains back muscles bad posture and increase compression of the spinal discs. Remember, always warm up before walking and cool down after your walking session.

If you have a back problem, you may actually feel better walking than sitting. According to Swedish back expert Dr Alf Nachemson, walking puts less strain on the spine than does unsupported sitting. Walking strengthens the muscles in the pelvis and lower back and the forward movement of the body reduces the force of gravity on your back.

To develop whole body whole fitness and full mobility in the back, you should follow the simple stretching and strengthen-ing exercises in The Whole – Body Workout.

Can walking help my arthritis?

Doctor used to advise arthritic patients against exercising but it is now more common for doctors to prescribe exercise. Walking helps to strengthen the muscles around joints, relieves pain when rub together and can prevent joint inflammation.

It’s important to take it gently, rest frequently and don’t walk through pain. Warm-up thoroughly first, walk only as far as feels comfortable and increase the length of your walk gradually. Discuss the problem with your doctor. You may need to do some additional strengthening and stertcging exercises of the type shown in The Whole –Body Workout.

Because arthritis often causes depression leading to lethargy and inactivity, walking helps because it is a natural mood elevator, releasing beta-endorphins (relaxation hormones) in the brain which increase your sense of well being. 

Can walking help prevent osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) is a condition that gradually robs bones of their strength, leaving them so brittle that an action as simple as tying a shoelace can result in a fracture. As we age, the mineral content of our bones decreases, their texture become thinner and there is a gradual decrease in skeletal strength. Osteoporosis affects many post- menopausal women due to the decrease of the decrease of the hormone oestrogen and it affects women more than men – 1 in 40 men but 1 in 4 women suffer from this condition.

The following are risk factors that can all be modified:

·         Being sedentary

·         Inadequate calcium intake

·         Cigarette smoking

·         Being underweight

·         A deficiency of vitamin D

Bones are similar to muscles that they shrink from inactivity and benefit from exercise. Walking, as a weight-bearing exercise, can help your bones maintain and also gain strength and density. The force of gravity, and the physical act of walking, causes your muscles to pull on your bones which stimulates the bone to take in more strengthening calcium.

Calcium and exercise are the main keys in the prevention of osteoporosis. A good calcium diet nourishes and maintains bones and regular exercise helps to maintain a strong skeleton. Sources of calcium are milk and milk products, green, leafy vegetables, citrus fruits and shellfish.

Some experts think that a reduction in regular physical activity is the major reason for a rise in osteoporosis in the past 30 years. William Evans, PhD, of Tufts University in the USA, has studied the effects of walking for the treatment of osteoporosis and he says: ‘from what we see, exercise may be one of the best ways to stop or prevent age-related bone loss,’ body’s sensitivity to insulin and increases the uptake of blood sugar (glucose) by the muscles.

And walking can actually reduce your chance of developing diabetes. That’s (the lancet, September 1991). One group of nurses exercised regularly – brisk walking, jogging, cycling, etc. the other group took no exercise and twice as many of them developed diabetes.

STEP OUT TO A LONGER LIFE.

Fitness for the Over 50s

Stay young – Stay active

                                                                              CICERO: 44BC

                                                       A walk is one of the secrets for dodging old age

                                                                                RALPH WALDO EMERSON

There is a saying in China that ‘old age is inevitable, but there is no excuse for senility’. The ageing process varies from person to person, and although it is in evitable, experts now agree that most people could look younger, be fitter, feel more vital and live longer if they exercised regularly throughout their lives.

       Huber Warner, PhD of the National Institute on Ageing in the USA, is 55 and says: ‘People should be concerned about ageing from the earliest stages of their lives. The problems of ageing are cumulative, and the sooner you start correcting them, the better off you are in the long run,’

     It’s never too late to start.

     As you get older the effects of sedentary living and a passive lifestyle start to catch up with you – weak muscles, reduced stamina and suppleness, reduction in aerobic capacity and proneness to disease. By walking regularly and following the additional exercises in the wholebody fitness section of the book, you can increase your aerobic capacity, strength, stamina and suppleness even into the decades of your life.

Walk longer – Live Longer

Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast

HARRY TRUMAN

(advice on how to live to be 80, on his 80^th birthday)

They say that ‘old age puts more wrinkles on our minds than on our faces’. You are as you feel. A 50-years who feel 40 is 40 – a 40 year- old who feels 50 is 50. A bored 40- years-old is the same as a bored 50-years-old. In the fight against ageing, mental fitness is as important as physical fitness. 

     Mental fitness gets you up and going; mental fitness gives you a new attitude, a new outlook to life; mental fitness gives you the drive and energy to make plans for a healthy future.

     Many people drift into old age as though it’s inevitable. They make financial plans for their middle age and retirement but they don’t give the same consideration to a physical plan in order to enjoy these years to the full. They drift into their middle and later years sitting around waiting for a heart attack, when what they should be doing is following an exercise and diet plan to help them enjoy life to the full.

      It’s not the passing years that’s a problem – it’s passive lifestyle. By their 50s more than 40 per cent of males and 80 per cent of females are sedentary – they spend too much time sitting.

          To give you some idea just how a passive lifestyle can damage your health, a report in a US magazine, prevention, in February 1991, estimated that 22,000 people in New York alone might die during the year ‘clinging to their armchairs’.

      A sedentary lifestyle is considered so bad for you that the American Heart Association now lists it as a major ‘risk factor’ on a par with high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and cigarette smoking. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, found that the least active people were almost twice as likely to have heart disease as the most active.

    There are many aspects of your life over which you have no control – but you do have control over your exercise and diet. Getting started now and making small changes to your lifestyle will help you regain aerobic capacity, stamina strength and flexibility. And the easiest way to do this is to walk regularly and follow The Walk Slim Diet.

Dr Ralph Paffenberger of Stanford University in the USA, in The College Alumni Study found that people who walked regularly were than their less likely to suffer or die from a heart attack than their less active colleagues, and men who walked 9 or more miles a week had a 21 per cent lower mortality rate than those who walked 3 miles or less. He also found that the benefits tended to increase with age.

    And it’s not just cardiovascular health that improves: walk-ing helps with back pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, varicose veins, reducing cholesterol, and other medical problems where inactivity is a factor.

      By walking regularly you cut your rate of physical decline by half. ’Use it or lose it’ is the adage. If you don’t exercise, muscles deteriorate, you aerobic capacity deteriorates and you have less stamina, strength and flexibility. Life becomes a strain and you have less energy and vitality to get you through the day.

       Aerobic capacity (the ability of the cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to working muscles) declines slightly every year after the age of 30. After 30, your maximum heart rate declines and your lungs and blood vessels become less elastic. Because your heart and lungs supply less oxygen to your tissues, your vitality diminishes each year and you tire more easily.

     What you need is a an oxygen This is what walking will do for you:

AEROBIC ENDURANCE

ü  Improves cardiovascular fitness

ü  Improves respiratory capacity

ü  Improves muscle endurance

ü  Burns calories to help maintain optimal body weight

ü  Raises HDL, ‘good’ cholesterol

ü  Reduces psychological stress

ü  Guards against heart disease and other health problems

STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY

ü  Delay loss of strength and muscle mass

ü  Maintain muscle tone and joint range of motion

ü  Assist balance and good posture

ü  Slow bone shrinkage and weakening

Regular aerobic walking will make your heart stronger and fitter it will give you a better figure and it will help shape and tone your body and keep off those unwanted pounds. And it will help you feel fitter mentally.

    Aerobic walking improves fitness and slows. ‘By improving your physical fitness, you’ll look and feel much younger than calendar age, ’says Dr Kenneth H. Cooper, author of Aerobics, and a firm advocate of the benefits of walking.

    So if you want to have a healthy heart, strong muscles and flexible joints then walking will help you do this. Regular walking will add years to your life to your years.

 

Safe Walking.

Walking together as a family is an ideal opportunity for teaching children road safety and to reinforce safety codes promoted by Ray Foan, Accident Risk Reduction Programme Manager for West Berkshire Priority Care Service – NHS Trust.

   During your family walks talk about road safety to your children and impress upon them the need to do the following:

·         Walk on the nearside of the pavement away from the road edge

·         Cross the road at lights or at a recognized crossing point

·        
           Look both ways twice before stepping out into  the road and make sure there is time to cross without hurrying

·         Watch out for other oncoming pedestrians who may not give way to you, forcing you to step off the pavement onto the road

·         Learn to recognize the sounds of other road users – can, buses, trucks, cyclists and motor cyclists

·         At all times follow the basic highway code: STOP, LOOK and LISTEN

USING AN UNPAVED ROAD

o   Walk facing incoming traffic, so you can see them and they can see you

o   Day or night, wear bright clothes or fluorescent strips so you can be seen by other road users

o   Use your senses, sight, sound and smell – if in doubt stop

We hope that we have persuaded you that walking is the easiest and safest exercise for your kids and the best way to keep healthy as a family.

The Family Walks.

Walk Together/Talk Together

It’s fun, it’s the easiest way for for all the family to get fit together. Escape from the stresses and strains of modern indoor life-the television, the telephone, the computer, the feeling of living on top of each other – and get outside in the open air and walk together.

   ‘Walking is an exercise, available to everybody. I encourage regular family walks –at least a half an hour a day. It’s a good way to spend time with your kids and a healthy habits, says Dr Leo Galland, an international nutrition expert.

     In our modern urban society, families are spending less time together. Jobs often force parents into long hours commuting; children are in school much of the day; parents and children are involved in separate activities in the evening. As a result, meals are eaten separately and there is little interaction and communication between family members.  

           Even exercise can get in the way of family interaction, with dad going for a agame of squash and mum off to an aerobics class, children’s fitness is often ignored, with parents thinking that the school will look after it. And as we have already seen, this is far from the truth.

      The answer to the problem is for families to find ways of being together – to share common experiences and co-operate with each other. Often it’s difficult to find an activity which all the family can do together. Not everyone has the same skills and motivation to play ball games or take part in sports activities, but one activity that everyone can take part in is a family walk.

         Walking is the only activity where everyone starts out on an equal footing! After all, we all walk, even our grandparents, so it’s just a master of getting the family together and deciding to walk regularly.

    Walking is one of the few physical activities that lets you concentrate as much on each other as on exercise. Not only will walking build a strong healthy body but it will also build a strong, healthy family bond.

       Whether your goal is get the family talking together or to get them active, the key is to make it fun. Kids often have a short attention span so it’s essential to vary your walks so that they don’t get bored and want to give up. When it comes to fitness, boredom is one of the biggest excuses for people giving up. So you must make it fun. The following are fun ways in which you can keep your children’s interest:

·         Tell your kids ahead of time so that can look forward to a special outing. Anticipation keeps kids’ attention and they be more motivated to walk when the time arrives.

·         Vary the route as much as possible. Alternate walks in the local neighbourhood with walks to the park, and trips to the countryside or seaside at weekends when you have more time.

·         Nature walks, both in town and countryside, can provide an opportunity for kids to look, find and learn more about the world around them. Spotting birds and identifying flowers and trees are all ways to heighten children’s aware-ness and appreciation of their environment. On their walks they can learn more about the weather, history, geography, vegetation, science and animals.

·         Walk to a surprise destination – a zoo or a playground, or visit a castle or museum. For a treat, let your kids decide where they would like to walk. Let them take a friend with them.

·         Bridge the generation gap-take grandma and granddad. A family walk provides time and relaxation for everyone to get together and share experiences.

      Walking is an activity that can be enjoyed every day and kids should be encouraged to walk most days. Any amount of walking, however short, is healthy and is better than no exer-cise, but too much soon can result in sore muscles and a loss of enthusiasm.

     Kids should build up their walking gradually, increasing the speed and length a little at a time. At first, it is more important to walk regularly than to try and walk too far. Slower, long walks can be alternated with faster, short walks, giving low and high intensity workouts. Kids, like adults, should warm-up before walking briskly. The best warm-up is slow walking.                                                                                                                                                                                            

                    Walk with your family- you’ll rediscover your feet and you’ll rediscover each other. The family that walks together talks together.

Why Your Child Should Walk?

‘Walking is far better for children than running,’ says Dr Lyle Micheli, director of Sports Medicine at The Children’s Hospital in Boston. ‘Because of its low impact, it prevents the injured tissue and joint injuries we’ve seen in children while exert two-and-a-half to five times their body weight while running.’

      Walking works because it is a low-impact, low-stress activity and is the safest aerobic exercise for kids, since their feet strike the ground with only 1-1.5 times their body weight. Walking is a moderate exercise, so the strength of kids’ legs and cardiovascular endurance improves gradually without stain or injury.

        Children who walk regularly develop in much the same way as adults- they increase their stamina, strength and flexibility. Although aerobic capacity increases regardless of training as a child grows, children who walk regularly will achieve greater aerobic capacity than sedentary kids. And that’s not all that walking will do for your kids:

WALKING…..

·         Helps develop good posture

·         Firms and tones muscles, improving body shape

·         Burns stored body fat and helps weight loss

·         Promotes strong bone growth, reducing the risk of osteo- porosis in later life

·         Reduces the risk of heart disease and back pain

·         Makes kids physically and mentally more alert

·         Fosters independence and self-reliance

·         Encourages kids to think for themselves

·         Increases confidence, self-esteem and self-image

   

Walking is a non-competitive activity, doesn’t require any special equipment and can be done equally well by boys and girls. Regular walking can enhance a child’s reading, writing and other skills, and their increased aerobic fitness will help them cope with the pressures of school and examinations.

Walking is one activity that your kids can keep up for a lifetime.

How Active is Your Child?

The minimum recommendation in Britain for children’s fitness is that they should exercise vigorously (get out of breath) for at least 15 minutes, 3 to 5 times a week. In the USA the America Academy of Pediatrics and America College of Sports Medicine both recommend that children should engage in 20 to 30 minutes of vigorous exercise each day. So how active is your child? Does your child:

·         Sit in front of the TV or computer screen for hours on end?

·         Get out of breath walking up stairs?

·         Prefer to have a lift in the car rather than walk short distances?

·         Live on a high-fat diet?

·         Seem to be putting on excess weight?

·         Lack motivation to exercise regularly?

·         Get bored easily?

If this is what your child is like then you have a problem, because your child is on a fast track to becoming an unhealthy adult. According to research conducted by the institute for aerobics Research in Dallas, USA, ‘at least 30 to 35 per cent of school-age are at risk for heart or circulatory disease and for premature death as adults’. Dr Kenneth Cooper, of the Aerobics Institute, advises: ‘Starting a lifetime aerobic exercise programme now will greatly reduce your child’s risk of dying from sedentary living as an adult.’

    Since walking is the easiest way for children to exercise aerobically, then should get your children active as soon as possible – and get them walking.

Fit Kids Fitness for All The Family

                           Train up a child in the way be should go: and when be is old, be will not depart from it

                                                                            PROVERBS 22,6

We have all seen the cartoon highlighting our inactivity and telling us that most of us are couch potatoes. Well, take a look again – for increasing numbers of our children are also couch potatoes. And it’s official.

         A study of nearly 24,000 youngsters, whose ages ranged from 12 to 16, carried out by the schools Health Education Unit at Exeter University in England, found the following disturbing truth: nearly half the girls and one-third of the boys take less exercise than the equivalent of one- minute brisk walk a week.

     And a two-year fitness survey by education chiefs in peter-borough, Cambridge shire, involving 800 youngsters from seven junior schools, discovered that many children were so out of condition that they were unable to take part in playground games such as skipping, running and hop- scotch. One comment made was that: ‘Children have more facilities to play indoors. They don’t go out often as they should.’

     And a recent study in the USA by the Department of health and Human Service found that 40 per cent of children between the age of 5 and 8 were shown to exhibit at least one of the following heart disease risk factors: obesity, hypertension and high blood cholesterol, ad the reason give was inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle.

           Dr Kenneth Cooper, author of Aerobics, says that ‘kids are heavier and less fit aerobically now then 15 years ago’ and this is due to ‘sedentary living and poor nutrition’.

  In the UK and the USA, with up to 90 per cent of health. It seems that children are following in their parents’ footsteps. With the increasing use to the motor car to ferry children around; with some children watching up to 25 hours of television each week; and with video and computer games taking the place of sorts and fitness activities, is it any wonder that increasing numbers of children are overweight and unfit?

    Many people, of course, are hoping that schools will keep children active, but unfortunately school physical education programmes are failing to do the job. Tight school budgets and lack of playing fields and sports facilities all contribute to the problem, and even where schools have good sports facile-ties, there is often a focus on competitive on competitive team games rather than individual activities which promote long-term health and fitness.

    Emphasis on skills needed to play soccer, rugby, netball and cricket takes precedence over cardiovascular endurance, suppleness, strength, flexibility and body weight maintenance – the requirements for a fit and healthy body. We teach children the 3 Rs and how to compete, but we don’t teach team the sample skill of regular fitness walking: the easiest and cheapest way for children of all ages to get fit and keep fit for life.

   With increasing evidence that physical inactivity in children increases the risk of heart disease, and with schools increasingly unable to provide suitable activities which foster long- term fitness and health, the force behind motivating children, must come from parents.

     In 1987, The National Child Youth Fitness Study in the USA revealed that sedentary parents tend to have sedentary children and active parents tend to have active children. And a recent University of Pittsburgh study found that overweight children have greater long-term success controlling their weight if they are involved in a family-based exercise and diet programme. So the moral is that your children are more likely to keep fit and watch weight if you do. And it’s never too late for them to start.

    Dr Neil Armstrong in charge of Exeter University’s Physical Education Research Center said: You are never going to persuade all children to do aerobic, but 80 per cent can do more walking.’ And Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film star, who is chairman of the President’s Council on Physical fitness and Sports in the USA, offers the following advice: Parents must make fitness a family affair. How can Mom and Dad help? They can participate in exercise activities with their children. They can turn off the TV encourage all family members to get out into the yard or on the street for a brisk walk.’