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[av_heading heading=’JUST ANOTHER DAY | I see fat people…’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Wednesday, June 7, 2017
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EVERY time you go to the Iloilo Sports Complex, you’ll see a lot of overweight – some almost obese – people on the side of the track oval doing some kind of exercises.
I particularly noticed this since I started coming to the sports complex for my regular two-mile loop on the track when we sort of transferred to Iloilo three years ago after almost three decades in Manila.
What really caught my attention is that these are basically the same people and since 2014 till now (2017) they’re still overweight and still doing the same exercises. Obviously they’re all doing it to lose some excess fat and for all intents and purposes nothing significant really happened to them. If the purpose of their going to the sports complex is to lose weight then they failed.
Besides these people doing exercises on their own, there are also groups of mostly fat people joining some supervised exercise regime, some sort of circuit training, and a Zumba dance class.
These Zumba and circuit training groups started, if I’m not mistaken, late last year and observing the regular participants since it started, I don’t see any significant weight loss.
Now if the purpose in joining this Zumba is just to be proficient in following the steps as demonstrated by the instructor, then I guess they’re all pretty much good at it. But if the purpose is to lose a significant amount of body fat then it failed and the same goes for that circuit training group.
And then there’s the usual young people who come in the sports complex looking like they’re all prepped to do a few miles on the track oval but they spend more time doing selfies than actually jogging.
But never mind them, they’re still young and probably relatively healthy; they have all the time in the world to come to their senses.
My concern is on the older people who are overweight and obviously have been advised by their doctors to lose some weight and are not doing it properly or have been given the wrong information.
The usual exercises or what passes as a semblance of it these people are doing are: jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, squats, some sort of bending and some leg exercises which all amount to nothing and would just result to soreness or body pains.
In terms of doing exercise to lose some weight, all of the above are practically useless. Even if you do all these for a year you’ll still be fat.
And if you think going to the gym and doing all those bench presses and weight-lifting will make you lose weight, think again.
So what’s a person going to do if he seriously wants to lose weight? Elementary, my dear Watson, cardiovascular or aerobic exercises and sensible eating should do the trick.
In layman’s term, cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate; while aerobic exercise is sometimes known as “cardio” exercise that requires pumping of oxygenated blood by the heart to deliver oxygen to working muscles. Aerobic exercise stimulates the heart rate and breathing rate to increase in a way that can be sustained for the exercise session.
And examples of cardiovascular/aerobic exercise are medium- to long-distance running / jogging, swimming, cycling, and walking, according to the first extensive research on aerobic exercise conducted in the 1960s on over 5,000 US Air Force personnel byDr, Kenneth H. Cooper.
Meanwhile, sensible eating is you eat healthy food that do not contain too much of anything. It means easy on the lechon and bulalo and more on the pechay and alogbate.
A good exercise weight loss program that would produce results is really simple, no need for all that elaborate Zumba dance steps and pompous circuit training moves.
All you need to do is jog or brisk walk 45 minutes to an hour continuously five times a week, and a sensible diet (meaning more on vegetables and less meat and process foods). If you do this religiously for three months you will see the pounds melt away.
The reason most Filipinos cannot follow a proper exercise weight loss program is they have no discipline and focus to stick to it. All they want is instant gratification and that is why you will see them going to the motions of exercising when actually they’re not.
And finally, you might be wondering if I know what I’m talking about here; during my university days I played varsity football for school and country. After university I coached football and competed in marathons both local and international for 10 years so yeah, I know something about physical fitness. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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