Exercise for CMAJ
Posted by bmhegde on 1
Dear Editor,
Man is made to work; if he works hard, in the old fashioned way, he does not have to do any exercise to keep himself fit.1 unfortunately, the “so-called” modern civilization seems to have robbed man of that luxury. Consequently, every one needs daily exercise to keep fit and avoid precocious degenerative diseases.
Walking, that too at one’s own pace, enjoying Nature on the way, is the best way to get enough exercise. If one could walk up and down gradients it is that much better. The good that walking does in terms of physiology is equal to the product of body weight into distance. While walking up a gradient this gets compounded by gravity, in addition.
The benefit does not change significantly by jogging, or other more strenuous activities, as there is no linear relationship in a dynamic system like the human body, not to speak of the dangers of damaging ones knee and ankle joints in the long run by jogging or competitive sports. In an article Fit for What? Prof. Lawrence Moorehouse, the then NASA’s exercise chief ,asked the lay man the question and went on to answer it himself.2 “If you run you are fit for running, if you play tennis you are fit for tennis and so on, but none of these activities need confer special benefits for your total wellbeing.”
Exercise physiology is one of the most misunderstood areas by the lay man, aided and abetted by the hi-tech industry pushing various gadgets for easy exercise and quick results. They will continue brainwashing the gullible public relentlessly. One has to read the beautiful editorial written years ago by the then editor of the leading American Heart Journal, George Burch, entitled Run to Death! to understand this correctly.3
Finally a word of caution! One should never be deluded by the thought that regular exercise makes one immortal. It is true, though, that regular exercise might keep one physically fit as long as one lives.
References:
1) Scott, Richard and Selina Conn.
"The Failure of Scientific Medicine: Davis Inlet as an Example of Sociopolitical Morbidity." Canadian Family Physician. 1987; 33: 1649-1653.
2) Moorehouse L. Total Fitness, 1975. New York.
3) Burch G. Run to death. Amer. J. Cardiol