EXERCISE, STRESS AND SURVIVAL.

I was walking past a neighborhood one day, the area was quiet and looked deserted. Children had left for school, grownups had left for work and the unemployed were cowering inside their homes. At some point, I started hearing a soft sound that I was unable to make out what it was at first. When I got closer, the sound became clearer, it was the clanging of metal. The clanging did not stop and it sounded coordinated. The sound was coming from a particular compound. When I got close, I peeped as I walked past.

What I saw!!!

Young men, about five or six of them, probably in their twenties sweating it out with their make shift dumb bells and packed up weight bars. The sound of the metal clanging alone was enough to erase whatever pleasure the exercise routine was to bring. But what could they do, I doubt they can afford better.

Like I said, it was during working hours, so I was like, ah, are these young boys not supposed to be somewhere working and making money.

I must say at this point, this piece is not about Unemployment.

Exercise is good, so we have been told, but pseudo body building so as to join the six-pack gang is quite another. Well-toned men have always had this appeal (sex appeal if you want to be specific). But the appeal is hardly in the six-pack itself, rather on the fame and fortune of those that it. After all, barrow pushers too have well-toned muscles.

Physical fitness is part of the lifestyle or demands of certain professions; athletes, actors. Their line of work involves physical activities that exert their muscles, thereby leaving their body toned. Take for example, footballers, tracker race athletes, wrestlers, etc. Their job and training involve physical activities. Keeping fit is a job requirement for them. So it’s not like they set out to build six-pack. 

But it beats my imagination that young boys, men will spend manhours trying to tone their bodies. It’s like lighting a fire just for the smoke. Keeping fit is good, but no one spends all day doing so just for the gain of it.

Life is full of many ironies. Like I already said, we have been told that exercise is good. It’s good for the heart(body and soul), good for the bones and muscles, instrumental in weight loss, helps to boost brain functions and memory, can reduce risks of chronic diseases, plus a million other gains I’m too lazy to outline here(you see, I need exercise).

But you see, we are humans. We have evolved through many changes. During the primitive era, almost all activities of man were physically demanding. Man walked very long distances in search of food, water or safety. Almost all professions were predominately physically exerting; hunting farming, fishing, etc. Only the strong survived. Cavemen hardly needed exercising. Their everyday lives were an exercise, extremes form of it.

As we advanced, “smart” became the new strong. Mental strength took over from physical strength.  We found new ways to cut down on physical exertion. Our jobs became less physically strenuous and we welcomed innovations that saved us the stress of using our muscles. Water runs in our sinks. We drive cars. We are even about to welcome driver-less cars, so whatever stress driving brings would soon be over.
 
Over time, our strength withered, and so did our muscles. With little physical activities, our bodies burn less calories and obesity became our plague. Now, most of us try to eat less, sticking to only the “essentials”. I never won any awards in Biology, but I doubt that would be without negative effects on the long-run.

With all the knowledge we have gathered, we now know that physical exertion is good for us afterall.
  
What a laugh!!!

Sometimes, after we advance, we see that our survival partly depends on retreating. So what do we see today, call for need to exercise, as our life may depend on it. The day I heard how much gym membership costs, I almost screamed. So mankind has successfully reduced physical stress to the barest minimum, and now, we pay money and go great lengths just to inoculate stress in other so as to keep fit.

Changes cause other changes. Some blessings come with curses. Few hours at the gym, a few minutes of running or jogging, 100 push ups per day can hardly make up for a culture or lifestyle full of physical activities. Sedimentary lifestyle have been implicated in many diseases today. But we cannot throw-up our civilization because we want to stay alive.

Funny how we see manual jobs as demeaning, yet every day, we consider it smart to indulge in the basics of it; oru ike (physical exertion).