The Executive Health Plan: Getting started

The World's simplest exercise is one of the best you can do to start out getting fit.

Remember those days in the school gym where the bullying fitness teacher told you you were a waste of space because you couldn't do press-ups, sit-ups, climb a rope or hang from the wall-bars?

Well, he was wrong: you were not a waste of space; he was. He set you out believing that you would never achieve any sporting ambitions and - guess what - it turned out to be true, probably. That oaf, who thought that the ability to run faster than the next guy defined you, was a moron. Because what defined you was what you chose to do with your life. And what you chose to do with your life was to excel at something else. There's a reason he was a sports teacher: he couldn't get a proper job.

OK, so that's probably a bit harsh - although we all met games teachers who thought that shouting and insulting us was the way to make us work harder, not realising that we simply intellectualised him away to the point that he became no more than noise and that his yelling became completely counter-productive.

Worse, because we all proved that we didn't need his muscle-bound bigotry to be successful, we didn't bother looking after ourselves.

There are many studies about how obesity in children leads to obesity in adults and there is no doubt that they are right. But a factor which is under researched is the extent to which children become inured to the idea of being overweight as a measure of failure because they can succeed in other fields despite it.

Let's be clear: bullying by gym / sports teachers or in gym/sports classes where the bullying is not stopped by teachers can have a devastating effect on the young mind. And those scars can last for life. But sometimes, they reach a point of explosion - literally - much earlier.

In the USA, the Columbine High School massacre is alleged to have been, at least in part, a result of what the Washington Post called "cult of the athlete." The school's superior sportsmen "consistently bullied, hazed and sexually harassed their classmates while receiving preferential treatment from the school authorities.(1)"

The Washington Post's report on the bullying at Columbine were devastating:" Bullying was rampant and unchecked. For instance, a father told Post reporters about two athletes mercilessly bullying his son, a Jew, in gym class. They sang songs about Hitler, pinned the youngster to the ground, did "body twisters" on him until he was black-and- blue, and even threatened to set him on fire. The father reported the bullying to the gym teacher, but it continued. When the father took his complaint to the guidance counsellor, he said, he was told, "This stuff can happen." The outraged father had to complain to the school board to get relief for his son.

"Athletes convicted of crimes were neither suspended from games nor expelled from school. The homecoming king, a star football player, was on parole for burglary yet still permitted to play. Columbine's state wrestling champ was allowed to compete despite being on court-ordered probation, and school officials did nothing when he regularly parked his $100,000 Hummer all day in a fifteen-minute parking space.

" Sexual harassment by athletes was common and ignored. For example, when a girl complained to her teacher that a football player was making lewd comments about her breasts in class, the teacher, also a football and wrestling coach, suggested she change her seat. When an athlete loudly made similar comments at a Columbine wrestling match, the girl complained to the coach. He suggested she move to the other side of the gym. Finally, the girl complained to a woman working at a concession stand, who called police. The next day a school administrator tried to per suade the girl's mother to drop the charges, telling her that press ing them would prevent the boy from playing football. When the youngster was found guilty, he still was permitted to play." The two boys, Harris and Klebold, who committed the massacre were both witnesses to extensive bullying and victims of it. For an analysis of the case and how the results arose, see Clabaugh and others: http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Columbine.html

So, whatever the favoured sportsmen and women and the teachers that supported them or even joined in their taunting told you: you are not useless and you can do the things you want to do. You have proved that and that's why you are a Chief Officer in a corporation. But you were convinced you could not and would not be able to do exercise and so you stopped trying.

Or at least, many of us did.

And that's why, now we have so far to claw back, so few of us will go out running (if we could!), or go to the gym: we simply do not want to recreate the atmosphere where we are the object of derision and humiliation.

Just as many simply found the demands of work and home-life left no time for exercise, particularly when work-related socialising is taken into account.

So let's find a way to make ourselves better, right here, right now, and without anyone being able to make us feel small.

Exercises: Group One

The first set of exercises are based on the simple premise that muscles need to be stretched.

So, lie down in a space that lets you stretch your legs out straight and your arms straight above your head.

Stretch your legs as far as you can. Pull your feet up so your toes are pointing towards your head, keeping your heels on the floor and your knees together, your legs on the floor all the way down.

Stretch your arms as far as they will go but don't touch the floor: hold them about an inch (2cm) off the floor.

There are three groups of muscles around your middle. While you are stretching, see if you can move any of them independently. The one you are looking for at this stage is the group just below your rib cage. pull it in and up while exhaling.

Slowly, move your arms through a 180 degree arc, keeping them as straight as you can, holding for a moment when they are straight up in the air, until they are by your side. Do not touch the floor. Exhale as you move and release that stomach muscle, and relax your legs. Hold for ten seconds, then reverse the process until your legs are straight, your toes pointed up your arms straight and those tummy muscles held in. Hold for 20 seconds.

Each "repetition" takes approx 45 seconds. Do it twenty times. After a few days, you will need to add some weight to your arms: try a 1kg dumbell in each hand. But to start with you can use something much simpler: a can of drink weighs approx 350grams as do most cans of vegetables. A half-litre bottle of water weighs half a kilo.

From the third day, add in another exercise: we call it "Angel Wings" and it hurts: it's another way of getting the arms from down by the side to the above the head position. This time, slowly move the arms keeping them horizontal to the floor. Again, hold the position above the head. Why angel wings? Have you never seen a child lie in the sand and move his/her arms up and down and say "look, Mummy, I've got angel wings?"

From the fifth day, add in a third exercise: put your arms out straight to the sides and then, stretching as much as you can, lift them slowly up to the vertical position, holding them close but not touching at the top of the arc. This will pull on your back, particularly those muscles that get tired from hunching over a keyboard. Now back to those three groups of tummy muscles: when you arms are outstretched, you will be able to feel the lower of the three groups: round about the line where the top of your underpants sit. Find that muscle and pull it up. This strengthens your lower abdomen - an important part of the body for keeping stability and core strength but which is one of the first to suffer from long-term sitting at a desk.

So, do these exercises for an hour each morning and you will find you have more stamina during the day and your body will be more relaxed so you work more efficiently. Some people prefer to do them at night; others find they can't sleep because of the energy that is generated.

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(1)Bad Apples or Sour Pickles?Fundamental Attribution Error and the Columbine Massacre ©2005 Gary K. Clabaugh, Ed. D. & Alison A. Clabaugh, Ph. D. educational HORIZONS vol 83, no. 2, Winter 2005

Also see http://www.troubledwith.com/ParentingChildren/A000000526.cfm?topic=parenting%20children%3A%20low%20self-esteem