Physical fitness lessons from centenarians
by
Neville Parker |
Keep pursuing a physical activity of your choice, Neville Parker writes
Coinciding with the gruelling Tour of Oman, concluded on Sunday, was a feat of supreme human endurance, also on wheels, in distant Switzerland where a 100-year-old French cyclist rode into the sport’s record-books on Friday.
Both events, the energy-sapping six-day cycling marathon in the Sultanate and Robert Marchand’s 24.251-km ride around an indoor track inside the hour in the Swiss city of Aigle, leave us lesser mortals with powerful lessons in physical fitness.
The point here is just how much time or effort we are willing to spare in the pursuit of exercise which we know is beneficial to our health – physical and mental as well. And, if we are spending ample time at all, is there a new target that we can set for ourselves?
Three months after celebrating his 100th birthday, Marchand achieved a goal which not only indicated his high fitness level but also demonstrated his strong will to continue pushing the physical and mental barriers.
Marchand’s modesty at his accomplishment will also leave us with an important lesson – laurels don’t matter as much as the struggle for what one wants. “I’m not playing at being a champion,” he said. “I just wanted something for my 100th birthday.”
Marchand’s performance will go down in the International Cycling Union’s record-books, for which he also had to undergo a dope test. Interestingly, the amateur cyclist had participated in the Bordeaux-Paris race at the age of 90 when he finished the 600-km distance in 36 hours.
For many of us now ensconced in the daily nitty-gritty of life, cycling would of course would be a distant memory; that modest easy-to-maintain and easy-to-park bike served us so well and kept us fit during our younger days. Marchand’s feat also reminds us of Fauja Singh of Britain, another stickler for physical fitness in the age 100 category, who became the world’s oldest marathon runner after finishing a race in Canada last year.
News reports of his performance had said that he was ready to “hit the wall” at 22 miles but soldiered on for another two hours to finish in eight hours, 25 minutes and 16 seconds – in 3,850th place, ahead of five other competitors. Fauja Singh’s coach was quoted as saying: “Running has given him a new focus in life.”
News reports mentioned Fauja Singh’s recipe for a long and healthy life: “Stay stress free. Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”
Keep running, cycling or pursuing a physical activity of your choice is the message that comes across strongly when one looks at the performances of people who we might expect to be reclining in armchairs but are instead overcoming new challenges and crossing frontiers.
Physical well-being is a state of the mind; taking care of your health from an early age does not only mean living and eating right but also includes the equally important factor of exercise. For many of us, modern lifestyles may, perhaps, cut short or impede our working out, but when one considers the achievements of people over 100 years of age many of us will wonder if we have got our priorities right.
Oman Tribune |
Other comment for Neville Parker
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NEWS UPDATES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
