|
|
Why bother going for the burn? The gym fad is over
March 21, 2002
I don't wish to be harsh on Pierce Brosnan's teenage son Sean, who suffered
a nasty injury while pumping iron at his school gym. I don't wish to rub
salt into what I'm sure is a very painful wound. But come on, Sean. What did
you expect? Surely everybody in the world knows by now that the gym is bad
for you.
Scientists have been queueing for months to reject the
inane "No pain, no gain" mantra of the Eighties which battered us into
believing that sweating like a pig on a heap of twisted metal while wearing
lycra that fitted so snugly you could work out a man's religion was the way
to achieve physical perfection. No, Sean. Smart thinkers know that the
rewards of years of pumping iron and pushing their bodies to the burn can be
little more than ruptures, damaged cartilage, lifelong back pain, arthritis,
early osteoporosis and shortened life expectancy. And there is nothing big
or clever about gasping for breath in a room that smells
- literally
- of a
weightlifter's jockstrap and forces you to watch Geri Halliwell on MTV.
Someone who takes a brisk walk to the off-licence every
day stands a better chance of achieving fitness into old age than those who
run themselves ragged on treadmills for 90 minutes five times a week. Not my
words, Sean, but the words of Dr Peter Axt of the University of Fulda. Dr
Axt used to be a leading member of the German Track and Field Association
and would think nothing of running a marathon before lunchtime - until he
saw the light.
Joggers, says Axt now, are simply "measuring their own
physical decline." As he points out, the animals that manage to live the
longest, such as turtles, are the ones that conserve their energy by lying
in the sun. Exactly. Whoever spotted a crocodile on a Stairmaster?
And what about this. Professor Klaas Westerterp of
Maastricht University conducted a study which showed that intensive workouts
are less effective at burning fat than low-grade physical chores such as
changing beds and hoovering. Housework, you see, raises the heart rate over
a longer period of time. Workouts and sports amount to only 10 per cent of
the day and do not affect overall activity levels. This is fantastic news
for the slothful. Less is indeed more.
But if this doesn't convince you, if the fact that the
gym is so brain-addling it makes people believe it is attractive for a man
to be wider than he is high doesn't convince you, then listen to this. You
suffered an excruciating stomach injury while lifting weights. You got off
lightly. The most common injuries from gym overuse are to the shoulder
(tendonitis is a likely by-product), lower back and knee. Jonathan Betser, a
Harley Street osteopath, once had a client who had been lifting free weights
on a bench with his arms too wide apart. The strain tore apart his
pectoralis muscles. And that won't pull the birds.
The gym just doesn't make sense. People pay to run on
machines when there are parks outside their houses. They dread their spin
class but pay someone else to walk the dog. They hire a personal trainer but
circle the Tesco car park to find the parking space nearest the door. There
are so many less humiliating ways to achieve that six-pack. Think football,
think Pilates, think sending off for one of those £29.99 ab-cradles from the
Sunday paper so you can do sit-ups at home while watching Heartbeat.
We are a long time in the grave, Sean. Why sprint
towards it?
|
|
