Section 1: Assessing Physical Damage And Accepting the Importance of Exercise (Part 1)

Brad King and Dr. Michael Schmidt in “Bio Age, Ten Steps to a Younger You” (Macmillan, Canada, 2001) have devised a questionnaire for assessing physical damage to a body as a result of no exercise. We will borrow some of their guidelines, which we will summarize here:

Start with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these answers apply to you?

1. Am I overweight, looking like an apple or pear?
2. Do I have a spare tire around my waist?
3. Has my skin become excessively dry, almost paper-thin?

Next, ask: “How do I feel?”

1. Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exertion?
2. Am I constantly worried and anxious?
3. Do I feel tired and sluggish most of the time?
4. Do I suffer from mood swings?

Last question, “How am I doing?”

1. Are simple walking and climbing stairs difficult?
2. Do I have problems concentrating?
3. Is running impossible for me now?
4. Am I unable to sit straight, preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?

You’ve completed your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness gurus will have their own parameters or indices for assessing your body’s overall state and one isn’t better than the other.

As long as they include all dimensions of the self – physical, psychological and mental – they are as valid as the next person’s assessment charts.

Section 1: Assessing Physical Damage And Accepting the Importance of Exercise (Part 1)

Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals acquire a sports car that boasts of the best automotive engineering available today, watch them read the maintenance manuals religiously.

They take their car for inspection even if it purrs like a kitten and take it for repairs as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very concerned.

That car is their most prized possession, a symbol of all the long and hard hours they put on the job so they could finally acquire it. It cost an arm and a leg, so taking care of it is logically, their # 1 priority.

But how important is the person that drives that car? Shouldn’t that person – shouldn’t you – be the #1 priority?