IN Africa in general and Zambia in particular there is a fundamental problem with exercise.
Firstly ,historically there was no distinction between work and exercise, because the type of physical work done in the course of the day provided both food on the table and sufficient exercise for good health.
With the rapid taking on of more sedentary western type white collar jobs by many, this is no longer the case.
Secondly, because of this history, in many Zambian languages the word exercise does not exist as such.
In ci-Bemba for example the closest version is “ukutulukusha kwa mubili” which literally translated is “working the body”.
When for example in my early teen years in the 1980s, I began to admire body builders and made my own makeshift weights to build a well sculptured body; my dad , a man of his time, gave me a hoe and pointed me to the back yard garden.
Exercise in contrast has become a big thing in western countries, to such an extent that every television channel has an early morning workout session.
This has come about as push back from an increase in diseases of life style from too sedentary a life style and fast foods.
With this swing, many Africa countries have also been bitten by the exercise bug there are now many upcoming gymnasium, restoration of the sports teachers in schools and so on.
They remain a residual resistance particularly among people of my age.
Recently one Public University declared Friday afternoon as a student and staff exercise day.
Many of the older staff was sceptical, arguing that this would reduce productivity. Many institutions pay for workers to go to the gym in their own time, after work or Saturdays and Sundays.
Few will give it such a priority as to put it on company time. For me this was a first.
If you are like me you probably feel a little guilty whenever you see someone else exercising. You get that feeling like here, is someone, who is really putting their money where their mouth is.
So maybe to nudge those of us who are always procrastinating about exercise I’ll answer a few questions about health and exercise;
1. How important is exercise to good health?
2. What are the best types of exercises for good health?
3. How can I begin to exercise more?
1. How important is exercise to good health?
I thought that I was a pretty fit person, until I started working at a hospital which had seven floors.
My office was on the sixth floor and every so often the lifts would decide not to work.
On those occasions by the time I reached my office, I would be out of breath. So I decided to become more regular with my exercise routine.
The lack of exercise has been identified by the World Health Organisation as the 4th leading risk factor for illness and death. Up to six per cent of deaths are related to lack of exercise.
Physical inactivity or lack of exercise has been associated with breast and colon cancer (up to 25 per cent), Sugar Disease (Diabetes up to 27 per cent), and Heart Disease (up to 30 per cent).
Exercise improves brain function, improves the body’s ability to defend itself against disease, prevents excessive accumulation of fat and helps to minimise stress.
Exercises also improve psychological well being or mental health. This prevents illnesses like depression, suicide and other mental disorders. In addition exercise improves sexual and reproductive health.
In children between the ages of 5 and 17 it is recommended that they should have at least 60 minutes of vigorous to modest exercise every day. In general only 25 per cent of children meet this recommendation.
For adults between 18 and 64 year a daily exercise routine of at least 20 minutes daily is recommended. In general only 20 per cent of adults are meeting these recommended levels of exercise.
In Zambia a health Survey was conducted in schools countrywide looking at various health factors among school going children, including exercise.
This survey evaluated up to 2,300 students from Grade seven to 10 in all nine provinces in Zambia. The study found that up to one third of school going children spend 3 or more hours watching TV and only 10 per cent  exercised daily for more than a hour.
In short we have a problem with a very low level of exercises in Zambia, possibly to much television and too much fast food.
What are the best types of exercises for good health?
In about 2005, I started running every morning. By 2007 I had stopped, because I was developing a limp and a bad knee.
So I decided to explore the area of exercise. The question in my mind was what is the best type of exercises to do in order to be healthy.
Many people begin to exercise primarily as a way to lose weight. Many become disappointed after doing it for a couple of years, because it is quite difficult to lose weight by exercise alone. In fact some types of exercise like power exercises will gain you a couple of kilograms. There are 3 key types of exercises and you need to do a combination of five to really be healthy
1. Aerobic or Endurance exercises– these are some of the most common type of exercises.
They are regular low to medium intensity exercise; examples are using the treadmill in a gym, large group dance type exercises, swimming and rapid walking. These exercises use oxygen to generate energy.
Their basic fuel is sugar or glucose. The pulse rate will usually be below 100 beats per minute, this allows the body to spread enough oxygen to the body to allow the muscles to contract or work, in the presence of enough oxygen.
The main benefit is that these improve the way the heart and lungs work. Some books will call them cardio or cardio respiratory exercises for this reason. In other works they are exercises to strengthen the heart and lungs. Therefore they improve the overall performance of the heart and lung. Somebody who does these types of exercise frequently is less likely to suffer from heart or lung diseases.
2. Anaerobic or Power exercises– these are probably less popular.
They are resistance or power exercises.
Most people do these exercises with weights, either free weights or resistance training machines.
These exercises focus on the big muscles of the body. the chest the arms, thighs and so on.
The exercises are done in rapid cycles of 10 to 15 turns. The body does not have enough time to get the oxygen required to produce energy for the muscle contraction from the body’s sugar stores.
So the body uses other source of energy such as fat or burns glucose incompletely. The result is the production of acid in the muscles (in particular lactic acidosis).
This is the reason that during these exercises cramps and pains is felt in the muscles. So if you get cramps you are most likely doing anaerobic exercises.
These forms of exercise also burn fat and therefore reduce fat under the skin. These exercises are beneficial in producing myokines, which are muscle chemicals that help with repair of body tissues, they help keep sugar level low and keep other body damaging chemicals down.
Some proportion of a daily exercise routine should include some power exercises. If you want to build and shape these are the exercises you want to focus on. However they only give you healthy muscles, to get a healthy heart and lung you still need to do some anaerobic exercises.
3. Flexibility or stretch exercises– these focus on stretching muscles and tendons. They are usually good warm up exercise.
They warm up the muscle to prepare the body for exercise; this reduces the risk of muscle injury. However their greatest value to the body is that they help it, to produce stretch fibres.
One of the reason professional athletes age so slowly is because of the abundance of the stretch fibres. It is the lack of the stretch fibres (collagen) in the body that lead to features of ageing such as wrinkles, stiffness of joints and limping.
These exercises are usually used at the beginning and the end of an exercise routine.
They warm up the muscle and cool them down. If you go straight into an exercise routine without warming up the muscle you are at risk of muscle injury.
The typical scenario is the example of a Grandad who joins in a football match with a couple of young grandchildren, and cannot wake up the following working.
Or old Madalas football match over the weekend that results in most of the middle and top management staff failing to come into work on monday morning. These types of exercises are part of dance routines such as ballet dance which is a popular type of dance. Make sure that a proportion of your work out includes stretch exercises; they will keep you young and your skin supple.
How can I begin to exercise more?
Most people are convinced of the health value of exercise, but many feel they have either no resource or no time to exercise. In fact both these excuse are a form of self appeasement.
None of the exercises actually require belonging to a gym or any special equipment. They also do not require allocation of special additional time. Of course if one can use a gym or build their own gym at home all the better, but it is not essential.
The question is also often asked, how do I start? The last time I did any exercises was, when I was in school. Well the simplest place to start is at home in your own bed room, one easy way to do it is to allocate 15 minutes a day to exercise.
Once you get into the routine you can increase to the level recommended for your age. Begin by doing simple stretching exercises, either before going to bed or first thing when you wake up.
Do the stretches for five minutes. The simplest is to try and touch your toes, as you do this more and more you will find more and more varieties of stretches. Start and end with stretch exercises.
The simplest endurance or aerobic exercises are trotting on one spot, or walking rapidly around your house.
Try and keep your pulse rate just below 100 beats per minute. If you have a pulse monitor you can use it, or you can measure your pulse between exercises.
You simply need a watch and the ability to feel you wrist and count the beats by placing your finger over the outer part of the wrist with your palm open. Do these exercises for another five minutes.
Then in the last five minutes you can then do the power or muscle strengthening exercises. The easiest power exercises are push ups.
This is where you push up your own weight.
Many women are reluctant to do power exercises, because they are afraid to begin to look masculine, however you will only begin to look masculine if your weight training involves the lifting of heavy weights.
Once you have begun and are regular you will be able to vary your exercise routine more and more. You are likely to begin to invest a little more in your exercise routine to improve its quality.
However what is important is to start with what you have which is just your body? You will be surprised and impressed at the impact it will have not only on your health, but your appearance and your mood.
The more physically fit you are the better your mental performance becomes as well. Get yourself hocked to exercise; once you do you will never be able to stop.
Conclusion
The change of life style in Zambia has lead to a decline in physical exercise. The adoption of a European life style has meant that many of us do less than the minimum recommended level of exercise for good health.
When we exercise the body produce chemicals that help keep the body young, reduces unhealth chemicals in the body and keep the sugar levels low.
In the end all our body organs are healthy. Less than 25 per cent reach the daily recommended exercise levels.
Most of our children spend more time watching television, than exercising.
We will all be healthier, live long and look younger if we began to exercise at least for 15 minutes every day.
We do not need complicated equipment to do this.
A simple routine that consists of at least three varieties of exercises which include stretching, brisk walk (endurance) and push ups (power exercise) will give us a good healthy body.
Lets us all add a routine 15 minute exercise to our daily programme today.