11
Apr

Obesity

Touch your toes and say aye
By Daniel Chandranayagam

I RECENTLY took to the outdoors for my workouts. Aside from the benefits of exercising outdoors, what surprised me pleasantly was the number of seniors exercising. At the pool, you would find older couples swimming laps. Sometimes you would find the husband teaching his wife a stroke. In the park, you would find them walking briskly, sometimes stopping to practise a little tai chi or chi kung and to chat as well.

I don’t know why but this really warms my heart. The other day, I noticed an older uncle who is super fit. He can do more chin-ups than me (which isn’t much, but still!) and I thought to myself that when I reached his age (which could be anything from 65 to 70), I would love to be as fit.

At that juncture, a group of teenagers from a private school decided to take refuge in the park. I immediately saw the juxtaposition between them and the fit uncle exercising nearby (who by then had taken off his shirt).

The uncle had defined muscle tone, good posture, was apparently fit and healthy. The teenagers were overweight (one was obese), had bad posture (slouched or had an arched lower back), were chugging on sugar-rich sodas, and I think I wouldn’t be far wrong if they could not do even one chin-up.

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