At Byron Bay this morning while preparing my sea kayak for an ocean paddle, I encountered joggers of all shapes and sizes.  Although I was delighted to see people caring about their personal fitness, I could not help but notice the one thing many of them had in common, was strain. Since the body tells the truth, even when the mind says othewise, I pondered the benefits of such training when their body language indicated much strain - perhaps a more relaxed approach might be healthier.

I had witnessed that same exercise stress in Brisbane last year, when I lived for six months in the middle of city’s exercise mecca, the South Bank of the Brisbane river. Every day I noticed that many of the hundreds of passing joggers, walkers or bike riders looked miserable - the strain lines etched deep upon their faces. In contrast I thought of the serene faces of elderly Chinese as they practised their Chi Gong or other forms of moving Chi - our life energy.

Like many sports enthusiasts I’ve made the same mistake and pushed too hard - all to my body’s detriment.  At a PE teachers reunion, many years ago, (we were all about 40 years old) the majority of us had incurred one or more sports induced operations - knee replacements were common. I thought of my two grandmothers, both of whom did little vigorous exercise - one lived to 99 and the other died from injury at 85 years old - neither needed surgery to mend self inflicted trauma injuries. 

While training to become a yoga teacher in 2002 I became aware of a hidden statistic - significant numbers of yoga teachers and students injured themselves doing yoga. The common injury sites were knees, sacrums and necks. All the injuries could have been avoided with a gentler approach.

Which begs the question - is a gentle and balanced fitness program healthier for us in the long run? Must we do hundreds of crunches in order to show off our six packs or twelve packs? My grandmothers never did one in their lives - they had low rates of cancer as well. Is their any connection? Why are fit people getting cancer? My partner Grace has worked with cancer patients for 30 years and sees cancer increasingly attacking joggers, meditators, vegetarians, and so on. Her conclusions indicate stress and responses to stress as one of the main causal factors.

So why stress over getting fit - take it easy - relax and it will be ok. As an ex PE teacher I’m delighted to see more people developing awareness about fitness and diet; however I am concerned that many of the fitness programs adopted are extreme and imbalanced.

As with most things the middle path makes the most sense and gives the best results.