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Innocent Fundai Choga Wellness Through Exercise
My passion for exercising and sport started when I was still at kindergarten. The passion has escalated to higher heights despite the fact that I am 50 years old, no longer a competitive athlete and have not been in the gym for five years.
This time there is a new dimension added to this passion; and that is Physical Education. I have discovered that Physical Education aligns theory to my practical experience. I thought I knew it all until I met a lot of interesting and dedicated experts in this field. If only I knew then what I know now, I would have been a much better athlete. I have heard the authorities intend to include Physical Education in schools’ curriculum and I think it is commendable.
During our primary school days we did Physical Training and Sports. While Physical Training involves physical exercise drills, Physical Education imparts physical knowledge to all students, whether they are athletic or not.
Physical Education is taught indiscriminately to able-bodied and physically challenged students.
This subject includes the impact of exercise on the body organs as well as normal functions of the body organs. Physical Education will help athletes improve their performance. Optimum performance will result due to increased knowledge about body movement.
Physical training system, a predecessor of the current physical education system, was introduced to British schools after the Crimean war (1853-1856) and it was subsequently passed on to British colonies’ schools later on.
During the war, the British soldiers were found wanting in terms of fitness and the ultimate intention was to correct the perceived Crimean War ill-preparedness situation and produce fit students to be conscripted into the army and police force.
Children exercised and played sport on the basis that it was good for them physically and mentally without knowing exactly how.
Physical Education on the other hand explains how exercise and sport benefits them.
Physical Education stimulates minds and creates a desire to exercise and play sport, which helps to prevent diseases, or condition one to live with diseases and illnesses.
Some of the children will become soldiers and policemen, who will need to keep fit well after the pass out parade.
Business people will also need to maintain good health in order to stay on top of the situation and manage stress, so do the professionals.
Workers will also need to be fit and to avoid absenteeism and presenteesm (a situation where a worker is present at work but not feeling well, not contributing to the best of their ability and could even be spreading diseases).
I started exercising at an early age and although I occasionally take time off, I always get back into exercise. Because I started early, exercise has become second nature and because of the strict diets I endured as a competitive body-builder, sticking to a strict diet is so easy for me.
It has been proven that children who start exercising and playing sport at an early age are most likely to continue doing so in their adulthood. Muscle memory makes it easy for former athletes to get back into exercise, though not with the same intensity because of age and other reasons.
Please note that I am not encouraging parents to put children on a diet. Research has shown that it is not only unhealthy, but also dangerous to put children on a diet. I will discuss the issue in a future article.
But I have observed that there are lots of children in our schools who are overweight. Some of them have notable growth hormone abnormalities. They just play sport with other children at school, as a requirement, but there are no tactfully designed programmes to deal specifically with these children’s problems.
By making physical education an integral part of the school curriculum the authorities are making a good move; since Physical Education resulting in fitness lifestyles is relevant in this information age, which, compounded by the effects of labour-saving gadgets, is making some of our children less mobile than they should be.
Physical Educators will rise from their perceived low status of second class teachers and receive due recognition as teachers of an emerging new class of professionals, that is, the students who will study the subject further at university level to become Exercise Physiologists, who will work in conjunction with Medical Practitioners.
They will work to improve the lives of people, by way of post rehabilitation fitness schedules. These will design exercise programs to suit various peoples’ needs whilst striving to eliminate chances of aggravating injuries and other conditions. In this era athletes are very competitive and they need to engage all tricks in the book to improve their performance to the nth degree.
They need to improve their reaction or performing times by fractions of a second. It is no longer enough to just tell these smart kids that exercise and sport is good for their health, but there is need to teach them how.
This will ensure that children will make informed decisions concerning their physical, mental and social well-being.
They will learn of how wonderful and complex God made us and how fragile we are, we have to handle ourselves with care.
Online Reporter