The island of Sardinia has many of the world’s longest living centurions. Typically a shepherd will walk an average of seven kilometres in hill country each day while maintaining a diet leaner than most of our city folk. So one could theorise that fitness equals a long life.
On the Island of Okinawa Kamada Nakazato (102) strides through her village like somebody thirty years younger. She has never drank a ‘Coke’ or eaten a hamburger in her life. Kamada prefers to eat simply. She eats mostly from her own kitchen garden – daikon, bitter melon, garlic, onion, peppers, tomatoes and some fish and tofu. So one could also theorise that eating simply, naturally leads to fitness and a long life. We’ve also heard it repeated that the fittest people have been best equipped to bat off COVID-19. But ‘fitness’ may mean different things to different people.
If you’re regularly jousting with MMA icon Israel Adesanya you indeed will train twice a day and give your ALL. Others might be delighted when they finally, climb the stairs at work or just ‘run to the letterbox’. Thirty seven years ago our member Jeanette Redwood (pictured) was ecstatic when she managed to achieve just that. Increased ‘fitness’ leads to numerous benefits both physically, mentally and probably spiritually.
Yet how do you tell how fit you are? Our Personal Trainers can certainly give you a personal scientific score. But quite simply, fitness is measured by the amount of time your pulse-rate takes to return to normal after your heart has been exerted. The fitter you are, the quicker your heart-rate returns to normal.
