Nowadays,
our world is extremely competitive and opportunities are becoming less. But
this competitiveness made people think that only studying and getting jobs are
essential in our lives. So people are not concerned about their health and thus
dangerous diseases like cancer, pneumonia, hypertension etc. are becoming
widespread.
We
need to understand that life is not all about just making money, instead it’s
also essential to manage our daily routine in order to stay physically and
mentally fit. For this, we need to start from our school children. Nowadays the
parents and the school authorities (especially private management institutions)
only encourages the students to study and they discourage the students who have
natural aptitude in sports and other extracurricular activities. Another
problem is the excess consumption of junk food by the children, which is mainly
because the parents are not at all interested in cooking food anymore. Thus,
children are just studying and only consuming junk foods like broiler chicken,
pizza, burger, soft drinks etc. with no exercise at all. As a result, unwanted
hormones start to accumulate in their body and they become fat and unhealthy.
So, at this young age itself diseases like cancer, fatty liver, diabetics etc.
are affecting them.
Instead
of just taking their children to the doctor for treatment, the parents should
also think twice about their attitude and fake concepts towards like. So, in
order to develop a healthy society, the parents should first prepare lunch for
their children and reduce the consumption of junk foods. Then they should
encourage children to participate in sports and other extracurricular
activities. The government should also make sure that the schools are engaging
their students in physical activities for at least one hour a day. Learning
martials arts in also good for maintaining flexibility and health.
While
giving physical fitness, sports and games also improves our leadership
qualities, mutual understanding and coordination. For eg: During world war, the
British encouraged their child warriors to play team games like cricket and
football for improving their leadership qualities, coordination and team work.
They believed that it would help the children to succeed in the future.
While
doing exercise we need to understand that fitness is not at all about gaining
muscles, but it’s about losing unwanted fat from our body in order to be
physically and mentally strong.
For
physical fitness, we need to concentrate more on the exercises that can easily
burn fat like running and the exercises that can strengthen the entire core of
our body like pull ups and planks. It is also important that we should exercise
weekly. Otherwise, it would lead to negative gains like body pains, cramps etc.
While doing running, you should not run at a slow speed all the time, instead
do short sprints and also run through different routes and different terrains. For
doing pullups, you need to make sure your hands would easily balance your full
body weight, for this both your hands should be equally powerful. If you are a
right hander, you should improve the strength of your left hand by taking
weights with left hand and then doing single hand pushups etc. If you are a
left hander, vice-versa, thus your body will become perfect for doing pullups.
Then do pullups by using 2 rings of a metal stand attached to a wall, while
keeping your 2 arms in V-shape. The last one, the plank is the simplest of
exercises yet very effective. For doing planks you should either touch your
palm and tip of your feet or touch your forearms and tip of your feet on the
floor, by keeping your body on a straight line. You need to improve your timings
day by day.
For
mental well-being, you need to concentrate more on meditations and yoga. For
doing this we should select early morning, especially due to the fresh air. You
should practice breathing and laughing exercises. First you need to understand
that yoga is not at all about ‘Sheershasana’, so, first you should learn simple
exercises. Then slowly go on to a little difficult exercises like ‘Varachyasana’,
‘Kukkudasana’, ‘Ardha Matsyendrasana’, ‘Bhujangasana’ etc. Then only you can
try extremely difficult exercises like ‘Sheershasana’. While doing breathing
exercises, breath in through one nostril by keeping the other one closed.
Laughing exercise is also important as it will relax our mind and improve
breathing.
For
a healthy routine,
- Have 7-8 hours of sleep.
- Get up early in the morning, around 5 AM is recommended.
- Do meditation and yoga.
- Do jogging.
- 30-45 mins’ exercise.
- Then relax for some time and take a bath.
- Only eat a light breakfast.
- Then eat only after the food is completely digested.
- At the evening, enjoy an hour of any sports like football, cricket, badminton etc.
- Then, only eat light at night.
- Sleep well and repeat.
Thus, we can
develop a physically and mentally fit society.
By
By
5 Yr LLB (2016)
GLC Thiruvananthapuram
