Unusual Phone Call Promoting Fat & No Exercise!

Private number came up on my phone and I thought OK I'll see who it is. Most private numbers are people trying to sell me advertising.!

It was a woman whose writing a new book and wanted a quick chat.

I didn't really have time to but thought I would help her out.

She basically said in her opinion and her research that exercise not only loses weight but also breaks down all parts of body composition and that it can actually be bad and cause death.

It's true that their is a condition called sudden death syndrome but that occurs for 1/1 million people that exercise (which is pretty damn low).

I said that it's better to exercise sensibly which the government and all the other health specialists also recommend as it decreases the chance of illness, improves lifestyle and helps people to live longer.

She gave an example of a cheetah chasing it's prey at full speed and if it doesn't succeed it gives up and rests and waits for the next opportunity.

I gave examples of other animals for example wolves that chase there preys at nearly full speed for hours if not days on end until their prey is too fatigued to run any further. But she didn't take that as a valid point.

She said that exercise takes glucose from the brain which is the largest and most important organ.

I said that exercise strengthens brain skills, concentration, helps people to sleep well and helps stop mental illness.

She said that it's been shown that larger, fatter people are actually healthier than people who exercise regularly. (I don't know where she's getting all this 'new' data from!)

I said if people didn't exercise they wouldn't be able to get out bed, walk up stairs, walk to walk or drive their cars etc.

She said that if people were designed to be light and skinny then God would have designed us that way.

I said that we were designed like that and in the old days obesity was very very rare, whereas now it is more prevalent and that is a clear sign that modern day fast food and lack of exercise is increasing obesity which costs the NHS billions of pounds.

In the old days people used to farm, hunter gather, fish, climb mountains to find new pastures, walk to school, work in mines all physically demanding.

This went on until I couldn't waste anymore time and the conversation came to a quiet end.

That's the last time I'll be answering a private number when it's my lunchtime!

Are You Pushing Yourself Hard Enough?

In the Royal Marines the final commando test is the infamous 30 miler across Dartmoor.

Wearing basic boots, webbing, rucksack and carrying a rifle totalling 45lbs in weight - recruits have to go up and down hills, cross streams, swamps and moors in under 8 hours to earn their coveted green beret.

Blisters! Because it's such hard terrain carrying over 3 stones on your back it's the equivalent to running two normal flat marathons back to back.

Throughout the 32 weeks of the longest and hardest infantry training in the world the furthest that any recruit will run is 12 miles.

The rest is made up of 40 minute intense circuit training sessions that work the whole body and increase your VO2 max / endurance and also some fast short runs (1.5 miles flat out).

It sounds far fetched but it's a tried and tested winning formula designed by sport professors at Loughborough University.

So that goes to show that you don't need to spend hours and hours long slow boring jogging on the roads to increase your fitness, if you work hard and push yourself really hard every now and again at boot camp then that will do the job too!