Joggers beware: don't get carried away

ALL avid viewers of the sports and health channels will agree that regular exercise goes hand in hand with healthy living. It's certainly been hailed as the nation's obesity cure, and even as the magic pill for depression.

Maybe you idolise All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and daydream about training your own flaccid muscles to fame, glory and movie-star tone.

But before you embark on this life-altering journey, be aware that there are sides to exercise that are less widely publicised - as this story will tell.

This story is set on the grey suburban footpaths laid over innumerable striving blades of grass. Our heroine might be someone you know - a prefect, on the school netball team, or the girl next door. Let's dub her Addi.

Addi's dilemma consists of trying to both fit in and stand out at school, work and in her all-important teen social life.

Lately, however, a growing problem threatens to upset this precarious balance - namely, her weight. How long has she cowered in the accusatory glare of boutique mirrors? Never again. Today, she will undo the sutras that bind her bathroom scales and face its malicious whispers.

Addi wades through an entangled web of Google adverts. She scoffs at the horror stories of anorexia nervosa, bulimia and the dreaded after-effects of weight-loss pills. Exercise, however, looks promising. For a couple of hours of honest hard work a week, she can shed kilos and still feel free to snack.

Better yet, she wouldn't even need to spend much money. All she has to do is put on a comfy pair of shoes and join the bandwagon of joggers charging past her door every morning.

Three days a week, Addi pounds the pavement. She relishes the burning in legs and lungs as a sign that all the repulsive fat is melting away. Within a few determined weeks, she is rewarded by a new definition in her muscles.

Inspired, she ups her regime to five, then six days. Before long, she stops taking breaks, regardless of thunder and gales. Her friends become concerned as she rages at weather reports, but soon she recedes to the back of their minds into the category of "people too busy to hang out anymore".

Her parents suggest signing her up at a gym, but that would take away her control of her routine and might not work her hard enough.

To release stress, she indulges in chips and bakery food, convincing herself that they'll do something for "muscle maintenance". In fact, by the time she leaves college, Addi could be eligible to sign up as a sumo wrestler - unless she collapses from chronic fatigue syndrome first.


We often only associate serious injury with serious sportspeople. Take McCaw, for example, whose recent foot injury was in the headlines, dismaying eager Rugby World Cup fans nationwide. However, 12 per cent of casual exercisers are injured each year playing sport. Nearly twice as many injuries occur in individual training than in all contact sports combined. Casualties range from torn ligaments to concussion to fatal heart attacks.

While it's true that our savannah-dwelling ancestors lived running, their legs supported lean bodies on soft earth for a lifespan of 40 years. Twenty years into the future, chances are Addi wouldn't exactly resemble that magazine cover of fitness she's strived so hard for. Instead, a lifetime of diligently keeping off the grass will wear her leg joints down to shapeless nobs, and give her a long wait on the doctor's knee replacement list.

Meanwhile, careless snacking will put her on track to diabetes. And if only she'd invested in proper running shoes and a sports bra. Then, at least, her boobs wouldn't be sagging over engorged pectorals.

She may blame her grouchiness on endorphin withdrawal, but the real culprits are her aching muscles. Her heart will not thank her for the painkillers and other pills she pops. Well, she is approaching 40. How much fitter can she expect to be, at her age?

Contrary to reality TV, grindingly painful physical activity does not eliminate necessities such as healthy food or sleep. Don't let tunnel vision obscure your happiness. Let exercise enhance your life, not disable it.

Juntao Chen, Year 13, Macleans College