advertisement

  • Fitness Bootcamp With Polar
    Being a strong runner is not enough to ace the Urbanathlon. This workshop with Polar will help build up your strength, agility and flexibility to get through the race unscathed. Three sessions available. Registration closes Jan 3.  

  • Beginner's Guide
    Been thinking of starting a running routine? Stop thinking about it and just run already! Here's what you need to get going.

More
Keep The Faith
Trust takes time to be earned, established and nurtured but it can disappear with one wrong decision. Our guest columnist, Faye Mui, explains why it matters so much to women and why it isn't that hard to develop.

Her Say: Your V-Day Survival Guide
Valentine's Day doesn't have to be a drag if you follow this cheat sheet on doing everything right come Feb 14 without trying too hard (or spending a fortune).

Serve To Be Served
Cooperation and collaboration are factors of a successful relationship. Our guest columnist, Faye Mui, explains why a little help for their ladies can only be a good move for the men.


   

Follow us on Twitter

Men's Health Blog
   
Slack, and You’re a Stud
Melvin Hoe
Wednesday, 27th January 2010 @ 15:58:50 PM

So “exercise” is a bad word to you. Maybe it’s the company that you keep. Maybe it’s got to do with how athletic you are naturally. Or maybe it’s just an excuse to damn well do nothing at all.

One month. Just give yourself one month apart from a bunch of regular-guy-type friends – guys who’d rather snooze than sweat – and you’ll observe that they’ve gained weight perceptibly. At this stage of the game, once you let your body go downhill, it’s a friggin’ one-way street.

These regular-guy-type friends not only don’t work out, they snigger at those who do. It’s almost as if it was un-cool or weird to be seen pounding the pavement during lunch, or heading to the gym after work. Training to pass your IPPT becomes the epitome of stupidity. Having to enroll for army remedial training turns out to be a coveted badge of honour.

Doing absolutely nothing about your physical wellbeing becomes the norm.

I’ve mentioned before, exercise is probably the best elixir for you to remain healthy, and to keep your head screwed on right. Try it – I’m talking including some physical activity every day. It doesn’t have to be a pedal-to-the-metal workout every time. A couple of sets of pushups and pull-ups work fine.

You’ll notice the changes. When I exercise regularly, I wake up automatically at 7am – fresh. My metabolic rate increases (I can eat fried carrot cake and a plate of chicken rice without the niggling feeling of putting on more flab) and best of all, it lets me know that there’s more to life than work. 

Compare this to fast food laden, TV-only nights. I greet the new morning like a zombie.

Working out – regardless whether you’re a slacker, smoker (or both) – is an indispensable part of your life. Come January 31 this Sunday, at the inaugural Men’s Health Urbanathlon, we’re going to set the record straight.


 

READER COMMENTS
(Comments may take up to 15minutes to appear)
Great observation! When I started this GavinGetsGarang thing, I even felt slightly embarrassed about the whole endeavour. And don't get me started about the naysayers. RT sucks and I never want to go through that again! I'm happy to let the slackers wallow there together in their collective delusion.

When i was being criticized for eating too much, i proved my camp mates wrong... now they are slackers and exaggeratedly complimenting me for being fit and leave most of the heavy duty work to me.

Good on the both of you :) It's not easy doing something different from the norm eh? Although heaps more people exercise these days, it's still not a "normal" thing to do – Why would you want to make yourself sweat when you could relax with a kopi in the shade? Because sweating makes me feel alive. Sedentary slackness is death to the body and mind for me.

Leave a Comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
10 + 8 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.

Copyright © 2010 SPH Magazines Pte Ltd. Co. Regn. No. 196900476M. All rights reserved.
Privacy Statement | Conditions of Access | Career | Sitemap