Suvadin, Home
 (This article was printed and reprinted in many papers including The Rising Nepal (1989) and The Kathmandu Post (Sep. 25, 1994); TU had translated this article into Nepali to be distributed. Also Abriti, a Nepali Science Digest had printed its Nepali version “स्वास्थको लागि दौडको समिकरण” (March, 1995)

Do you know that incorporating exercise and fitness with your diet plan can boost your weight loss and help you brcome fit faster??
  
Our fancy often turns to dreams of past glories, to those years when our bodies did our will.The morning air, the bright sun, the green trees recall days when only darkness could end our play. And we wonder if we could ever be that way again. The answer, of course, is yes. We can walk or jog or run our way back to those days, those joys, that level of fitness. All we need to know is the fitness equation, the answer to the question: How fast? How far? and How often?
 
How Fast?
 
Few people knowhow fast to train. Most assume they must punish themselves to become fit. Theythink that becoming an athlete is hard work. It just isn’t so. Fitness must befun. The rule is “Train, but don’t strain”. So the pace forfitness should be comfortable and enjoyable. Efforts should be the measure, notspeed, and your body should tell you your proper pace, not the stopwatch.
 
This seemingly unscientific idea has solid scientific basis in the theory of perceived exertion. Proposed by Gunnar Borg in 1960, it states that the effort perceived by the body is almost identical to that recorded by machine.Borg discovered that body perception is, in fact, superior to any single physiological determination.
 
The Borg scalestarts at six (very, very light) and ends at 20 (very, very hard). Adding azero to the rating gives the usual pulse rate at that level of activity. Thewalker, jogger, or runner, therefore aims at the mid-range between light andhard, the area we perceive as comfortable. This is the pace at which we couldhold a conversation with a companion known as Bowerman’s talk test.
 
Now, you might say that you could n’t run across the room without being short of breath. Then don’t; begin by walking and then work up to scout pace. Finally you will be able to jog continually, in comfort. You will be able to put yourself on “automatic pilot” and enjoy your thought and the countryside.
 
Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant. Hear what your muscle and heart and lunges are telling you. Above all, get in union with your body. Do not push.
 
Once you have begun this way, success is assured. There is no need to rush, no need to hurry, nor is there any need to worry. When you run at a comfortable pace, you are well within your physical limits. Find the comfortable pace and enjoy it. Fitness is bound to follow.
 
How Far?
 
Again we must consult the body. The jogger, be it his first day or the 20th year,is concerned with minutes, not miles, time not distance. The goal is to work up to 30 minutes at comfortable pace. The rule is to run at that comfortable pace to a point this side of fatigue. Do not bother with distance. It is effort and time that do those good things to our bodies. This equation frees us from the tyranny of speed and distance. There is no need then to count laps or measure miles, no need for the stopwatch and the agonized groans that go with it. Simply dial the body to comfortable and go on automatic pilot. Then continue to fatigue or 30 minutes, whichever comes first.
 
It is even better not to reach fatigue, but instead to come to the home still eager to do more, ready to resume on that note the next time out. Our aim, I said, is 30 minutes. In the beginning, five minutes may be all you can handle. But quite soon, sooner in fact, than you expect, you will be able to run continuously for 30 minutes.
 
That 30 minutes is as far as we need to go. It is the endpoint for fitness. That 30 minutes will get us fit and put us in the 95 percentile for cardiopulmonary endurance. At 12 calories per minute, it will eventually bring our weight down to desired levels. It also will slow the pulse and drop the blood pressure. It can change our body and can bring happiness in life. To achieve fitness, there is no need to do more than 30 minutes at comfortable pace. Past that you must proceed with caution.
 
How Often?
 
How often must we run this 30 minutes at a comfortable pace? The answer the exercise physiologist gives us is four times a week, a figure they have arrived at by testing innumerable individuals of both sexes at all ages. A four times a week schedule, they assure us, will make us fit and keep us that way.
 
Looked at another way this is just two hours of exercise a week. Need it be done not more that one day apart, as it is usually prescribed? Could we do all our exercise on one day and then rest the other six? Or would it be okay to run an hour every third day and thereby satisfy the requirements.
 
The experts, as expected, are divided on this division. They have not adequately explored the subject of de-training. They do not know how soon we lose the benefits of a prolonged bout of exertion. But this is not a real problem in the minimum program for fitness. Almost everyone can handle an easy 30 minutes four times a week; but we are not minimizer, we are maximizer, and our difficulties are with doing too much rather than too little. The jogger/runner frequently gets caught up. He finds that running must be done daily and longer and longer. The question then becomes not how much is enough but how much is too much. The problem becomes not fitness but exhaustion.
 
Such physical exhaustion however, is usually preceded by an elevated pulse in the morning.When there is 6-10 beat above your usual basis pulse, you should know that you have once more over-trained. You need a nap instead of workout.
 
So you see, it is your body that is the ultimate arbiter in your fitness program. The body tells you how fast. Dial to “comfortable” and run at the pace which permits you to talk to a companion. The body tells you how long.Run just this side of fatigue. And the body tells you how often. Feel zest. Note any change in your morning pulse.
 
Follow these rules. Then somewhere between the minimum suggested and the maximum you can handle you will find the fitness beyond muscle, we need to live the good life.

First Historic Mr.Kathmandu  (2030) Raghu R. Onta is a veteran of Health and Fitness sector in Nepal. He specializes in a holistic approach to body transformation, nutrition programs and personal training.
 
He had trained and sponsored famous sports figure like Baikuntha Manandhar, Gold in three successive SAF Games, with Still standing SAF Record of 2h.15min., Mukunda Hari Shrestha, Arjun Pandit, (all Marathon International runner), Suresh Pandey, Nation record holder in 100m, sprint, Shiva Lal Shrestha, First historic Mr. Nepal, Nilkuntha Manandhar three times Mr. Nepal, Jagadish Pradhan Silver medal winner in three SAF games wt.lifting championship.
 
7 times National Sprint Champion and Olympian Mr. Onta has been awarded International Olympic Committee Special Award and certificate for the development of sports in Nepal. He had started Road Running and Mass Fitness Program in 1978 and had introduced Coaching system in different sports discipline in Nepal Army and Nepal Police Force.


 

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