Twin objective of exercise- building body and mental muscles

By Aswathy Visweswaran**

Early morning scene in cities- stadiums, parks, and roads are all alive much before the rising sun. You will find young men, women, old men and women either walking, jogging or do stretching excercises. If you quiz them you could get some common reasons why they have all hit the road early in the morning:

-High Cholesterol
- Blood pressure
-Blood sugar
-Over Weight (Body Mass Index -BMI over 26)
-Belly fat, thigh fat
-Knee Pain, back pain

Still others rush to the nearest gym – do cycling, treadmill, bench press, take the dumb bells, take weights and so on. Their intention most probably could be to build muscles and keep fit.

Why do Excercise?

It is a fact that with more mechanization, computerization many of us are glued to some computerized device, forced to sit for more hours and leading a sedentary life even at home. Not to forget the high fat, high cholesterol, high protein diets, oil foods that clog your arteries or high fat deposits on your tummy. No wonder many succumb to first minor heart attack before 40's. Without exercise you are likely to be unhealthy and witness some of the symptoms given above.

Contrary to popular perception exercise is not only for building body muscles but also mental muscles. According to Chris Paley, author of Unthink (Coronet, UK ,2014). exercise is also beneficial for self –restraint. It helps in dealing with distractions, less TV watching, willingness to wash dishes at home and so on.

Is Exercise alone enough?

If you do one hour of exercise and increase your food intake especially sugar, oily foods, and fat, whatever gains made are quickly offset.  Health and fitness requires moderate exercise and balanced diet as opposed to dieting or starving. Balanced diet- is a mix of vitamins, proteins, minerals, fat,anti-oxidants …

There are others who are lazy and try out quick slim formulas sold either as capsules, powders or compounds from over the counter (OTC) in medical shops and super markets.  They are marketed as herbal, ayurvedic or natural products, whatever it means.

The harm created by dieting need not be over stressed- it leads to deprivation of essential nutrients in the body, lack of oxygen flow to cells, and overall weakness. Their role models are the the ones who appear on TV, banner ads in newspapers and magazines.

NB: If you are excercising or doing regular workouts, it is better to get the advice of dietician or nutritionists on what to eat before and after the workout.

#Advantages of Exercise
- lowers heart rate
-lower blood pressure
- lowers probability of cancer in women (endometrial cancer, liver cancer, ovarian cancer,bladder cancer, blood cancer)

-improves physical and mental alertness
-helps in weight management
-helps in toning of muscles.

The popularity of Dance-Fitness
Many people get lazy with morning walks and jogging after a few weeks or months, gets disappointed with workouts in the gym, still others who shell out INR 15000 to 25000 to have exercise machines or treadmills at home, only to give up after the initial enthusiasm is over. In many homes, they become the favourite hanging place for your Tees, vests and briefs in bedroom and balacony!

It’s when many people give dance –fitness a try. Zumba has emerged as one of the top favourites as it appeals to all age groups from Kids to old age – Kids Zumba (7-11), Jr Kids Zumba (5-7), Zumba (18-50), Zumba Gold (50 years and above), Zumba Toning (to keep muscles in shape), Aqua Zumba. Zumba is a Latin American dance-fitness program that integrates the best of dance forms Salsa, Cumbia, Regaetton, Merengue accompanied by entertaining global music. Beto Perez is the creator of Zumba Fitness formula that keeps your mind, body agile and brings an amazing change in your lifestyles. Zumba burns upto 800 calories an hour. Aerobics continues to appeal to all age groups due to its scientific methods and music based workouts.

Wishing you all success in health, wellness efforts!

(NB: Those having heart, asthma, ortho or other medical problems needs to first consult a doctor before joining for any fitness program).

(Aswathy Visweswaran is a pharmacist turned Zumba Fitness instructor well-versed in diet and nutrition. She is the co-founder of Beats 'n' Steps, a dance fitness studio in Kalamassery, Kochi and mother of two children). For any suggestions and queries- write to beatsnsteps@gmail.com or call Prasanth-9895611537)

**(Edited by Sreekumar Raghavan)

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India's professional education: Are we Engineering a disaster?

My son now in 10th Std went for a foundation course for IIT-JEE while he was in 8th Std but gave it up after a year.

Many of his friends must be continuing it possibly on parental pressure. India has the largest workforce of engineers thanks to the proliferation of engineering colleges.

I met Arun, a Professor of Engineering while on my way to Chennai last week. He said Tamilnadu has about 500 or more engineering colleges of which only 100 may be of good quality.

When companies do recruitment of fresh engineering grads, they find only one-fifth of them are employable- the rest may not make it to their dream job and end up as clerks or in lowly paid jobs. The system of ranking of colleges by universities themselves has resulted in students and managements focussed on academic merits and not on practical knowledge or innovation, he said.

The IT boom, Y2K, offshore software development all led to a huge requirement of technical talent but now there seems to be an oversupply. This is the effect of Cobweb Theorem at work. Now upto 80,000 seats go vacant in Tamilnadu every year as neighbouring Kerala has also started self-financing colleges.

According to Cobweb theorem in economics, some industries such as education, plantation will attract more investors or participants based on current demand. But as more people start entering the industry, in course of time there will be oversupply or the industry prospects itself may diminish due to various factors. A new potential industry may have evolved by that time, but the pass-outs are not equipped for such a scenario.

Hence there is no reason why people should still run after engineering seats. It was heartening to meet Mr Vijayan Menon today morning on our return trip from Chennai, who has let his daughter to take a break after plus 2, do English orientation programmes and then decide future course of action next year. The other day we met Sucheta Pal, a leading Zumba fitness trainer in Chennai who quit a well-paid job at TCS to pursue her heart's passion- dance and fitness. The fact that her electrical and electronics engineering degree has gone waste or that her initial work in the engineering industry has gone waste did not deter her from plunging into a totally new career.

One of may old friends at college, who has now become an entrepreneur after doing his engineering degree asked me "why you also want your son to join the  engineering bandwagon?"  Surely, the engineers themselves are feeling engineering as a discipline is losing charm.

Earlier we had the screw driver technology- India colloborated with leading Japan, Korean, US firms to get technology and bring semi-knocked down (SKD) or completely knocked down (CKD) kits, assemble them and sell in their own brand.But now manufactures are getting the entire fabrication done in China which is the manufacturing hub of the world.

So why have such a huge engineering work force unless we are investing heavily in R&D that can be patented and sold abroad?. Arun said the sad part is that entrepreneurship is not promoted in the country. The techies who have bright ideas end up plodding all their lives in companies run by lesser educated people who can't understand the importance of technology.

He said there are lot of opportunities in the media industry which now lacks talent but awareness on this is lacking. Or in e-commerce and services sectors that requires a little of entrepreneurship and risk taking abilities.

That's why the title to this blog: Are we engineering a disaster? I remember people like Abdul Kalam and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who have campaigned for more funds for basic scientific research and more courses in basic science which is the need of the hour for India.

Tailpiece: In India, it is not uncommon for children to be forced into certain courses much to their dislike. My wife who had a passion for dance and home science ended up doing pharmacy but has now found her passion in Zumba and has become a qualified  instructor. Shouldn't we leave our children alone to pursue their passions or should we force something that appears to have good job potential?

Zumba: The zest for health, beauty and happiness!

Haven't you heard the popular quote: If wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost, if character is lost everything is lost. All round the world you find people running after wealth ignoring the the other two vital things and end up in a miserable state by middle age-- a rotund figure,bulging stomachs, weak muscles and skin texture. To compound it all you have several negative things popping up on your vital medical tests- cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides and it is the begining of all traumas that are going to affect them for the rest of their life.

Then people start trying out several things- dieting, exercise, hitting the gym, doing aerobics, or simply taking push-ups and dumb bells at home. These no doubt burn calories but may not be adding to your fitness. Unscientific dieting techniques can create several health and nutrition problems, add to stress and ultimately lead to more fat in your body.

Here comes Zumba!
Zumba, zumba, zumba, zumba,zumba, zumba, zumba ye, zumba aaaa....if this fast number you can see in YouTube makes you hit the floor and swing, then zumba is really for you. It combines aerobics, free style dance, rhythmic body movements, and no pressure to conform to any set basic rules. Dance, apart from being an artform is also useful for right-brain left brain co-ordination and attaining symmetry. Aerobics has already been proven to be best way to burn out calories and combine that with rigorous physical exertion, music and fun-- an enchanting cocktail.

I was not very enthusiastic when my wife Aswathy was keen to join for Zumba at The Floor September 2013. Our daughter Diyah was already there for ballet classes under Maria Roy.

No appreciable change was seen in the first few months but towards the sixth month people started noticing the change in her- our son Darshan's class teacher said your mom looks like your elder sister. Her photos on Facebook attracted hundreds of 'wovs' and the latest one 'High on Happiness with Zumba' was posted in The Floor FB page thanks to her Zumba mentor Arunima Gupta with more comments and likes pouring in. Not to be left out, Maria Roy,Arunima and Aswathy have been urging me to take to the Floor!

Seeing the new look Aswathy several skeptics of Zumba have now become zumba fans with several more likely to follow. One is our former neighbour, Jayasree, a bank manager who rushes from her busy office schedule to be at The Floor by 7.30 pm three days a week for the one-hour workout. Chubby Nitin, a student of catering at Wayanad has also hit the floor recently and is amazed by the change it brings. He says one hour at The Floor is equivalent to six to seven hours work out at the Gym. Jayasree who was quite scary of her poor dancing skills found that no body had the time to look into her faults, you just fall in line seeing what others do.

From early morning itself The Floor at Panampilly Nagar comes live with mentors Arunima, Govind, Poornima all creating a passion for men and women of all ages to be young, healthy, beautiful which all rubs on their character and outlook. In the mean time, just saw an FB post : Beauty catches the attention, but character catches the heart.

For all those interested in Zumba: The Floor, Canal Road, Panampilly Nagar is waiting for you. Contact info: Arunima Gupta 9747640575 or on Facebook: The Floor. Additionally, Aswathy Visweswaran, ZIN has now co-founded Beats 'n' Steps to promote Zumba fitness. You may contact her on aswathydiyah@gmail.com or Mob-9744954607