This article first appeared in Kannada in ಕ್ಷ ಕಿರಣ, Dr Shashikiran Umakanth’s column in the Vishwavani daily. The Inside Story is its English edition. ಈ ಲೇಖನವನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿ
From Monday to Friday we sit fixed in one posture in front of our laptops, like sages deep in meditation. But the moment Saturday and Sunday arrive, it is a sudden dash to trekking, marathons or the gym, as if we meant to win an Olympic medal overnight! This has become a big trend among young people. Guilty at not having shown their face at the gym all week, they rush to melt away five days of inertia in a single two-day weekend.
In medical language we call such people “weekend warriors”. From the outside this burst of activity looks like admirable enthusiasm, but as a physician, I worry about something else.
The Tale of the Dried-Up Rubber Band
To understand why, take a simple example. Imagine a rubber band left unused in a drawer for months. What happens if you suddenly pull it hard in one go? It snaps, doesn’t it? But if you stretch the same rubber band gently every day, it keeps its elasticity.
Our body is no different! For five days our muscles and joints stay almost entirely idle, and our circulation ticks over at a minimum. When we exercise hard and suddenly at the weekend, the heart, the body’s engine, faces a demand for oxygen four to five times higher, almost at once. An engine that has lain idle for five days is not ready to pump that much blood. Blood vessels that have not been warmed up struggle to widen and narrow so abruptly. This mismatch is one important reason behind the sudden cardiac arrests we are seeing more often in young people today.
The Zeal to Climb Mountains, and the Struggle for Breath
When the weekend comes, there is no shortage of young people who strap on a backpack and set off on demanding treks up Kumaraparvata, Mullayanagiri or even the Himalayas. They happily spend thousands of rupees on branded trekking shoes and warm jackets. Yet they forget to train the leg muscles that must walk in those shoes, and the lungs that must supply the oxygen!
The higher we climb above sea level, the lower the pressure of oxygen in the air. The body of someone who exercises every day adapts to this thinner air with relative ease. But when a person who has sat idle all week suddenly climbs a mountain, each breath brings in too little oxygen, and the heart is forced to beat twice as fast. Blood flow to the brain falls. This is why we keep reading reports of young people collapsing and losing their lives in the middle of a trek.
On top of this, lifting heavy weights at the gym only at weekends leaves people prone to torn muscles, worn kneecap cartilage and back injuries. If you try to lift fifty kilograms without a warm-up simply because the person next to you did, a sprained back is all but guaranteed.
So, What Is the Solution?
The problem is not sport or exercise itself. It is our habit of going to extremes.
- Keep the engine tuned every day: Instead of sweating for three hours in the gym on a Sunday, walk, jog or do yoga for just thirty minutes every day. Daily exercise keeps the body’s engine in good condition.
- Build up step by step: If you are planning a demanding trek or a marathon, start training every day at least one to two months ahead. Give the body time to adapt, and avoid sudden feats.
- Listen to your body: If you feel extreme tiredness, heaviness in the chest, heavy sweating or dizziness while trekking or running, set embarrassment aside and sit down right there. Drop the false pride that says, “Everyone else has gone ahead; it will be a disgrace if I fall behind.” No show of heroism is worth more than your life!
Remember: Health is a palace we build day by day, one brick at a time. Try to raise all the pillars at once over a single weekend, and the building is sure to collapse.
Exercise should add years to our life, not take life away!
