Inactivity Crisis

29 Sep, 2021
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Today we are joined by personal trainer Chris Loh to celebrate European Week of Sport. This year's theme highlights the power of physical activity to bring joy, to build resilience, and to connect generations. Annually the aim of this week is to help promote healthier lifestyles across Europe and to challenge the worsening inactivity crisis.

In this interview Chris most definitely agreed with the above statement that physical activity can bring joy to a person’s life as he recalled that,

In my experience I have never seen anyone unhappy after a workout as people generally love the feeling of accomplishment after exercising”.

Furthermore, resilience was also discussed which can be seen to enhance self- esteem motivation as well as determination. Chris mentioned how exercise can help individuals to better cope with stress,

“When we exercise we can really take control of how much stress we're putting on our body which can help build resilience which simultaneously helps us to deal with life’s curve balls. Having a certain amount of stress is always important thing for us to grow as a person as it allows us to react and become even better versions of ourselves”.

Keeping on this topic, Chris was able to comment on past patterns that he noticed amongst top level athletes,

I was looking at a paper on Olympic champions up to Rio 2016, but it stated there has been no athlete who had not been faced to with some level of trauma or adversity in their lives. This isn’t saying that you have to have dealt with some sort of trauma to become an Olympic champion, but it is interesting fact to note”.

Chris also commented on the impact physical exercise has on bringing communities closer together,

“As a fitness instructor I find that group classes are what really keeps people coming back. I found that people love that social connection that they can find in a group atmosphere. One reason for this is that classes often create healthy competition amongst individual’s along with team building and unity”.

Finally, Chris touched on the reason for the creation of European Week of Sports and gave some advice for people who are lacking motivation to participate in physical activity,

“I think most importantly don't compare yourself to anyone else it's a case of you becoming a better version of yourself so if that means that you have been doing absolutely nothing for the last days, week’s months, if you can just move from doing nothing to doing a 5 minute walk every day something that simple can help. This will move you towards the path of getting towards a particular goal. However, on the other spectrum, if a person is used to running 5km everyday it can be beneficial to keep it interesting by setting challenges. Things like beating your time or making sure that you are doing all the accessory work to prevent injury can really maintain the longevity to your running”.

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