The Importance of Working Out

Joseph O. Vergara

 

 

“Working out” is a misnomer for lazy persons who dread the word “work” and who hate going “out.” Working out can be an enjoying encounter at the start and a fulfilling experience in the end. Hence, it does not carry the customary toil that makes work an onus and play a joy. Most people who fail to start, or who start but never get to finish, a physical improvement program fail because of the unsavory undertone of “working.” Work in itself is never appetizing unless one is motivated by the salary that goes with it or the aim that the worker aspires for, such as the promotion or the legacy one can leave. For this reason, lifting weights is seen as bearing burdens; and resistance training is met with opposition. Persons feel heavier when high impact aerobics retains the impact like a crash without sustaining the respiratory relief of aerobics. In other words, the importance of working out is not well appreciated when the stress is on the work and not the goal.

 

Working out is a total development program. Its effects transcend the physical level and penetrate the psychological, the social, the spiritual and the cosmic aspects of one’s personhood. A person who begins a workout program may start at the level of the physical, oblivious of the other benefits of the mile that will eventually become of this first step. As one may read about in health columns and fitness publications, working out helps to remove excess fat to reduce weight, build muscles to gain mass, improve circulation to aid in disease prevention, and restores one to performance levels that may have started to wane. In other words, the most basic importance of working out is to bring back health if not to improve it.

 

As one progresses into the program, one starts to feel good, not just because one feels lighter with the weight lost and the strength gained, but because one starts to look good. Anybody who looks better feels better, and feeling better is not a mere hedonistic tendency. A person who looks and feels good gains confidence, thinks better and tends to be more efficient in doing things. Productivity becomes less of an abstraction and more of a material reality.

 

Feeling good about oneself progresses into a general feeling of peace towards others, and a person who carries on a workout program tends to be more sociable, and conveys ideas that are more acceptable to others. Such is the essence of leadership. Any person who can sell his ideas to several people gains the respect and following of these people because the message is clearly sent, received and accepted. If practice makes perfect, working out polishes to a deep finish.

 

A person who is well accepted in any group not only becomes a good leader but is held as a model citizen as well. This model citizen embarks on a journey directed by a specific set of values based not on amusement but on a more profound understanding of what is truly good. On the physical level, this is known as discipline. One avoids activities that will destroy the body. On a higher plain, this is known as belief. Conviction. Faith. Being at peace with the Supreme Being. Treating nature and persons with respect. Learning to truly appreciate the effects of working out and not misusing its gains to destroy others.

 

Working out is not just an activity; it is an attitude.

This essay made Joseph Vergara the first monthly winner of the Gold’s Gym Contest Time, sponsored jointly by The Manila Standard and Gold’s Gym Manila, meriting a month-long free workout at Gold’s Gym Manila. This article has been published by the University of Texas in Arlington, and is quoted by several fitness and health sites on the web.