A young, progressive man of 19 years arrives at my gym. Career-wise he seems set for stardom. He is slim and stylishly dressed. He played soccer at school (even went to Phoenix, Arizona for a tournament) has never suffered any broken bones or injuries, takes no medication, and wants to work out. On paper it seems he can do anything. The only obvious visual sign there might be a health issue for this guy was the dryness of his lips and his eyes made him seem a little tired. Indicative of too little water consumption and rest perhaps?
As well as conducting some preliminary processes (which included health screening - and I must say everything looked just perfect in that regard) we checked his blood pressure before we began exercise. It was 120/95. Alarm bells ring... LOUDLY! What gives?
First, let's explain the blood pressure reading. If this guy's blood pressure were a pot of water on a stove it would not be far from boiling point. The blood pressure reading is all about the pressure on the arterial walls. The top number is the pressure when the heart is pumping blood, the bottom number is the pressure when the heart is between beats. An 'average' resting blood pressure is 120/80. A resting blood pressure of 120/95 is a cautionary tale because of that bottom number, "95" (when it should be closer to 80). It showed this guy's body was under quite a bit of stress. It is only 10am in the morning. So we dig a little deeper...
We find that this guy eats well and works relatively do-able hours. All good so far. Then we find that he does, and has for some time, felt lacking in the "zest department", hence his visit to the gym (in the hope that "a bit of fitness" is the cure).
Digging even deeper we discover that he drinks alcohol almost nightly and consumes an average of one large bottle of spirits every week. Folks, this is typical of many youth today. They have never discovered beer (they probably think that beer is only for 'light-weights' and 'pussys') and just don't know the full story about the effects of alcohol upon the body. We have a modern generation who has been taught that they shouldn't drink and drive so they believe they are being completely responsible if they get trashed and don't drive. When they feel a little slow they take on a gym membership to get back some fitness. As if (somehow) exercise un-does all the effects of alcohol (and drug) abuse.
We should be educating our kids way better than we do. And pronto! They can all recite the gospel on global warming, the banning of corporal punishment, no-smacking, youth rights, and sex education but they still lack critical knowledge that can help them when it comes to alcohol, drugs, and finances.
Gaining practical life-skills in relation to alcohol is not, and never should be, the domain of the education system. It is the role of the parents to help our kids to prevent alchohol, drug poisoning, and to teach things like basic financial literacy. The motto in this day and age seems to be "we can trust our kids to learn their own lessons as long as we remain their 'friend'". That is like saying I can trust my car to find it's own route at 100km/h down the motorway without steering as long as I remain seated behind the wheel.
Here is what the alcohol is doing to this guy.
His body is working overtime processing the toxins he constantly forces upon his body. Although he is slim in build I virtually guarantee that good, healthy, muscle weight contributes little to his mass (which has shrunk by 10kg's since he started drinking. Does that give anyone reading this a clue as to what this kid is experiencing physically at the moment?!?) Not surprisingly he feels like rubbish. His answer? Exercise! Get some fitness back! But here is the problem. If he over-exerts himself in my gym I am pretty certain to face an OSH prosecution when he falls down from my treadmill, dead because of a ruptured blood vessel somewhere (probably in his brain). The solution?
Someone needs to educate this kid. Yes, even though he can legally 'die for his country' at 19 years of age I still consider him a kid. Nothing to do with his age. My classification has far more to do with his level of understanding about certain aspects of life. He needs to understand that fitness is a two step process:
- Stress the body
- Let the body recover and super-overcompensate (that means the body will respond to the break down of muscle fibre and the nervous system by strengthening, repairing, and then boosting them).
Here is the dual challenge faced by this 19 year old.
- His body is run down already and he actually will physically struggle to stress it in the gym any more because it is already distressed.
- His body cannot recover from any physical (fitness related) stress he does manage to execute because it is way too busy processing the regular, constant, and un-relenting onslaught of toxins.
What does he need to do?
He needs to understand the effect such a large amount of alcohol is having on his health and his future. I know 100% that he is interested in a healthy future because he is highly motivated career-wise as well as intellectually and socially, and he came to the gym seeking fitness advice. I am not talking about someone exhibiting signs of having had a dreadful childhood, upbringing, or some such trauma. Those may be a little more tricky to deal with. This guy is motivated. He wants to live! He needs to cut down his alcohol consumption considerably and work on his fitness. This will probably involve him changing his lifestyle drastically, from his social habits to his work/leisure/rest patterns. He might need professional help should any addiciton to alcohol be the case. Written in steps:
- Cut down the alcohol consumption, asap! Get help to do so if needed.
- Continue to eat his Mum's delicious and nutritious home-cooked meals.
- Train regularly, at the correct intensity, and under proper instruction (hopefully his regular training will introduce him to some preferable social influences).
- Fully recover from his training between sessions in the gym. That means letting the body rest completely so that it can work on repairing the systems stressed during exercise instead of the stomach, liver and other vital organs damaged whilst trying desperately to process the fall-out from excessive alcohol consumption.
Gyms and fitness professionals like myself? I am not big on the often ridiculous (and scary for newbies) fitness testing that goes on in our industry unless it is for people aspiring to be athletic champions (and general gym fitness testing is probably lacking anyway in terms of it relevance for top-end atheltic pursuits). The majority of folks don't need to jump through all of the skin-fold, ergometer, tape measure and similar hoops (unless they really want to). They already know where they are at, RPE works very well, and training heart rate targets are not difficult to calculate. They will know for themselves that the gym is working for them within a couple of weeks or so. Until then it is up to YOU (their fitness professional and gym representative) to help them believe that their decision to join the gym is the right one. Help them. Do the tests that are useful (I think flexibility is extremely important). Don't scare them with all the un-necessary hoop-la that they really do not need. But ALWAYS check health history and BLOOD PRESSURE before letting a new member work out in your gym!
EPILOGUE (13 September 2011)
This next part of this story is encouraging..
Three days later the youth in this story returned. He had drunk more water and seemed a little less de-hydrated than before. He had drunk liquor the night after I had first met him in the gym but not the night before this particular gym visit. This time his blood pressure was 120/65. After I asked he revealed he did suffer episodes of dizziness. I advised him that if he continued his tight rein on his alcohol consumption and regularly came to the gym that his blood pressure would most likely begin to normalise and that, with a more normal blood-pressure level, the occurrences of those dizzy spells would be significantly reduced. He ran a good 10 minutes on the treadmill and then performed some stretching. He was amazed at how much better he felt and adamant his lifestyle had permanently changed. Two days later he returned to the gym at 6.30am. He told me that he had thought about drinking the night before but made the decision not to. He said it was an easy decision. He did 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of stretching. He had jogged down to the gym and was jogging home to get ready for work.
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