HEALTH - Anyone for jogging?

IN SPITE OF the huge advances in medical science in this century life expectancy, for those who reach the age of forty has not increased at all. According to Dr. Noel Hickey of the Department of Preventive Medicine at UCD. this is because of changes in behaviour patterns. He cites in particular the things we eat and the fact that most of us take a lot less exercise. Even without any obvious excesses, like overwork or heavy drinking, the average modern lifestyle is a health hazard. Most people are slowly, inexorably, killing themselves.  By Eamon Dunphy.

Quite apart from this dramatic thought, the wrong diet and lack of exercise do seriously impair the capacity to enjoy life. As important to most of us, they also wreak havoc with a good figure and vital looks.

So, if you want to live longer, look better and enjoy life more fully as a result, stick with this column over the next few months. We'll tell you how to get fit as painlessly as possible, the best ways to get rid of those disgusting bulges, not exactly without effort but with results that make the effort seem worthwhile.

We'll be writing about diet, testing various forms of exercise like gymnastic training and yoga, and later looking at the problems of chronic overweight. We emphasise that all these exercise courses should only be undertaken if you are in reasonably good health. If in doubt consult your doctor.

One of the easiest and least expensive get fit 'courses' is jogging. None the less efficient for being currently fashionable, jogging improves the circulation and digestion, strengthens long unused muscles, and increases lung capacity.

Before you start a jogging course, work yourself in gradually with about a month of brisk walking. Go for at least a half an hour's walk, three times a week. Enjoy it. Walk tall and swing your arms, breathing deeply. After a month of this, start on the jogging. At first try about a mile, then about one and a half miles, working up to two miles after two weeks. This should take about twenty minutes.

At first you'll suffer from stiffness in the ankles and calves. This can be eased by some gentle stretching exercises before you start to jog. Stand with your legs three feet apart, keep your legs straight and try to touch the ground between your legs, then six inches in front of you, then six inches behind. Don't worry if you can't reach the ground, simply stretch as far as you can towards imaginary points. Another stretching exercise is illustrated in the photograph. Stand with legs three feet apart, touch right foot with left hand, swing right arm above head, repeat with other arm.

Jogging should be done as much as possible on your toes. Again, start gradually and, over about two months, build up to four sessions a week, each lasting about thirty minutes.

To get maximum advantage from the jogging regime, you should also practise deep breathing exercises. Ordinary normal breathing only uses about one third of your lungs' capacity. Controlled deep breathing activates and cleanses the other two-thirds.

There is nothing complicated about deep breathing; it simply means inhaling air into the entire lung space in a long, slow, controlled breath. If you place your hands just under the chest on your ribcage, you can feel your lungs filling up. Hold the breath for a few seconds, then let it go. Do this six times before each jogging session and whenever you find yourself in the open air during the day.

The last part of this jogging course consists of three simple stomach exercises, designed to firm up the muscles and thus reduce excess fat and flatten the stomach.

1. Lie flat on your back, legs straight out, hands on thighs. Push fingertips down towards your knees, your head positioned so you can just see your toes. Lie back. Repeat five times.

2. Lie on the floor, knees bent, hands on thighs. Move fingertips up towards knees, raise head and shoulders off ground. Lie back. Repeat four times.

3. Lie flat on back, arms stretched behind head, legs straight. Keeping legs straight, sit up and touch toes. Lie back as before, with arms stretched behind head. Repeat four times.'

Once you have completed these exercises, fifteen in all, try and repeat them in the sequence given above, so that in all, you are doing thirty exercises. Over a period of two months this should be increased, gradually, aiming at a total of sixty exercises; i.e. each of these three exercises done twenty times. It sounds frightening, but in fact once you' are reasonably fit, you'll find they won't take more than five minutes in all. Do them at the end of the jogging session.

So, each jogging session should consist of stretching exercises, deep breathing, and stomach exercises. In all, this shouldn't take more than forty minutes. If you do it four times a week you'll feel, and you'll be, a lot healthier. You'll also look a lot better, which can't be bad.