The importance of establishing an exercise routine is paramount. We sent three people to take it seriously
THE human mind has an infinite capacity for avoiding the truth. My own had remained happily shut off from the subject of personal fitness, blissfully unaware that I was slowly but surely morphing into a Shelley Winters look alike.
Then, three months ago, a call came from the fitness centre at Aphrodite Hills asking if I would be prepared to undergo an intensive personal training programme. Sure, so off I (not quite) trotted in the company of two friends who, like me, had never previously bent their knees before the secular temples that are gymnasia. We had been on the alternative track of merrily ingesting fats, salt and sugar with our sole exercise being the short walk from the car to buy a packet of Rothmans. Needless to say, we would have been hard pressed to locate either our abs, glutes or pecks, secreted as they were under such a substantial covering of wibbling, wobbling flesh.
Walking into the Retreat fitness centre one is immediately impressed with the cleanliness of the place; gone are the dark old days of one’s youth when gyms were places with plasters in the showers and a seriously forbidding air of menace around the free weights. Here it’s a seriously buff clientele, and meticulously buffed changing rooms, with a large and airy workout area, even though there is an incredible array of ominous, Spanish-inquisition-type exercise machinery.
Dr Komatina, Christallo Costi and myself were introduced to our personal fitness trainers in the fine, fit-as-a-fiddle shapes of Tom Thompson and Dave Metcalf. It was at this point that we realised that this was not going to be a ‘dawdle in jogging pants experience’. These, after all, were the super-charged, power house boys from the UK Premier Training Group PLC; chaps who have seriously honed and hammered.
Dave then told us the main aims and objectives. “You are here to get fit. Losing weight is but a byproduct of exercise, it’s not our major reason. We will primarily seek to improve your strength and flexibility. You will then end up with a strong cardio vascular system, your body shape will also change and so, hopefully, will your life style.”
No easy challenge. The first session was a full fitness test including blood pressure, lung function, resting heart rate, flexibility and the measuring of our miserably high fat levels. I was told that if I had not had my doctor present I would have been refused training as my blood pressure was so high – a potentially disastrous diastolic rating close to 100 (normal is 80).
Then, with heart monitor bands and watches to record our heart beats per minute, we were taken on an assessment ‘power walk’ around the golf course.
Dave only recently admitted that he doubted we would stay the course, predicting we would probably throw in the gym towel after about three weeks. Mind you, after that first supposed stroll, which ended up with us all wheezing and panting, prone on the grass, we wondered, ‘if this is just the start, what the hell have these men got in store for us next week?’
The plan was to visit three times a week for one hour. This is deemed the optimum level of exercise necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle and by gosh did we sweat, moan, and groan over the first three weeks.
Relentless is a very good word for these guys, who are also highly professional in that they ensure they don’t work you into the ground, preferring, like subtle pro-orturers, to make sure they keep you ‘almost’ alive for the next session.
After the first month we actually started to (almost) enjoy the huge variety of exercises available to us. We also began a better diet programme and, encouraged by our trainers, even managed to complete a 10k marathon, a feat we would previously have never even contemplated, such was the consummate motivational skills of these guys. There was no messing around nor any opportunity to take a sneaky rest on the floor mats to dream of Kit kats and twix bars. These guys possess eyes in the backs of their heads, along with an almost uncanny instinct when one is beginning to flag, at which point we would hear Dave’s mantra: “Come on just one more time, yes you can do it”. And yes we always did it.
Tom may well look like a real gentle soul, as opposed to Dave’s almost commando approach but don’t be fooled; this is a classic good cop bad cop scenario played out very well by this well matched pair who take no prisoners.
After a three-month regime in which we rowed from Paphos to Piraeus, cycled to Pissouri and back twenty five times, walked to Cardiff, then jogged to Belarus and back (at least that’s what it felt like) interspersed with weight work outs, boxing, bench presses, and pouring sweat over the medicine and fit ball exercises last week we proudly completed our programme.
Dr Komatina is a much respected medical man who likes to practice what he preaches, hence his commitment to the project. He also reduced his blood pressure level, lost weight and regained more flexibility in his hip joints. Now he can, with confidence, recommend a safe fitness programme tailor-made for his patients, plus from personal experience he can talk of the many benefits that ensue.
Christallo has started walking regularly, she sleeps better, has lost weight, looks great and has stacks more energy.
Importantly I am now down to a highly acceptable BP of less than 75 and, something I never thought possible, is the return of full flexibility to my left arm, the result of lymph nodes having been surgically removed a few years ago. In addition, a stone in weight has dropped from my body and I can now jog without recourse to an oxygen tank.
We all now know that a strong cardiovascular system and supple body when you are 50 becomes a vital defence mechanism as you grow older. Okay, we may try and fool ourselves that we are not ageing, that we won’t die, at least not yet, but when faced with the hard facts as given to us three months ago we now firmly believe that these young men have effectively kickstarted our lives.
Hopefully we will now live longer and healthier, plus, these guys have given us the motivation to keep going back to the gym three times a week. Not a bad result.
l Dave Metcalf Tel: 26 828113, 99 037988. For gym membership call the Retreat 26 828100, fax 26 828101. e-mail [email protected] www.aphroditehillsspa.com
