Maintaining Your Health on Mackinac
Developing 'Mental Edge' Is an Important Key to Physical Fitness
By Yvan Silva, M.D.

Dr. Silva is a professor of surgery at Wayne State University and a resident of Woodbluff on Mackinac Island.

People at the highest level of athletic performance are ever aware that their state of mental readiness is a dominant force in winning; they're able to outperform others, even though they're at similar levels of physical constitution. The long hours of arduous training, the sacrifices, and the discipline are a given. Yet the mind sets the limits.

This applies to everyday people, as well as top athletes. They feel better, they perform better, and they live better. The idea is you compete with yourself. Let your mind set the limits for your body, within your own limits, to increase your physical well being.

The widespread public pursuit of good health and participation in physical exercise created a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet about 80% of all the exercise equipment we purchase begins to collect dust after a few weeks. The resolution to "get on with it" is filled with good intentions. The mind often procrastinates and reverts to a previous habit.

Attitude remains the biggest step to physical fitness. For whatever the reason, losing weight for example, is better accomplished by taking charge of your lifestyle, than to try to impress someone else. Clearly, you will succeed if you're doing this for yourself, rather than for someone else. The threat of lung cancer and emphysema doesn't seem to deter the smoker. The risk of heart attack and stroke is more of an intellectual, "faraway" threat than an emotional one. Too many people remain sedentary.

The impetus for change comes, clearly, when there is sight of potential improvement. Working with self-esteem is the early important step in starting out, according to psychologists. Recent studies have shown statistically significant differences in goals reached by those groups who started weight loss programs in counseling or in groups, compared with those who did not.

The next goal, after mental preparedness, is to retain muscle mass while diminishing body fat content. Then, of course, the next is keeping the weight off and staying healthy. It is generally accepted that if you spend 20 to 30 minutes a day, just two to three times per week, doing any exercise you choose, even at low intensities, you can achieve significant benefit for your overall health and significantly improve your overall physical conditioning. In many medical center programs for morbidly obese patients, people at least 100 pounds overweight, a slow start with exercise is emphasized. Walking helps to reduce injury to unprepared joints, ligaments, and muscles; increasing the exercise frequency to five days a week instead of two or three, with increased duration of 30 minutes instead of 20, serves to rapidly influence the new lifestyle. This method works well for overweight people, as well.

Altering certain habits to make even light exercise a part of daily living adds excellent psychological benefit. For example, parking the car at a greater distance to make the walk longer clearly helps. Climb flights of stairs instead of taking an elevator. Doing anything physical is valuable, and for people who have been sedentary, doing small amounts is all they can and should do, when starting out, according to exercise psychologists in this field.

All forms of physical exercise, when conducted properly, bring benefits. Working out with a partner, or working with a group, has been shown to increase success. There is always the benefit of working out with a variety of people. This helps remove many negative associations that have been built up in regard to exercise. Working out in group settings is psychologically self-reassuring.

In summary, the psychological aspects of well being in a healthy lifestyle are immeasurable. Before undertaking an exercise or a weight control program, it is extremely important to make a mental assessment - understanding the changes that you will have to make, a commitment you will have to stand by - is paramount to success. Further reassessment, from time to time, will help you maintain that mental edge so vital to keeping mentally and physically fit for the enjoyment of good health.