PHYSICAL FITNESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1938, Page 9

PHYSICAL FITNESS

PROTECTION AGAINST ILLNESS. “What do we mean by physical fitness?” asked. Sir Farquhar Buzzard, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, in a recent address. “The best way of defining it is to say that it is that condition of health which permits the individual to carry out his allotted task in life without stress, perhaps with enjoyment, and what is more important still, without any consciousness of his reactions to his occupation. That is to say that our best state of health is one in which we are never really concerned with health at all. I do not suppose that anybody thinks the physical fitness campaign, even if successful, will result in producing a nation bigger, stronger and of finer physique than it is at present. It will not turn a C 3 nation into an Al nation. It is reasonable, however, to suppose that the campaign will lead to better ways of living, more healthy ways of living, and the better employment of leisure time. There is the fallacy, first of all, that the development of muscles and athletic prowess are some measure of protection against physical or mental illness. We have to remember that the greatest athletes in the world, in any field of activity, are just as prone to nervous breakdowns as their companions. There is no protection in merely producing physical fitness of that kind. There is another fallacy which doctors realise perhaps more than laymen. It is the fallacious idea that if one spends one's time in a sedentary occupation, and gives one’s brain a large amount of work to do. one must counteract this by taking plenty of physical exercise. The result is that one burns the candle at both ends and becomes a nervous wreck. The secret of physical fitness for the man who is obliged to do a large amount of mental work is to get recreation associated with hygienic surroundings and a mere modicum of physical exercise, and that is best taken in association with something that gives interest."