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While traveling in Asia I came across a group of people performing the ancient Chinese art of Qi Gong – designed to improve your health, longevity and vitality.

Originating 4000 – 5000 years ago, Qi Gong involves similar techniques to Tai Chi, which focuses on slow breathing and co-ordinated movements.

In Qi Gong, the main focus is on a breathing technique that helps stimulate the organs through improved oxygen flow, which in turn aids the kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen and the heart.

Benefits include better management of stress-related disorders, chronic fatigue, headaches, intestinal problems, chronic pain, high blood pressure and even the treatment of cancer.

By focusing on the body’s alignment and movements, it is claimed Qi Gong formed the basis of many martial arts techniques, although it has no self-defense element itself.

By improving the body’s self awareness and proprioception (the co-ordination of all 5 senses in concert), Qi Gong can also improve your balance.  This has ongoing benefits for the elderly who are often more prone to falls that lead to broken bones.

When incorporated into a healthy lifestyle – a balanced diet, regular exercise and a positive attitude – Qi Gong practitioners experience an overall improvement in their wellbeing.

On the weekend while I was camping, I meet Chris who started riding to work 20 odd years ago.

When he started cycling, Chris’s workmates would laugh at him, “why on earth would you want to ride when you have a car” This was a common reaction amongst the other printers who had difficulty comprehending the concept of regular exercise.

Well 20 years later after bumping into one of the guys who laughed at him has changed hi view from ignorance to envy after seeing what awesome shape he is in.

Regular exercise has helped keep Chris’s energy balance in check, rather than sitting in traffic for 55 minutes, his commute to work only takes 5 minutes more while he watches people in their cars getting frustrated and angry as they grind to a halt.

The great thing about exercising regularly is the cravings for junk food and unhealthy meal options disappearing. The body is quite a complex biological system, but when you’re more sedentary in your lifestyle, unhealthy food seems to be more attractive and desirable.

A lot of the printers at his current workplace are overweight and look extremely unhealthy. While abusing your body may seem ok when you’re younger, eventually it does catch up with you.

Quite often there may be a few of us that plan on riding to work but we often don’t place our health as a priority in our life.

So hope on the bike today, with new bike friendly facilities now available for city commuters, what are you waiting for?

Do you prioritize your health?

It’s interesting that I have a friend (Lets call him Bob) who decided to buy a “Fixie” bicycle, a single speed bicycle that is the latest “must have” for the urbanite.

With all the excitement of his new acquisition it was ridden to work for 3 days, enter day 4 and the fixie remained parked in the garage.

Well Bob also decided to start his “Health Kick” with some jogging around the local park, once again what started of with awesome intentions quickly dissipated into a distant memory.

However Bob loves the news, he must have the most up to date, current events that are happening locally or around the world so Bob will always ensure he gets up before work to watch the TV and check out the internet, during the day he will check updates and the evening news is always watched no matter what.

So Bob places a high priority on his news fix but a lot less on his health, while Bob is still young, neglecting his health will not have immediate effect, only in the long term.

Often we will do all of this other stuff in our life but ultimately it’s our health that matters in the end, if you are old and frail, have limited mobility it will be too late as the opportinity has passed.

Today I had an enquiry from a 25 year old who was very concerned after her grandfather broke his pelvis, it gave her the motivation to start a fitness program.
After the usual gym membership with group fitness classes and a decline in motivation, she found that 12 months had elapsed.

However the vulnerability of her grandfather to breaking bones was enough to make a positive step to her health and well being future.

While there is a lot of literature on drinking calcium to avoid osteoporosis, there is nothing quite like regular exercise training to maintain bone density.

While in Italy I saw a group of men in their 80′s going on a morning walk around the lake in the beautiful Dolomites. By exercising regularly they are not only keeping healthy but reducing there risk of osteoporosis.

While we may not have such amazing surroundings within walking distance of our house, just finding 30 minutes a day will keep you healthy and fit into your golden years.

Today I was speaking to our painter about how our society is go, go, go and he started talking about how life was in the 1950′s.
It may sound like a bit of nostalgic but ne did make some interesting points.

Supermarkets didn’t exist so you purchased your fruit from the green grocer who often delivered freshly ripened fruit, so fresh and tasty that the peaches left an pleasant aroma in the air as he passed you in the street on his deliveries.
Even such things as Rock melons were apparently totally different to the variety we have today with the need for greater shelf life and transporation logistics requirring a more sophisticated fruit product when compared to this bygone era.

Bread wasn’t like eating a sponge covered in plastic wrap, it came striaght from the baker with less modified grains and different milling to the varieties we use today.

The average household comfortable paid off the house on a single income, no forms of instant communication so working outside the office just didn’t happen.

Less traffic on the road meant less pollution, less congestion and a safer environment for kids to get out on there bikes without the fear of being run over. With the advent of TV our painter remembers his older brother (12 years old) not getting home until 9.00pm as he was watching this new thing called TV from the window of a shop front, did the parents get stressed and worried, mmm, not really as kids often stayed out playing after dinner, no where to be seen.

Maybe just a case of nostalgia, or is there something to be said for living in the fifties.