Three years ago I had a heated discussion with a fitness instructor. My argument was that I had a significant problem going to a nutritionist who was overweight and looked unhealthy or a doctor who smoked and also looked unhealthy.
It was my opinion that a medical practitioner should practise what they advise and if they don’t they have lost credibility. I also believed that sports coaches who formerly were athletes were more successful than those who were not.
The fitness instructor’s contribution was that I should be more interested in what they knew rather than what they did. We continued to argue and by the end of the discussion, we both held strong to our points.
Over the last few years I continued to ponder on my position and realized that there are many success stories that are in direct contradiction to my views. One such success story is that of Usain Bolt’s coach Glenn Mills.
Mills is what we in Barbados would refer to as a big guts man. He doesn’t look athletic at all and was never a professional athlete. He did try sprinting at the age of 13 but after a year gave it up. His interest in sprinting remained and he turned to coaching.
Mills, who is also Yohan Blake’s coach, is a successful athletic coach having overseen athletes to 71 World Championship and 33 Olympic medals.
I am still trying to sort out my position on the topic. Maybe you share a similar perspective to me or you may prefer to side with the fitness instructor. Nonetheless, sometime last week while I was listening to the radio Another View was being aired and Cherita O’dell shared her opinion on the same topic. Here is a portion of her contribution.
“ . . . and then it hit me that we naturally expect that everyone affiliated with sports should look athletic or at least give the illusion of some level of fitness.”
Then it got me to thinking of all those occupations where you just assume keeping in shape is part and parcel of one’s lifestyle, but with some individuals this is the farthest thing from the truth.
Case in point: nutritionists. Anyone dealing with advising others on what they should eat, how many calories they should consume and whether or not they should eat carbs, proteins or fruit X amount of times a day should at least look the part.
Now, I know I might sound a bit harsh and there are those out there who may have hormonal imbalances leading to weight gain. Understood. But the reality is that the majority of overweight nutritionists cannot claim that as their lot. They are just not practising what they preach.
And, then there is another occupation in which being out of shape, if the author of Ecclesiastes had to describe it, is just a grievous sin under the sun. Doctors. How can I in good conscience walk up in your office and take advice from you when I see that your guts are three times bigger than the average man’s or that you smoke or that the last time you exercised was when Jesus was a lad. Your counsel would hold no credibility to me because you have ignored all the fundamentals of health and wellness that your practice dictates.
And let me not go to town on policemen. Oh dear! Once you make the force, are there follow-up fitness tests? We are not talking just about annual check-ups for blood pressure, blood sugar and eyesight. I am talking about running from here to there in X amount of time or scaling a wall, jumping over obstacles and crawling under barriers, things that policemen are expected to do in the line of duty.
Are there continuous training programmes to address these requirements? I am just curious. Because based on the number of fat policemen I see out there, I know they couldn’t even run from a dog if it was chasing them, further more sprint down and overpower a criminal. And, the few “Task Force” men I’ve seen whose guts have their bulletproof vests squealing in agony as they struggle not to burst at the seams really make you wonder.
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth ambassador.
