TOUGH
ENOUGH
How physically & mentally tough are you?
In today’s rough-and-tumble world, being tough has become synonymous with success
– a tough person balances the demands of family, career, and his or her own
personal needs with efficiency, stamina, and minimal stress. These are the
people we look to in a crisis, and admire in everyday life. So how tough are you?
Your physical well-being often goes hand-in-hand
with your emotional and mental state. General good health and fitness gives you
more energy to face life, and an enjoyable workout provides time off in every
healthy person’s life to de-stress. So does your physical state meet the mark?
Ask yourself these questions.
1) Can you go the distance?
2.4km is the distance set by the National
Physical Fitness Award (NAPFA) test as a reasonable minimum for an adult to
complete within 15-20 minutes; in the army, men are required to finish within
10 minutes. The passing time varies with age.
What does it take to run 2.4km? In a word,
endurance. There are athletes who can nearly sprint 2.4km in about five
minutes; there are mid-range runners like you and me who jog along for about 15
minutes; there are beginning runners who strive to simply complete the distance
as an early milestone in their quest for fitness. To some of us, it seems a
short distance; to others, it looks like forever! But often what begins as a
successful 2.4km run, graduates later into a 5km, 10km, 21km run… and one day,
perhaps, a full 42km marathon! And there is no marathoner in the world,
irregardless of completion time, who can’t be considered tough.
2) Can you swing your own weight?
If you’re a relatively fit male, you should be
able to handle your own bodyweight in various ways. Doing pull-ups is one of
them, during which your upper-body strength is used to draw up your own body to
bring your chest to the bar. Men should also be able to press their own weight
in a full push-up – if you’re into ‘commando’ training, you may even be able to
perform a pylometric push-up that requires you to power your entire body off
the floor, clap both hands together in mid-air, and then land on your palms
again! Healthy men can also be reasonably expected to bench press up to 1.5
times their bodyweight. Often one of the earliest fitness goals set by personal
trainers for male clients is that ability to bench their own bodyweight.
Women are not expected to have the same level of
upper-body strength as men, although many female strength-trainers can
certainly slap out pull-ups, push-ups, and bench-presses with the boys any day!
Most women, however, do not realize that their legs are stronger than they might imagine. Your legs carry your own
bodyweight every day, don’t they? If you are a runner or cyclist, your legs
often absorb up to seven times your bodyweight on point of impact! So the next
time you get on a leg-press machine, make it your goal to press at least 75% of
your own weight, and work your way up to your full bodyweight or more. Keep
your rep-range generous – 15-20 reps per set – if you want to avoid ‘bulking
up’. Women who are in the know can easily leg-press up to 2.5 times their own
bodyweight, with legs as slim and shapely as Britney Spears’!
4) Come to the crunch!
Most gym junkies know that the controlled
abdominal crunch is a more efficient ab workout than a full sit-up. But it’s
still the basic bent-knee sit-up that the NAPFA test requires. You’ll need to
do 30-40 sit-ups in one minute to qualify for a NAPFA award if you’re male, and
20-30 if you’re female. It’s a great test of those all-important core abdominal
muscles.
5) How flexible are you?
Flexibility is an often-overlooked aspect of
physical fitness. Everybody wants to be strong; everybody wants greater
endurance; not everybody decides they want the ability to split their legs
further than 90 degrees apart! Yet powerful, efficient muscles are still easily
injured if they won’t stretch when they need to. Hamstrings – the leg muscle
that runs up the back of your thigh – are one of the most neglected muscles in
the body, despite being the largest. Also part of the NAPFA test is the
‘sit-and-reach’, which requires you to fold your body forward as far as
possible while your legs are stretched out in front of you. If you are
relatively flexible, you should be able to push your hands forward about
20-30cm. You don’t need to be a yoga nut to teach your body flexibility. Just
be certain to do frequent stretching exercises before and after your workout,
and incorporate stretching regimes into your fitness lifestyle.
If you’re interested in checking out how tough
you really are, why not check out the Singapore Sports Council’s Sports-For-Life
Do-It-Yourself Fitness Assessment? This scheme was developed to encourage
participants to keep themselves fit and motivated by checking on their progress
regularly. Check www.ssc.gov.sg for more
details!
We all know, however, that physical strength is
not the only test of true toughness. Daniel Goleman, author of the
groundbreaking book Emotional
Intelligence, makes the case that emotional stability and self-discipline
are possibly the most important factors contributing to a person’s success in
life. After all, it’s self-discipline that gets you in the gym in the first
place, and willpower that keeps you eating healthy!
1) Can you hold out for something better?
It’s
Goleman’s book describes an experiment in which
a group of children were each given a marshmallow. All were promised that if
they refrained from eating the marshmallow for now, they would later get two
marshmallows. Some of the children ate the marshmallow anyway; others found
ways to distract themselves from temptation in order to redeem their reward.
Years later, it was discovered that the children who were able to discipline
themselves from eating the first marshmallow were generally more successful,
better-adjusted, and more emotionally stable than those who simply gobbled it.
2) Can you keep your cool?
What happens when someone insults you? Do you
shout vulgarities? Throw something? Make a sarcastic remark? Or simply walk
away with dignity, deciding you’re not going to be the same sort of disgusting
jerk?
Anger management is one of the key assessment
factors in establishing emotional intelligence. The ability to control your
temper and channel it in a positive direction allows you to handle
interpersonal relationships better and lets you stay ahead of unnecessary
stress. Nobody respects someone who’s always ranting and raving over the
slightest disagreement.
3) Can you admit your mistakes?
What happens when you realize you’ve made a
mistake? Cover it up, hoping no-one will notice? Complain loudly about how
nobody had the decency to give you a hand? Blame it on someone else? Or can you
admit to the mistake honestly, and work on rectifying it?
We’ve all been taught that it’s okay to make
mistakes, as long as we learn from them. But you can’t learn from a mistake you
don’t admit to! Nobody’s perfect, and life isn’t always fair. Accept it,
confess to it, and move on.
4) Breaking up is hard to do…
What happens when your relationships don’t work
out? When your plans don’t turn out like you intended? When your school grades
aren’t as good as you thought they’d be? Or when someone you love is ill or in
an accident? Do you become a weeping, emotional wreck? Or do you try your best
to stay strong and look to the future?
Tough times come to everyone; tough people
understand that and keep themselves ready for it. Emotional toughness in trying
times is one of the hardest aspects of life to master, but at the same time one
of the most essential. This isn’t to say that you’re never allowed to feel
sorrow or hurt – you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t! – but don’t let those
feelings take over your life. Any bona-fide tough person will tell you: those
obstacles in life are meant to be overcome.
5) How flexible are you?
Flexibility isn’t just about your physical body
– it’s about your mental state as well. Change, as we all know, is the only
constant thing in life; and to take advantage of change, adaptability is
required. The ability to handle new situations, both good and bad, will keep
you on-track towards your goals no matter how the wind changes.
Tough body, tough mind – make them yours, and
you’ll find that this tough life maybe isn’t all that tough after all!
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Sources:
1)
The Emotionally
Intelligent Workplace, Goleman, D.,
2)
Emotional Intelligence, Goleman, D.,
3)
“The National Physical Fitness Award Scheme”, http://www.nyp.edu.sg/NYPStudents/pdfs/sa/NAPFA%20Outline.pdf,
4)
“Sports For Life Do-It-Yourself Fitness Assessment”, www.ssc.gov.sg,