AbLab with Dr G
Make a commitment to start each week with some serious exercise
Every Monday morning at 5.50am, Dr G’s runs the Ab Lab at North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club. He takes a squad of about 12 keen people and puts them through stretching, Pilates, and some serious abdominals. The session starts with movement, stretching, balance, Pilates and some core strengthening exercises. Importantly, all movements are back-neutral and back strengthening, which are ideal for anyone with back problems. The Ab Lab is always followed by coffee!
Dr G has been running the Ab Lab, or some version of it, at the surf club for almost 30 years. The outcomes have been very promising, with a number of the team experiencing a lowering of their blood pressure, over a two-month period. One participant lost 30kg without medication, simply by pursing additional exercise and restricting calories.
It is important to have short-, medium- and long-term goals to focus your exercise. Then you can develop an exercise structure to achieve your goals. These goals are critical to measure outcomes and develop the package of what Dr G calls your personal exercise program (PEP). It is not simply a matter of rocking up to the gym for a few weights or going for a bike ride. With a PEP in your pocket, or on your phone, you have thought about the short-, medium- and long-term goals that you want to achieve.
You not only have goals, but you also have an ikigai; your long-term goal becomes your purpose for exercise, or at least one of them. The first realisation is that this is a lifetime commitment, not something you do for a few weeks or months. If you’re not in there for the long haul you might need a softer approach.
So how might this PEP work? For example, you might decide your goals are as follows:
Short-term: lose 5kg, exercise 5 days/week for 30 minutes, walk and weights.
Medium-term: lose 10kg, exercise 5 days/week for 60 minutes, walk, weights and swim.
Long-term: lose 15kg, exercise 6 days/week for 60 minutes, walk the City2Surf.
It is useful to record your sessions on your phone or in a notebook – wherever you will enjoy observing your improvements. You may consider adopting this goal-oriented approach for other aspects of your life, as it helps to strengthen your purpose (your ikigai) for being here.