News

I refer to the article “ ” (Aug 24). I first heard about the Hyrox fitness event some months ago from much younger friends and relatives. It felt like commercialisation of competitive sports for this generation of young people, akin to the Singapore Marathon of my generation. Despite my participation in a few of these competitive mass fitness events, like the writer, I am not convinced they contribute significantly to the overall health of a person in the long run. What matters, as the writer rightly pointed out, is consistency. As a doctor, I regularly dole out exercise and fitness advice to patients. This is, unfortunately, largely didactic and, despite my tailoring it to fit my patients’ needs, lifestyles, goals and expectations, it can still be rather impersonal and foreign to them. If I can offer only one tip for the future, pleasure would be it. I subscribe to the hedonistic theory of exercise that loosely states that one has to enjoy whatever exercise one indulges in, as this ensures that one sticks to it. Take, for instance, my own meandering experience: I have been playing street soccer since young. Over the years, for brief periods I have done strength training, running and high-intensity interval training. All these have always taken a back seat to football. Nothing beats the fun and euphoria of nutmegging an opponent and smashing a ball into the goal. And that keeps me going back for more.