Picture: Pixabay
OH, WHAT has become of those ‘oozing days’?
I remember when perspiring was a normal part of my daily routine. It would be: get up, have breakfast, go to school, sweat during break, sweat while you walk home from school, do homework, then meet friends and work up a sweat playing!
And, need I emphasise that this happened almost daily? Perspiration was part of our lives, we just accepted that it was always going to be around – much like we embrace the concept of a data connection nowadays.
These days I find myself so deskbound that the only times I sweat is when I have a ton of work to get through with the deadline approaching like a freight train, or when I am too low on fuel to run my car’s air conditioning on those hot days in this city.
Both times, I am sweating sitting down, you’ll notice!
Looking back, I think the only time we really sat still as children was when we visited the neighbourhood cinemas once a week. But other than those times of inactivity, we played, moved and made memories!
Nowadays, playing, being out of breath and exerting oneself is the exception to the rule, with far too many young people screen-bound. These days movies don’t happen only once a week, we now have access to movies daily. Youngsters (as well as adults) are able to binge on their favourite series, sometimes completing several seasons in a weekend.
But let’s backtrack and consider some benefits of that mysterious, outdated bodily function I mentioned earlier – sweating.
I recently learned that there are a few benefits to perspiring due to exertion.
Firstly, a study found that the levels of many heavy metals were lower in people who exercised regularly. Now, though in small amounts heavy metals are required for maintaining good health, in larger amounts it can lower energy levels and damage the functioning of the brain, lungs, kidney, liver, blood composition and other important organs.
So sweating is good in this case.
But not only that, perspiring is also, apparently, an effective removal route for BPAs (the party-crasher of the plastics we use daily). BPAs can act like a hormone imposter, causing a bit of chaos in your body’s system, but sweating helps to flush some of it out.
And finally, some compounds in our sweat binds to bacteria and politely escorts them out of the body.
Heavy metals, BPAs and bacteria … that should be reason enough to get ourselves perspiring, but there’s another, deeper, benefit of sweating, or at least some sort of exertion.
Think about it: In order to sweat, we have to actually be DOING something, and DOING something is the primary component to HAVING memories.
Has anyone else noticed how time is flying? I mean, it’s the middle of October already, and it feels like yesterday that I was toasting the new year. No, seriously, I am stunned at the fact that Christmas decorations have started to materialise in shop windows, while the Christmas gifts I received in 2023 are still practically new.
And what have I achieved? I have been sitting with my pores closed tight, and therefore with almost nothing to remember for 2024. If you’re anything like me, the only response you can offer when people ask how you’re doing is to say that you’ve been “busy”!
One day, a few years from now, we are going to try to remember what we did during these days of generous data streaming and not have many memories of doing anything worthwhile.
Why would we do that to ourselves?
I recently asked a very good friend of mine, who had once been a fine physical specimen, why he stopped exercising. He told me that whenever he feels the need to exercise these days, he lies down till the urge passes, explaining that people who exercise regularly live longer, but they spend those extra years at the gym!
I tried to motivate him by telling him that I recently watched another of our friends do 100 push-ups in one go, and asked him if he thought he could do that.
“Sure,” he replied with a confident smirk. “Hell,” he added, “I could probably watch a guy do 500 push-ups in one go.”
He then went deadly serious, firmly took hold of my arm, looked me in the eye and told me: “I went out for a run a few nights ago, but had to go back after two minutes because I’d forgotten something.”
I asked him what he’d forgotten.
“I’d forgotten that I’m overweight, out of shape and can’t run for more than two minutes,” he said.
Serves you right! Let that be a lesson to you … instead of reading my absolutely terrible jokes and groaning in agony, you could have been sweating out some heavy metals, BPAs or bacteria, whilst also making some worthwhile memories.