Get fit, live longer! - Unit 14

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Matching · Objective Proficiency 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read a magazine article about health and fitness. For questions 1–10, choose from the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

I've never experienced the natural high which scientists claim follows a bout of intense exercise. The empirical evidence of my own body tells me that the only thing exercise releases in my brain is loathing. So I scoff when the people at the gym tell me I'll be hooked on a new type of Pilates in two sessions. My first session is an hour's one-on-one with Daniel, my trainer; a good idea for any beginner. Although I, disappointingly, don't actually lose any weight over my six sessions - personally, I find it rather ups my appetite - I can attest to its toning abilities. The classes themselves - which take a maximum of six people - are entertaining, and as agreeable as enforced muscle fatigue can ever be. It definitely helps if you'd already got to grips with some basic Pilates techniques before you start, but, once you've got the hang of commands such as 'squeeze that imaginary grape under your armpit,' it provides a great variety of exercise.

A month of sessions with a personal trainer three times a week seems like the perfect springboard to a better future. My personal trainer, Tony, asks me what I hope to achieve. I mutter something about losing a few pounds and toning up a bit, but the truth is I want to get back into my tailormade suits. It's the gap between my expectations and reality that is hardest to contend with. I know that no matter how healthy I become at the age of 36, I will still be less fit than I was as a lazy 18-year-old who did no exercise at all. But if I'm honest, I secretly believed I wouldn't actually be all that bad at this. The problem is weights. I've never bothered with them before. I take it slowly for the first few sessions but it's hard going and I eventually pull a muscle in my right arm. It's time for a few days off. I greet a four-day respite with enthusiasm, but actually find myself in the gym, running faster and longer than before and lifting weights well.

I go along to my nearest fitness centre and decide to try out the DVD of Sport Active, which has more than 70 different exercises on it. The programme can measure and display your heart rate, thanks to a monitor that straps to your forearm which sends information to the console. I start with tennis and get an enormous kick out of hitting balls into an onscreen net. I quickly move on to mountain biking, or, as I now call it, 'total physical punishment'. However, even though I am an old hand at cycling, by halfway round, I have clearly lost all ability to show off. On screen, my heart rate has rocketed up to 178. 'You're definitely getting a good cardio workout here,' encourages Robert, the fitness centre trainer. Could these games damage people by suggesting the wrong positions? Robert is dismissive: 'It's unlikely you're going to hurt yourself.' I decide to carry on and after a few weeks begin to see the benefits.

Wild Fitness is more than a form of exercise, Matt, my trainer, told me that it was a whole philosophy of life: to transform yourself by learning to move and eat in the way of our hunter-gatherer ancestors and to become strong, fast and agile. It all sounded a bit bizarre but I was more than happy to give it a go. The first session began at 5am on a Monday morning in Regent's Park, London, with some introductory exercises. The hardest session came the next week when Matt told us we would sprint around the 400-metre running track four times, with a short rest in-between - no excuses allowed. I did my best and then discovered that the so-called rest was going to involve squat thrusts; 20 of them. Matt didn't stop there. It was thanks to him that I did far more than I would ever have done exercising alone and I looked thinner and was far more toned as a result, especially around my thighs and stomach.

Get fit, live longer!

mentions being disconcerted by their lack of ability when faced with a completely new activity?

was grateful for having been spurred on in their efforts?

suggests that prior experience of the exercise method can be advantageous?

suggests that they have overreached themselves during their first session?

is sceptical about whether a way of exercising would really appeal to them?

suggests that their chosen exercise programme seemed to be based on a slightly eccentric premise?

rejects the idea that they are following an exercise programme to improve fitness?

comments on the relentless nature of the trainer?

contrasts the amount of pleasure to be gained from different types of exercise?

suggests that the outcome of their exercise programme was not wholly positive?

Which person

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