To motivate people across the country to celebrate the perks of getting active during the pandemic, stay fit, and inspire individuals to take charge of their health, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mira Road Celebrated National Fitness Day with fervor. The hospital organized fitness, and hashtag Challenges that included doing planks, squats, push-ups, lunges, jumping jacks, to encourage people to exercise followed by a price distribution session.
Physical activity will be beneficial in improving overall well-being. It is essential to stay active and lead a healthy life. Exercising on a daily basis reduces stress, depression, anxiety, makes you feel happier, increases bone mineral density, is good for weight loss, joints reduce the risk of diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, and heart problems, sharpens memory, and enhance the mood by energizing you. Today, due to erratic schedules, a majority of people fail to stick to a proper fitness regimen, and suffer from various health problems and succumb to them. To help people understand the importance of fitness, Wockhardt Hospitals in Mira Road came up with a unique initiative of fitness challenge.
Dr. Imraan Khan, Physiotherapist, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mira Road, said,
“Currently, owing to the pandemic, the attention has shifted from non-communicable diseases to communicable diseases that are infectious diseases or transmissible diseases like Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), influenza, Hepatitis, Flu Vector-borne & parasitic diseases, etc. While non-communicable diseases like Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attack & stroke), cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases(such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma) continue to be a huge burden all around the globe. NCD’s, as per some studies, contributed to around 60-70% of all deaths globally & 50-60% in India (pre-pandemic).
So far we have clearly learned that NCDs & COVID-19 are closely interconnected.
The causes of these non-communicable diseases can be attributed to alcohol, smoking, poor eating habits, and lack of physical activity. Thus, staying physically active and exercising lowers the burden of non-communicable diseases. This event was to create an awareness regarding the importance of physical activity & fitness around starting from our own hospital and around, 4-5 exercises challenges like doing planks, push-ups, squats, lunges, were conducted wherein more than 100 people participated. Around 40 people participated in the Facebook hashtag challenge in just 2 days that is #GetFitWithWockhardt by uploading 30 seconds video of exercising and nominating others to exercise too.”
Dr. Khan added, “Even a brief session regarding the importance of fitness was given to the hospital staff by the whole physiotherapy team that included the components, myths, and barriers to fitness.
This idea is all about giving that initial push to people to make them indulge in the activity in a fun & healthy competitive way.
They even concluded with price distribution.
Dr. Vini (Anesthetist), Dr. Tushayu (Emergency medicine) & Ms. Sonal (Dietician) were among a few more to get the prices.
Earlier, fitness was only limited to youngsters. But, today it is the need of the hour for people of each and every age group to stay fit & physically active especially during pandemics when fitness has taken a backseat.
Many people are facing problems such as breathlessness, fatigue, weaknesses, difficulty in getting back to their previous activity levels & obesity either due to the post covid infection or due to physical inactivity because of the lifestyle changes due to pandemics. It is imperative for everyone to exercise for 150 minutes per week, and consult a physiotherapist before initiating any fitness routine.
Dr. Imraan Khan added “If we can take one step towards being physically active & fit. We can reduce the mortality & morbidity caused during this pandemic even more & also can reduce the burden caused by these NCD’s globally”
So stay fit, stay strong, stay safe.
