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The three day
national workshop for coaches and fitness educators tagged ‘Personal
and Corporate Health Fitness Training’ which was held between Wednesday
and Friday, saw participants of the programme appreciative of the new
knowledge impacted. The seminar was aimed at sensitizing fitness
coaches and trainers on new techniques available to them. Also it was
an enlightening session to show that general fitness is a must for
everyone.

“Fitness is not for
athletes alone, it is for everybody and it is not supposed to be a
stressful thing and we want to encourage these trainers on what they
need to do to encourage more people to engage in physical fitness,”
says Wale Adeoye, who is administrative secretary of the Consult Centre.

“When you are okay in your body, it has a way of affecting your mind and emotions and your mental capacity,” he says.

The training, which began on the Wednesday saw participants coming from as far away as the University of Maiduguri, Borno State.

Held at a hall in
the National Institute for Sport building, the seminar began with
exposition on the components of physical fitness. Obaro Odion, a
fitness coach who resides in Lagos, explains that physical fitness is
in two phases:

“There is the
general fitness, which is the state of wellness that an individual
possesses. Some components of it include agility, muscle flexibility,
balance and stamina. Then there is specific fitness which is something
that sports athletes should have. That means there is a level of
fitness required in an athlete that an individual may not necessarily
possess.” Beyond exercise, Odion also explains that physical fitness
transcends beyond exercise. “Fitness should be an important part of our
lives and it is usually achieved through exercise, getting enough rest
from stress and eating a balanced diet. That means attaining physical
fitness is not complete without having all the three components in
place.”

Tosan Lawal, a
football coach at the Delta State University explains some of the
benefits of fitness, “It gives one the capacity to go through the day’s
activities with more vigour, it also helps to increase the mental and
physical stamina of the individual and it helps the body to function
effectively.”

He went ahead to
explain that as a coach he would tailor what he had learned at this
seminar to help his team in developing flexibility and agility.

Odion says that the
three-day event has been very enlightening. “For me that I come across
a myriad of people of different age, sizes with different physical
conditions, it will help me serve them in the best way that would suit
their physiology. There is a woman I work with who has problems with
her knees and with this seminar; I will be able to help her better as I
understand better.” Another coach, Dennis Owolabi who attended the
programme from Maiduguri, has however cautioned that exercise is not
the only characteristic that maintains physical fitness. “We should
also remember that good food is important to help the body regain lost
energy and there is need for our people to learn how to manage stress,
because if we eat good food and exercise but accumulate stress, it is
still bad for us. After a while stress begins to affect the body, so it
is important that we find ways to ease tension.”

Owolabi further
went to explain such ways, “exercise is a perfect way to ease stress
because it makes you more relaxed and you will be able to sleep well.
You can also ease tension by taking massages.”

Auwalu Ahmed, also
from Maiduguri, gave kudos to the organisers, “I am impressed by the
organisers and by the efforts they put into providing us with trained
personnel, some of them are actually professors in UNILAG (University
of Lagos). I have been able to learn new techniques and to see that
some techniques which we had been using before had become obsolete. I
am glad I came for this seminar.”

Adeoye expressed satisfaction at the outcome, “We are happy to be
able to serve our people this way and we are satisfied that they
(participants) are also satisfied. I envisage a situation where these
people who not only pass this knowledge to their clients but also to
their fellow mates who were not able to come here.”