Simplicity can save your life

It all started with an accidental fall on wet asphalt. The aspirant’s left shoulder was wrenched severely. Being a committed fitness buff, he made light of the injury at first. With some rest it would be resolved in a jiffy, he thought. But some days later he was in for a shock of his life when he tried to resume his fitness routine.

Inaction seemed to have frozen solid the injured shoulder. For the first time, the aspirant began to feel like an invalid.

“All I have to do now is to let my stubble grow,” he brooded self-piteously : “Perhaps I should cosset my arm into a sling or wear a raffish eyepatch and I could pass off as a war veteran, (what with his rugged physique going to seed without its daily fix of vigorous exercise !) .” Physiotherapy only added insult to injury: the therapist had the alarming habit of commenting loudly on his shocking’ loss of muscle whenever she struggled to unfreeze his screamingly reluctant limb into action.

The days dragged on into weeks with no sign of improvement . After some time, the aspirant stopped even those perfunctory motions of going through exercise. Did he have any option other than that of a one-armed individual? But help arrived from unexpected quarters; while trawling through the World Wide Web for remedies the aspirant chanced upon something being touted as the world’s coolest exercise. It was the humble side bridge and its champion was none other than Gregory Joujon-Roche , described as screen god Brad Pitt’s personal trainer in the 29-second-clip . “Stand (on your elbow sideways. with your butt squeezed, the chest, stomach , and knees aligned) and feel so good.”

Don’t underestimate the tamelooking side bridge, crowed another expert. Men think that a good exercise must make your abs and body burn; Here’s the bestknown secret’ of strength, he added: side bridges improve the stability of muscle surrounding the spine and stomach, to bolster your core strength and help carve a six-pack .

Call it a case of mind over matter’ or psychosomatic medicine, but the pain in the aspirant’s shoulder diminished dramatically from the very day he tried the exercise. Ironically, he’d dropped this one routine as being too soft as he’d progressed in his own practice towards more painfulgainful’ holds. He became free of pain in a week and was back in action in two.

Moral of his story was: don’t let simplicity fool you.