Building Muscle, Losing Heart

  LIISA SPINK Felipe Sattleu runs down the
steps of Drake Stadium as part of his exercise routine. Fitness
experts urge men to spend time on cardiovascular workouts as well
as lifting weights in order to stay fit and healthy.

By William D. Braxdale
Daily Bruin Contributor

Shaving, showering, keeping trim and wearing the right clothes
are just some of the things many men do to look good.

“There are as many pressures on men as there are on women,
but I don’t think men talk about them,” said Elisa
Terry, sports and fitness coordinator of the Recreation Class
Program at the John Wooden Center.

Some fitness experts worry that men are not getting in a healthy
workout on their way to looking attractive.

“They have a misconception of what (being) fit is.”
said Derrick Baker, a fitness instructor with the Wooden Center.
“They just think (being) fit is having a bunch of
muscle.”

Though men may choose to exercise for a variety of reasons, they
sometimes work out to impress others, according to fitness
gurus.

“The No. 1 reason why men come in here is to look good for
women,” said Derrick Baker, a fitness instructor at the
Wooden Center and a former All-American athlete. “I
don’t have a problem with it, but I wish there were other
things they can get out of it.”

Similarly, the desire to work out or go on a diet may be more of
a temporary state.

“If you are motivated to work out because you want to look
better, remember that it is an emotional response and it may be
good because it may prompt you to do something or come in here to
start a program, but that feeling is going to fade,” Terry
said. “You have to find a reason to come in here and workout
and that has really got to be about your health.”

Most men, Baker said, do not go to the extremes women do to be
healthy and tend to spend most of their time in the weight room
trying to build muscle.

As a result, he sees a lot of male weight lifters with huge
upper bodies and thin legs who are not spending enough time on
aerobic exercise.

Like Baker, Terry stressed that men need to train
cardiovascularly and strengthen their hearts as well.

“It doesn’t matter if you look good on the outside
if your heart isn’t working good on the inside,” Terry
said.

According to the National Vital Statistics Report of 1998, women
live, on average, 5.7 years longer than men ““ a disparity
that Terry said can be avoided by getting enough cardiovascular
exercise.

“I see a lot of guys show up for the first couple of
sessions and they kind of back away from it because they feel it is
not challenging enough or they feel a little bit uncomfortable
being around so many women,” Baker said.

Terry and Wooden Center staff have tried to alleviate this
problem by offering more classes geared toward men this
quarter.

The recently added classes include speed rope and ab blast, and
medicine ball workout. Tae-Bo, though mostly attended by women,
also remains popular with men.

The speed rope and ab blast class is 20 to 30 minutes of jump
rope accompanied with an intense abdominal workout, while the
medicine ball class involves a total body workout using a medicine
ball for resistance.

Students can take the new classes by using a fitness pass, which
can be purchased at the Wooden Center for $15 per quarter.

Sheri Albert, registered dietician at the Arthur Ashe Student
Health and Wellness Center, said diet plays a huge role in disease
prevention, but the gender differences are not significant.

“A common belief is that women live longer because they
have more estrogen in the body,” Albert said. “It has a
protective role in heart disease.”

She also attributed women’s apparent longevity to the fact
they are more likely to seek health care than men.

Additionally, Albert said men’s diets, which often include
high amounts of protein in hopes of building muscle mass, can be
unnecessary.

“It’s really weight training that builds muscle, and
building muscle requires having extra calories,” Albert
said.

She added that men are wasting their money on buying the
expensive nutrition bars when they can get the amount of protein
necessary for building muscle from a peanut butter sandwich.

For men concerned about losing weight, going on a quick -fix
diet is not realistic or healthy, according to Albert.

The only reason diets work is because calories are cut and
people end up losing lots of water and muscle tissue, she
added.

Working out, according to Terry, should mean more than improving
physical appearance. She said exercise improves the mind and spirit
as well.

And when trying to get in shape, people should keep things in
perspective and not expect overnight changes, Terry said.

“A lot of people have unrealistic expectations,” she
said.

She attributed this to the commercials that portray people
losing weight in a short period of time and popular gyms that
emphasize looks.

“You need to set realistic goals and know that it is going
to happen, but it’s going to happen at a slower pace,”
Terry continued.