Four simple strength exercises
These four exercises work multiple muscle groups and are enough to start your strength-building journey.
WE’RE all creatures that admire physical beauty.
It provides the eyes with a visual feast and the brain with a lot of imagination (which can go wild).
Thousands of women spend time and money on looking good externally.
Whether it is hairdressing, cosmetics or changing wardrobes, we are more likely to take care of our external appearance compared to men, but often pay less attention to our internal health.
Most of us can stick to a restrictive diet or follow a fitness regime for a short period of time.
However, we will eventually slacken when the goal is achieved.
After all, who wants to follow that sort of limiting lifestyle for months, let alone years?
Instead of taking drastic approaches to improve your appearance and health, making a few simple changes to your lifestyle without too much effort can keep you feeling well until your time is up.
Eating well, exercising regularly and keeping stress under control will boost your immune system and keep you healthy longer.
With the second conditional movement control order (MCO) currently in place in Sabah, Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, gyms and public parks are once again closed for the next two weeks and we’re forced to find creative ways to keep active.
Walking is a good form of exercise, but it doesn’t do much to build your strength or flexibility.
Strength-training exercises are an important component of any fitness routine that help keep muscles toned and bones strong.
Why not utilise this time to start your strength-building journey with these four exercises that recruit all the major muscle groups
and are not too difficult to perform at any age?
Just one exercise each for your upper body, lower body, core and back – that’s all you need to do, preferably three times a week.
Start off with one set of 10-12 repetitions slowly, and build up to three sets as you get stronger.
Crunches
Lie on your back with your knees bent to a 90° angle.
Your feet can be flat on the floor or resting on the heels.
Place your hands behind your head and leave an orange-sized space between your chin and chest.
Push your elbows back.
Exhale and come up until your shoulder blades are off the floor.
Hold for three seconds, then return to the starting position to complete one repetition.
Note that your lower back should be in contact with the floor at all times.
Glute bridge
Lie on your back with your knees bent to a 90° angle, with your feet flat on the floor.
Exhale while raising your hips up and maintain a flat back (no arching) until your knees, hips and shoulders form a diagonal line.
Return slowly to the starting position, gently touching the
ground with your bottom before repeating the movement.
Remember to keep the toes relaxed.
This is a great low intensity exercise to build your thigh, glutes (backside), hamstring and core muscles.
If the exercise becomes too easy, you can increase the intensity by lifting one leg off the ground.
Push-up position with shoulder taps
Get down on all fours, placing your hands underneath your shoulders with your arms and legs straight. If this is too difficult, place your knees on the floor.
Hold the position for 30 seconds by engaging your abdominal muscles.
Keep your head in a neutral position and maintain a straight line from your head to your heels.
Once this gets easy, release one arm and tap your opposite shoulder as you exhale.
Repeat on the other side.
Left and right taps constitute one repetition.
Alternating back extensions
Lie on your stomach, with your arms folded and forehead resting on your wrists.
Exhale while you lift your upper body off the floor, keeping your forehead in contact with your wrist and your legs on the floor.
Inhale and return to the starting position.
Keeping your upper body on the floor, squeeze your glute muscles and lift your legs off the floor, making sure they are straight. This is one repetition. Remember to exhale every time you lift either your upper or lower body off the floor.
Revathi Murugappan is a certified fitness trainer who tries to battle gravity and continues to dance to express herself artistically and nourish her soul. For more information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information contained in this column is for general educational purposes only. Neither The Star nor the author gives any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to such information. The Star and the author disclaim all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
OVER two decades have passed, but Malaysia’s deaf community is still fighting an uphill battle for its “mother tongue” – the Malaysian Sign Language (Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia or BIM) – to be used in schools.
Although the Education Ministry has adopted Unesco’s Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (1994) and the Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act (2008), and put in place policies in accordance with the Act, deaf students are still denied the opportunity to learn in BIM, said Malaysian Federation of the Deaf (MFD) executive director Mohamad Sazali Shaari.
The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action states that educational policies should take full account of individual differences and situations, while the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 recognises BIM as the official sign language of the deaf in Malaysia.
“Given that Malaysia is a signatory of the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action, the first language of the deaf people should be taught in schools.
“MFD, comprising 14 deaf associations nationwide, has been lobbying for BIM because the community should have a say on how our kids are taught.
“BIM has over 9,000 signs used by the various ethnic communities in their daily lives. Mastering a language like Bahasa Melayu or English is difficult, especially when you cannot hear.
“For students to score in language subjects, they must first have a strong vocabulary. That’s why BIM is important,” Mohamad Sazali said.
He also pointed out that despite a circular being issued on Jan 4, 2017, by the then Education director-general instructing schools to use BIM, the language continued “to be of less importance” compared to the Manually Coded Bahasa Malaysia (Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia or KTBM) which is currently being used by teachers to teach school syllabus to the deaf students.
“The existing policies are clear but the implementation remains an issue.”
The Malaysian deaf community, he said, started losing the use of their mother tongue it the 1960s when American Sign Language (ASL) was introduced in the country, pushing colloquial signs out.
Then in 1978, KTBM was introduced and taught in schools.
“KTBM is not a language, it is a medium used to deliver the learning of the language – like Morse Code. It contradicts with the teaching and learning process for children and teachers in school.
“The deaf students communicate using BIM, but KTBM is used for their studies – causing confusion.”
Another pressing matter that needs the ministry’s attention, said Mohamad Sazali, is KTBM proficiency among teachers.
The use of KTBM is mandatory yet those teaching it are lacking in skills, he said.
“Teachers are not qualified and can’t even apply sign language in their teaching. So how can they teach the deaf children?
“Even the deaf children at primary school level have passed comments about the teachers, saying that they don’t know sign language – how are they supposed to teach us?” he said, while calling on the ministry to come up with a better method of evaluating these teachers.
THE National Union of the Teaching Profession and Malaysian Federation of the Deaf (MFD) will be handing over a memorandum to the Education Ministry for the Malaysian Sign Language, or Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM), to be used in schools.
Its secretary-general Harry Tan Huat Hock said the NUTP has submitted its request to meet with Education Minister Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin on the matter.
“Many deaf teachers have approached the NUTP, saying that their deaf students do not understand KTBM and are struggling in school.”
Most schools still use Manually Coded Bahasa Malaysia (Kod Tangan Bahasa Malaysia or KTBM) to teach although the Persons with Disabilities Act 2008 recognises BIM as the official sign language of the deaf, he said, adding that parents and teachers have been fighting for BIM to be used in schools for years.
He urged the ministry to make BIM mandatory, as required by the Act.
“Unclear regulations, however, have resulted in the continuous use of KTBM.
“Also, teachers have no compulsion to teach using BIM because exams are KTBM-based,” he said, adding that deaf education is being managed by people who can hear.
“Ministers and its officers need to see these issues in an emphatic light to ensure that policies laid down are properly implemented.”
Allowing deaf students to use BIM, which is their mother tongue, enables them to express themselves better and achieve better results in schools, he said.
Learning and communicating in one’s own mother tongue is a basic human right which the deaf community in Malaysia has been deprived of, he added.
“Deaf students have been doing poorly because subjects are taught in KTBM instead of BIM.
“KTBM is ineffective and very difficult for the deaf students to understand. It’s not a language but a code which is very time consuming and puts emphasis on sentence structure instead of vocabulary. Whereas BIM conveys the whole story.
“For example, if the headmaster is giving a speech using a translator who uses KTBM, the translator will only have conveyed half or a quarter of what the headmaster has said by the time the speech is over. This is because the translator is ‘spelling out’ the words,” Tan explained.
Studies show that when you learn in your mother tongue, you understand better, he said.
“Deaf children only need to master two skills – reading and writing. Listening and speaking skills aren’t applicable to them so the KTBM’s emphasis on sentence structure and reading are counterproductive to their learning.”
Pointing out that BIM is easier and faster to learn, he said the language and curriculum used for the deaf must be best suited to enhance deaf students’ potential.
“The deaf students should not be sidelined. Being deaf does not mean they are slow and stupid.”
Championing BIM is a long and arduous process, Sarawak Teachers’ Union secretary-general Chung Fui San said.
Although KTBM is being used in schools, the book which was published jointly by the ministry and Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, has not been updated since 1985.
“If the dictionary can be updated so often, why can’t the KTBM book be updated too?
“Many sign languages (kod tangan) in the book are already outdated and many of them are not even being used by the deaf community.”
“For example, the book used sign languages for car number plates to differentiate Malaysian states. However, each state has its own sign language.”
She also explained that there is no Bahasa Malayu or English version of sign language.
“Although it is a language that is understood by the deaf community, it is not the same around the world. However, there are some similar signs among the different sign languages.
“Each country has its own sign language. In Malaysia, we have BIM, in the United States, there is the American Sign Language and there is British Sign Language and so on.”