Early in the morning the ears can no longer stand the continuous bells emerging from the huge wall clock. It has always been the usual routine of waking up purposefully to shut down the noisy machine pounding like church bells in between the dream period of a tired black man. 

Stretching from all sides of the six by six inch sized sponge mattress, the biggest idea of staying in the bed for an extra hour arises. 

The immediate reasoning is to join the gym and have our bodies worked out. It really doesn’t matter which criteria we follow but the efforts will lead us into lifting dumbbells inside the nearest air conditioned room. 

At this point it’s not all about following the proper medical instructions and guidelines which may mean we may be straining our bodies into vigorous and unhealthy physical activity.

Doctors advise that the situations of low body exercise can result into a variety of symptoms that manifest themselves as,  fatigue, insomnia, total body exhaustion, boredom to mention but a few.

Insomnia (lack of sleep)which is the commonest while at work is divided into two that is to say, the acute type lasts for a few days or weeks while chronic insomnia may last for over a month. 

Josiane Kwitonda, a banker, says: "I had spent the previous day working and was feeling drowsy but insisted on driving along the high way, for a few minutes mid-way my journey, I fell asleep notuntil a hoot from a heavy trailer that almost rammed into me  made me realise that I was my own driver.”

Tiredness may result from poor sleep or overwork or boredom and in some instances may be caused by an illness.

Physical exercise, having enough sleep and taking in adequate fluids provide a leave from the above burdens of life. Most people in urban areas prefer to engage their bodies into physical exercises and undertake body training in gyms. 

Some people, however, may exercise for long periods of time but surprisingly realise no physical change on their bodies because they do not follow the right procedures that bring out a good and healthy body. 

Joining training is very easy. In gyms around Kigali, the most important thing is to pay membership and the rest will be entirely up to you even when all the facilities are there for you to utilise. 

Many people make mistakes of starting up with random exercises without getting the proper advice from trainers and health experts. A good gym has to follow a series or steps and create a workout plan for you. 

If you are planning to join a gym, ensure that your fitness trainer checks you for the following before recommending. Initially it’s important to check your accurate fitness levels basing on age, lifestyle and medical history. Gyms do a variety of test before recruiting. These include the cardio test and the tread millwhich are the first thing gym members get oriented on.

A person is asked to walk for about 12 minutes and the heart rate is monitored. Secondly, the current strength of an individual is tested and the person is asked to lift the maximum weight possible.

Strength endurance test, the trainer checks the upper and lower body strengths. The upper body strength is determined by how many repetitions of bench press one can do in a minute. 

This is compared to the body strength while lower body strength is determined by how many repetitions of squats can be done. Flexibility is also checked and the trainer allows you to sit on the ground and reach out for your toes. 

A tape measure is used and the distance a person can reach is entered into a chart. The test is repeated after a month of exercise. The expected body weight of an individual is determined and this assists in obtaining the Basal metabolic Index (BMI) which is the ratio of weight to height. 

People with a BMI exceeding 25 are said to be obese while those with lower ranges of between 16 and 18.4 are said to be thin. Normal ranges are between 18.5 and 24.9. 

Using callipers, gyms may conduct the skin fold test to find out the amount of fat tissue surrounding the body. Most gyms have a doctor as well who assists individuals with medical conditions besides fitness. 

Doctors predetermine the risks of individuals with adverse medical conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, asthma engaging in vigorous physical exercise. The doctor works with the nutritionist who provides details on what diet should be followed to avoid occurrences of obesity and mass wasting.

Even with the follow-up of this criterion, most fitness endeavours fail with participants failing to achieve their goals or targets. This is simply because people lack motivation. A person starting training will feel like wasting his precious time after a few weeks of exposure although he will insist to continue in order to show positivity towards the target. 

Several excuses arise such as perfecting work for long periods of time in fear of gym fatigue and a few muscle pains at the beginning of the exercise plan resulting from the weight lifts. 

There is no need of moving into the gym with extra burdens, in fact mobile phones should be switched off while in gym sessions to avoid distractions.

Most people fail to check out their feeding habit and may end up consuming a lot of calories, which makes the exercise less significant because almost what is lost is taken back through the meal.