Gold Magazine May - June 2013, Issue 26 | Página 54

fitness

Healthy
Body
Healthy Mind
Healthy

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Economy

As more and more people start feeling the pinch brought about by reduced salaries,
fewer opportunities for work, keeping fit and going to the gym are probably the
last thing on their minds. But fitness trainer and consultant Kyriakos Onisiforou
believes that now is the time to make an even greater effort to keep ourselves
healthy. With so much uncertainty around us, he argues, we should all begin with
what we know – our own bodies. Feeling good can lead to some inspired thinking
about how to deal with the many and varied problems caused by Cyprus’ request for
a Eurozone-backed financial assistance package.

F

By John Vickers. Photograph by Jo Michaelides.

ive years ago a survey revealed that 97% of
people in Cyprus believe that exercise is a
good thing. Another showed that only 7%8% undertake regular training at a gym or a
health centre. This is some way below the EU
average of 12%-13%. To be fair, however,
people in other countries also believe in the
positive effect of exercise and they are clearly
not spending much time on it. So why are
gyms struggling for survival and why is Cyprus
ranked 9th in the table of smoking among
adults? Kyriakos Onisiforou believes that it all
comes down to “cognitive dissonance” which,
is this case, means that people have conflicting
feelings about exercise:
“People often find themselves in a dilemma
between their motive for wanting to exercise,
which is usually to look good, and the fact that
they need to work to feed their families and
so they may feel that they are behaving in a
shallow or selfish manner to be spending time
training at the gym,” he says. “If they decide to

54 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus

go, it often happens that they discover that it is
hard work and needs to become a permanent
part of their lifestyle, at which point they tell
themselves that they have other priorities.
That’s when health goes out of the window.”
One might imagine that, in times of crisis,
people have “more important things” to do
than exercise, especially if they are doing it
to look better. However, the statistics don’t
support this view. “Even after a major event
such as the 9/11 attacks in New York, the
American fitness industry continued to
grow,” explains Onisiforou, surrounded by
fitness machines and gym equipment in his
Limassol studio. “In a crisis, people realise
that they need to cut back on everything and,
at the same time, become more sustainable
as individuals but as entrepreneurs and
professionals too. The money in