I’ve been fortunate enough to have grown up with a bunch of
football crazy blokes who even in their late twenties and married wouldn't mind spending a Sunday participating in some beach footie.
While we used to do this more often, and didn't need the
open beach to play, we’re married now, and the beach is the best handshake
between a romantic spot and a footie ground as our wives and girlfriends now
accompany us.
Most recently, on Sunday, a large group of about 20
people-and a dog- travelled 20 kilometers to reach Rajodi beach, a scenic
place which is visited by a few people. I had spoken to my fitness
consultant/best friend for life Arun Selvakumar to accompany us and make us go
through the motions-for free, I repeated this thrice till he cussed me and said
he wasn’t planning on taking any money anyway-of warm up and body weight
exercises that could be done at home, or in the open, without having to enroll in
a gymnasium.
The 20 odd people were a diverse mix of teenagers, middle
agers, tiny tots, men-women, and..well, dog. All were from different walks of
life; some were studying, some were studying but not getting educated, some
worked for Contact centers, some were running Yoga schools, some were IT folks,
while some were home-makers. None of us were regular gym goers, but were
moderately healthy, and addiction free.
Having said that, nobody had imagined what was in store for
us when we started off with the warm up session.
The almost Circuit training like High Intensity Intervaltraining warm up schedule had us panting and wheezing in its 2nd
iteration out of the supposed 5! The women weren’t as flexible as they thought,
the guys weren’t as resilient as they imagined.
What was supposed to be a 45 minute session was cut short to
30 minutes, and not every member could finish the training program. The select
few who could do it were driving on fumes, adrenalin, prayer, ego or shame and embarrassment!
Whilst many people had different emotions, the one feeling
of being humbled set upon everyone. We were given a quick reminder how unfit we
were.
We were all mostly healthy, but not fit. Being healthy may
mean we are able to perform our mundane tasks without any problems, and our
immune system is decently strong enough to ward off most illnesses. Fitness
meant being able to go that extra mile, run faster, think quicker, have a
stronger will, perform better and give up later. Fitness didn’t mean having
huge biceps, or being able to lift huge weights, having a slender waist or even
having a six pack (I can assure you some girls and boys had slender waists and
six pack abs), it was about being able to physically and mentally push your
body to do extraordinary, unprepared for things without stressing the body too
much!
I’ve noticed that as opposed to a few years back, I am now
unable to stay awake throughout the night, at least without coffee and worry,
and even when I do, I tend to feel sick the other day, thus decreasing my
productivity. Whilst I don’t endorse this habit, I used to do it quite easily a
few years back.
I’ve noticed many of my friends who could play for hours on
end just a few years back now need breathers after every ten minutes.
A few years back is 5 years back tops, and our eldest groupie
was 31! The only thing that’s changed is that all of us have gotten into our
comfort zones. We have either comfortably landed cushy desk jobs, or are
comfortable in matrimony. The surprising thing was that even the teenagers of
today are comfortably into social networking. This has resulted in a drastic
decrease in any kind of physical activity, and the results are for everyone to
see. We as Indians are eating more processed food, live in a more polluted
country, have access to more comforts, are privy to a more stressful life, and
have reduced our physical exertion considerably. Does our ever increasing obesity
to fit ratio and being heralded as the soon to be Diabetic capital of the world
sound really surprising then?
I don’t think I have to really preach here. We need to get
out of our comfort zones, and exercise! Walk, play, swim, gym, do anything that
we fancy-or can tolerate- and do it regularly. This will help us not only get
healthier, but regain some fitness which will bode well for our physical, mental,
emotional and spiritual well-being in the long run.
To end this, I have two questions.
1.
Are you coming to the beach to play footie the
next time around?
2.
What form of exercise will you be adopting?
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