April 11, 2010

Torture of Necessity


"Working out is addictive"......people often say this..... and I cannot make out whether they are serious or just joking. Ok, I agree that after the workout we feel very elated and fresh, having completed that days quota, but to say that workout as a separate entity is addictive seems like a poser to me. Consider this....... remember some pretty tough exams you might have attended while in ur school/college.....how relieved and satisfied would you be after that exams have gone well and completed.....so do you hear any person saying(atleast the sane ones !!!!! :P ) this "Exams are addictive".......even though the feeling after completing one and after workout are pretty much the same.

Working out means different things for different people. For me its more of a physical and mental torture that my body endures in order to keep fit......"Torture of Necessity". The torture my body tries to avoid at all costs.....:D ...

All my life I had been a little plump......even though I took part actively in sports in my school days playing soccer,cricket,kabaddi etc. When in high school I started cycling to school around 13km round distance. This was the period when I was at the peak of fitness(not considering the present state...which is much better :)). Sports and cycling are activities which people especially enjoy doing. The main reason for this nothing is repetitive. Even if you play soccer for nearly 3-4 hrs still you wont bored mentally or physically(atleast comparitively :)), unlike in the dedicated workouts in gyms.

This is how things go normally in a gym

Day 1: Full josh...u are trying to prove everyone around you(especially the chicks :) ) that you are able to so and so push ups,squats, pullups etc on the first day itself.
Day 2: Your body is not just giving signs but screaming at the top of its volume that it is in pain. Even then the motivation will be high.

Day 10: You started to get bored....U dont find any drastic difference in weight loss or the big muscles you thought you would be able to achieve with all those strenuous workouts. But still you drag yourself to that smelly goddamn gym.

Day 26: Result day..... Gym instructor says u have lost 1 kg weight..... and u think...WTF..... just 1 kg only after going through all the pain and suffering.

Day 30: You are confused whether you should continue for the gym membership for the next month or not.......

Some renew the membership........and nearly 90% leave it just after the first month......And that 90% includes me at some point....

So after the gym...... low in motivation people do nothing but idle around with no physical activity......eventually gaining weight..... So in the end you get more than what u bargained for.

So my advice from personal experience for the people who are not looking for huge biceps and just looking for slim and healthy body with not so much well defined cuts is "mix and match", do nothing repetitive......


Well in my case I usually get easily bored with the same form of exercise. So my motto is to experiment with different forms of exercises. Well initially started only with weights, but soon lost the fun in doing it. Then the idea of kick-boxing caught my attention, so went to a sports shop , got a punching bag and filled it with sand and saw-dust and started my kick-boxing regime. Well technically speaking I hadnt gone to any classes for the same, but I was born with my kung-fu punches and kicks :P. Initially I was doing this kick-boxing regime with my bare hands, but had to endure some injuries like peeled skin etc. So then got some leather gloves for protection. So learnt from my mistakes along the way. This went on for a couple of months, but started to get a bit boring. But now the option of weights again started to seem interesting :). So started it again and gave kick boxing a rest, so on it continued. Like that have added the regimes of running/jogging, cycling , aerobics(freestyle :P) to my regime. So on a particular day which-ever option seems interesting to me , I will just go and do it :). Even if on some blue moon day I get bored with all these, I just play loud music and start to dance like a maniac...... Graceful dancing??????....well faaaaar away from it :P..... The only thing matters is a means to burn calories and strengthen the muscles, and not just to beef them up which is primarily why maximum number of people hit the gyms.


Also the occasional weekend treks to some hills also works to our advantage. Its the trek to such hills which gives you the correct picture of our level of fitness. Because endurance of climbing on for nearly 5 hrs cant be easily achieved without some sort of cardio workouts. Who knows the next in my list might be hooplas and yoga, if i find a good enough video in the net :).


During my recent(presently ongoing :) )trip to korea all my so called different means of workout were left back home and I was left with no access to my menu of workouts. Hence decided to do jogging/running in the morning. Now running at sub-zero temperatures (around -6C to 4C) totally gives you a high. Imagine jogging with thermals, jacket, gloves and monkey caps in India. Well those were my add-on's when jogging in the freezing temperatures and I really loved it. But in that sub-zero temperature the major problem I found was warming up. No matter what you did the the body temperature was cold like hell and for the muscles to perform strenous activity like jogging for nearly 50 mins it has to be warmed up and skretched to achieve maximum efficiency. Also in one of the public parks they have installed an outdoor gym :P. So whenever i get the oppurtunity I go there do my weight related workouts, even though it doesnt satisfy the requirements of a hardcore gymmer, it pretty much satisfies my requirement :).

Anyway I remember a comment given by Akshay Kumar, the fitness guru of Bollywood saying "If you cant dedicate 1 hr everyday for your body then you are not fit to live on this planet " :P....... Well it might seem that this statement was a bit exaggerated and I dont agree with that extent, but eventhough giving some amount of dedicated time for the betterment of your body will help you only and no one else in the long run. Its OK if you take a day off workout if feeling lazy on a particular day, but try to maintain a weekly minimum workout threshold , after all it is not the torture one enjoys, but the "Torture of Neccessity".

4 comments:

  1. Hmm ... yes even I dont like gym ... but the gym instructor puts IPL matches in gym .... so temporarily enjoying it :)
    Gymming alone is pure torture. Everyone will agree to this. (Nandan says he enjoys the pain that comes with gymming :P). But u have to go with some friends for gymming, then it will be a lot better.

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  2. Yup.... different people have different methods to get turned on :D :D :D.....also wat i have expressed is just my opinion alone and it need not work the same with others......

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  3. I agree. Jogging cycling walking are the best way to remain fit.

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