A thread on fitness

Until 32 years of age, I was unhealthy af.
Treated my body as a dustbin - sugar foods, salted snacks, aerated drinks, fried junk.

And the excuse I gave myself?
That all of this is ok, because I don't drink or smoke or eat non-veg!

I used to weigh 89kgs

And then in Feb 2012...

One fine day I decided to go exercise in the morning.

I dragged myself out of bed (so not a morning person back then), went down to the park. And started lifting my knees high up to touch my palms, held parallel to the ground.

I think something happened. Within 2 weeks...

I couldn't walk.
The pain was unbearable.
In my hip bone.

Tests were done.
And the hip MRI told us I had something called
Avascular necrosis
Or AVN for short

The blood supply to my hip bone had stopped. Because of which the bone was decaying.

I recall googling AVN...

and the first search result was "Adult Video Network"
That was life, right there, laughing at me :)

AVN is caused because of excessive smoking, alcohol or steroids.
None of which applied to me.
I lay in the 10% without cause.

I remember the doctor writing on the prescription...

"STOP WALKING"
"We have to ensure the bone isn't damaged any further. So don't walk."

That hit hard. Like fuck!

The standard treatment is to undergo surgery, called core decompression.
It meant bed rest for 3 months and crutches for 5 months.

My life was to change forever...

I went through the surgery
I went through the bed rest
I went though the crutches
I was normal all the time

And strangely, by being normal about it, the world was normal about it as well.
They didn't make it a big deal.

The experience taught me that...

The world's reaction to your circumstances are determined by your own perception of the same circumstance.

Feb 2013
I am on a flight to Mumbai.
AVN is behind me.
The surgery was successful, the bed rest and crutches weren't so bad.
And I am back.

BUT
Life told me to stop walking.
How could I tell life that this chapter is over for me and I have won?
In that moment, I decided...

I am going to run!
Run the half marathon.

This will be how I tell life that I have gone beyond the crutches, that it gave me.

I joined a gym, for the first time in my life.
And started to run

BUT...

I hadn't had any physical activity for months now.
I was fat and inflexible.
I hated running (still do!)

And it was fucking hard...

One day, my colleague shared a video that changed everything.


And 2 things stuck, forever...

In life, it is not the most genetic person who wins or the one with the most potential to win.
It's the person with perseverance that wins.

Always wants to get up and go at it again.
That's the person you need to be.

You guys find a fear – that fear will either create you or destroy you.

I love fear – because behind every fear is a person you want to be.

Fear is self imposed, meaning it doesn't exist.
You create it, you can destroy it too. Its an intangible

Dec 15, 2013
Until that day, the maximum I had ran at a stretch was 14kms.

Today I was to run 21!

When I completed 14kms, I knew I would complete the 21kms too.
And I did.

It felt good.
But that very second, I knew I had cheated...

I had just showed up that day to run 21kms, without ever running it before.
It felt like I could have done it even without the practice.

What is it that I can do, for which I will have to prepare each and every day?

And in a moment of craziness, at the age of 33, I decided...

6 pack abs!

I cant cheat the system by suddenly “running” on a decided day.
I have to prepare for it for EVERY day before the day "they show up".

My body fat percentage on the 1st of Feb, 2014
26%
Abs show when body fat reaches sub-10% levels!

I needed to change my life...

And I did...

I got the 6 pack abs.
I got fit.
I got lean.

Most importantly, I got a second life.

All because of a freak disease.
For which I will forever remain grateful.

In the years that have followed, I have learnt so much about life, because of fitness!

Here they are...

My first day at the gym, for the 6pack abs, the instructor asks me to do 20 push ups.
He starts counting, counts until 7 and then steps away, asking me to continue.

I then count
8,9,10,12,14,17,20
DONE!

I cheated.
Because he wasn't looking.

What we do when no one is looking, is who we are.
That is the person others will get to see, when they are looking.

Lifting weights for the first time, and they felt like boulders.
I closed my eyes, gathering all possible energy within me.

And my instructor shouted,
"No matter how much the weight, don't ever close your eyes."

No matter how big the problem, don't every close your eyes.

I was on my 20th lunges and it felt like I was about to faint. I looked down on the floor, shouting to release the pain.

My instructor shouts back
"When in pain, don't ever look down. Always look ahead."

When in pain, always look ahead.

You are running, you are lifting, you are cycling.
And it feels like the pain will kill you.

But it doesn't.
It goes away.
The pain goes away.

The pain goes away.
In a second, a minute, an hour, in a day, in weeks or months.
It goes away.

But the pain of not trying, stays.

You don't get fit by showing up at the gym one fine day and slogging your ass off.
It requires you to show up everyday.
Every single day.

You don't get to anything meaningful in life by showing up one fine day.
It requires you to show up everyday.
Every single day.

Worse than no exercise
Is the illusion of exercise

The mirrors at the gym serve a purpose
Of making you feel ridiculed and laughed at, by none other than your own self.

These are mirrors of embarrassment.
And I contest, that we need them everywhere.
Not just in the gyms.

Early on, I was gifted a dry fit tee, size medium.
It sticks to your body. Showing all your contours.
I called it "the embarrassment tee"

When you show up and own up to who you are, with your mistakes, your shortcomings, determined to overcome them
You wear the embarrassment tee

I have been working out for 7 years now, almost every day.
And one would expect it to have gotten easier.
But it hasn't.
It's just as hard to lift, to run, to crunch.

It never gets easier. You just get better.

I recall telling myself - there is no way I will be EVER able to push 200kgs by my legs. Impossible.
And that is what I believed.
I BELIEVED it to be true.
Until the day that it wasn't.

We are more capable that we may think we are.

It is much easier to say "I will do 20 lifts" and stop at 20.
But it is only when you don't count that you realize the potential was way above 20. It was your goal that had limited it.

I only start counting when it starts hurting b/c they're the only ones that count
Muhammad Ali

A well built physique reflects you worked hard for it, no money can buy it.
You cannot borrow it, you cannot inherit it, you cannot steal it.
You cannot hold onto it without constant work.
It shows discipline, it shows self respect, patience, work ethic and passion.
@arnold

Here is me in my earlier days

Here is me today

It is a shame for a person to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which their body is capable.
-Socrates

Fin.