Fitness: Feel the Change

What comes to mind when you think of the word “fitness”? For the vast majority, the first impression “fitness” evokes are either of a lean, chiselled physique with perfect muscle definition and six-pack abs, or a slender and toned bikini body. A few years ago, social question-and-answer portal Quora asked exactly that: “What comes to mind when you hear the word fitness?” An overwhelming number of answers were related to looking good and physical achievements. Some had a broader view, taking the “fitness means different things to different people” direction. But it was still mostly about physical accomplishments. Fitness has been an integral part of my life for so long that I have never really paid specific attention to it. It’s the only way I have learned to live: stay active by doing something or the other every day.

Back in my student days, I was training for various sports, competing at inter-school and inter-collegiate levels. As a martial artist, I trained for local and international tournaments. While there were physical goals throughout, the focus was on performance for a specific sport or event rather than aesthetics. Running faster, jumping higher, throwing farther: these were the goals we had as young sports people. Nobody was concerned with getting a six-pack. Some of us had one. Some of us didn’t. And it was fine both ways. We didn’t starve ourselves to look a certain way, because we knew athletic performance would be affected (mostly negatively).

I have come to realise, over the years, that staying active and engaging in physical activity — be it a workout, a swim, a martial arts session, or even just going for a walk in the park — makes me feel refreshed and reinvigorated. Nothing does it quite like sweating it out in the dojo. That’s my go-to workout.

Working out also helps me in other areas of life. Problem-solving, for instance. When I get stuck on a problem, I walk away from it for a while, and only get back to it after my workout or training session. And then, magic happens. Everything seems clearer. Creative juices flow (more freely). The problem doesn’t appear as big as I had initially perceived it to be. Solutions appear.

Fitness For All — Virtually

In recent years, the fitness trend has really caught on. All over the world, people are realising the benefits of staying fit and staying active. Dubai has stayed abreast of the trend, and continues to lead by example. Most new residential projects have at least a gym and a swimming pool for residents to use. There are fitness studios, gyms, dance schools and martial arts dojos all over the city. The government has invested heavily into building dedicated cycling and jogging tracks. His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, is an excellent ambassador for fitness himself. His initiative, the Dubai Fitness Challenge, encourages every resident to engage in physical activity during the entire month of November. What matters is that they do something for at least 30 minutes every single day, for 30 days.

One of the most positive things to have happened over an otherwise devastating global pandemic is that home workouts became more popular — albeit not by choice. Many fitness professionals took to posting workout videos and home workout tips. Some even offered live online sessions. Now, there’s no excuse for not doing something for fitness on a regular basis.

The Obvious Benefits

We all know that working out will help with burning calories for weight loss, toning and building muscles, and preventing lifestyle diseases like diabetes and obesity. Some of us know that physical activity helps us sleep better. What (comparatively) less people are aware of is that physical activity is excellent for mental health as well. In fact, as I had mentioned at the outset, for the vast majority, the focus is primarily on how one looks instead of how one feels. According to the National Institutes of Health in the US, physical exercise and getting the body to do what it was designed to do — i.e., move — has a slew of other health benefits that go beyond just the physical element. Even simple exercises such as walking, jogging, cycling and swimming have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression.

Physical activity generates two critical elements that impact the level of pleasure and joy we feel. One is a hormone called serotonin, which stabilises our mood and impacts our feeling of happiness and wellbeing. The other is a neurotransmitter (a chemical messenger in the brain that relays messages between nerve cells) called dopamine, which determines how we feel pleasure: i.e., feelings of rewards and motivation. Regular exercise of any sort can relieve stress, reduce anxiety and depression, improve self-esteem, and help become less introverted and have better social engagement. This comes not from looking good, but more from feeling good. When we aim for the feel-good factor and make a commitment to simply get moving, the look-good element happens by default.

The drawback of setting solely physical goals is that people draw inspiration from others to embark upon a journey of body transformation. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Most of us benefit from having some sort of a benchmark and a role model to look up to. Where things do start going wrong, however, is when we start walking in someone else’s shoes without realising that their shoes don’t fit us! Many of us don’t often understand human physiology as well as we think we do.

The Motivating Factor

Arpan Ghosh is a communications manager at a Dubai-based real estate company, and a self-trained fitness enthusiast. Though fitness was never a big part of his life growing up, he was an active child. It was only during his college days in the US that he embarked upon the journey of physical fitness. It was hard to miss the freshman pounds. But, also, a part of his curriculum was to enroll in at least two sports courses. He chose tennis and martial Arts. After moving back home to Dubai, it was difficult for him to pursue either. But he found a portal of workout programmes called Darebee, which has an extensive variety of routines ranging from cardio to strength training and flexibility, that required no fancy equipment, and could be done at home.

Though he started working out to lose some weight, Arpan realised quite quickly that he is getting much more than physical fitness from his programme. His focus has shifted from how he looks to how he feels, and the satisfaction he derives from completing any given programme or challenge that he participates in. “I just feel a sense of satisfaction when I finish a workout. It motivates me, because I know I overcame whatever obstacle came my way and still managed to complete it.”

Hear It From The Experts

Synthia Jacob is a Dubai-based fitness and wellbeing professional, sports nutrition coach and certified personal trainer. Her own journey began with physical goals, but transformed into a journey of wellbeing and self-discovery. Sport was her biggest fear growing up. It was the one thing that tarnished her otherwise perfect academic record. She was always conscious of how she looked, and how she performed (not very well back then, she admits). But she made the decision to change all that, and in January 2015, as soon as a new gym opened for business, she enrolled. What she hadn’t known back then is that her new adventure would become her path in life. At first, she was very uncomfortable wearing workout clothes. Not that she was obese; or skinny, for that matter. She was an average young woman. But she was very unhappy with her body. Her goal was the slender figure of a supermodel.

During the course of her transformation — from being a sport-phobic to becoming a fitness guru — Synthia learned to love her body. Today, she is at a point where she never misses her workouts, and eats smart rather than “dieting”.

She also discovered a gap in the personal training industry — from her own experience. A personal trainer she worked with just did not get her the results she wanted. She realised it was because that particular trainer — like many other trainers around the world — knew how to work out, but did not have the knowledge required to understand and adapt workouts to other body types. That is what prompted her to study further and become one herself.

From offering advice and suggestions to friends and fellow gym-goers, she progressed to guiding clients towards achieving their fitness and well-being goals. Synthia takes the “personal” element of personal training seriously: rather than taking on more and more clients, she prefers to work closely with a few at a time, and creates bespoke programmes.

Ram Sadhvani is an electromechanical consultant by profession. He is also an influencer at 6th Street, and a part of the ASICS FrontRunner’s UAE team (a group of fitness enthusiasts who are ‘Ambassadors of Movement’).

Arnab is a Dubai-based freelance writer, a corporate strategist and a martial artist with internationally recognised black belt rankings in Karate, Kobudo and Aikido