If we look back only ten years, we can see the striking way in which our lifestyle has changed. Technological advancements that help us in our work life have also resulted in us has become much more sedentary. We spend long hours at work, eat more junk food, spend our free time with our smartphones and none of these actions is helping our body in any way. On the other hand, more people are now conscious about their fitness and body than ever before and often hit gyms or attend different kinds of fitness sessions to become fit.  

That is what happened to me. My interest in fitness grew so much that I made the switch from being a Business Analyst in a company to becoming a full-time Fitness Professional.

As an IT professional, I used to play volleyball and was a part of the Corporate Team for South India. I suffered an injury while I was playing my favourite sport and had to stop playing my game for recovery. I met a few doctors and physiotherapists for my injury who advised me to undergo a surgery or rest. I was also discouraged from returning to my favourite sport. I, however, was not prepared to give up Volleyball.  I began researching online to find a fix for my injury. After reading many health sites, I was a bit dejected. It seemed like surgery was the only solution and even that may not have helped me enough to get back to playing. 

 I felt very low at this point in my life. To keep my mind occupied, I enrolled myself in a Personal Trainer Certification program and started attending classes over the weekends to learn more about exercise science. In a couple of classes of my certification program, I realized that I was very interested in the complexity of movement of the human body and how exercise could help us in ways no one could ever think or imagine. I began to develop a deep interest in this subject and realized that just as we eat daily, we also need to exercise daily. It was as simple as that. 

My First Experience as a Fitness Professional 

The first person I worked with was a doctor who weighed 108 kilos. I trained him for 4 months which resulted in bringing his weight down to 88 kilos. The kind of feeling my client had towards the end of his weight loss journey was inexplicable. This motivated me a lot and I began to start thinking of fitness as a career. I wanted to make people aware of how important it was to be healthy and fit. I started as a part-time freelance trainer while still working full time as a Business Analyst.  I continued to do my fitness training and I enjoyed every bit of my work as a part-time fitness trainer.

Hall of Fame 

I got an opportunity to train an actor from the Kannada movie industry.  He was my first celebrity client. I was very nervous but also excited to take up this client.  He was 51 Years with L4 – L5 Slip Disc and a Cervical Spondylosis. I spent a lot of time understanding these medical conditions,  did my homework, meeting with my mentor and few other fitness professionals for help, since it was my first experience handling a client with such medical conditions. Six months into the journey with this client, he started to show good progress with those conditions. In a year’s time, I could understand my client very well and how his body is responding to physical activities. End of 2 years and this client had lost 22 Kgs and was able to squat with 40kgs on his back without any hindrances. He was healthier, fitter and pain-free.  My client recommended my work with him on the popular show (Big Boss).  See the video here.

Lesson:  I was able to help a person with an injury and get him to a better way of living,  This made me realize that exercise has the huge potential to improve our daily life and help us deal with various physical issues. 

According to me, being fit defines overall health. Which means keeping ourselves away from ailments, being strong and healthy. But obviously every individual is different and every person or profession demands specific ways to train. A sportsman would train differently from a bodybuilder or someone looking to become generally fitter. 

To be fit and healthy, nutrition plays a huge role and obviously the most important one too. So we need to eat an appropriate amount of nutritious food because our body requires certain nutrients to work in a proper way. For example, carbohydrates provide energy, proteins help to build muscles, fibre helps in the digestion process and fats help in the functioning of organs. All the nutrients have their place in a balanced diet and must be consumed in correct proportions to provide the body with energy and fuel it needs to workout and recovery.

A person who wants to start a fitness program can start with strength training using your own body weight, walking and running. He/she can do push-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, plank, and all these basic exercises to help you with your daily activities. Being active in daily life, moving more, lifting more and generally being conscious of what you eat and how you eat, all builds general fitness. Exercise should be viewed as a natural addition to our daily routine.  Stay active, stay healthy- nothing else is more important in life.

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