What You Ought to Know "Fit for What" (Not Knowing This will Waste Your Time)
"An idea is nothing but a thought. Unless action turns that idea into a reality, the idea is useless."
- Prabal Arora
I need to get fit; I used to be fitter. Fit for what? That's the critical part of the equation. Regardless of what the fitness instructor thinks or the gym instructor/Personal trainer thinks, or what the gym program says, ultimately when it comes to your fitness, the only important person here is you.
Do you wonder that Your Exercise Programme depends on Your Goal?
What do you want to be fit for? And that message will come across clearly, so that the exercise program that you start, the fitness program that you commit to, will get you fit for whatever it is that you need to be fit for. So, for instance, if you aim to run a five-kilometre fun run, you don't need to be fit enough to run 42.2 kilometres for a marathon. If your goal is to run around the backyard with your kids without getting puffed, you probably don't need to learn how to swim because you don't have to be fit for swimming, which is different from being fit for running around the backyard.
If you are going to have a baby, you have to be fit to have a baby. So the fitness program needs to be designed around perhaps a lack of sleep, an increase in stress levels and increasing demand on your body because you're going to be looking after another person. You're going to be carrying another person inside you for nine months.
So you've to get stronger in certain areas to make sure that your body is fit for having a baby. It might be that you're going to Las Vegas for holiday. You've to be fit enough to handle extra alcohol, different food, late nights versus you might be going on a walking holiday in Switzerland or a skiing holiday in Austria.
If you need to run up a flight of stairs without getting puffed because you don't like that feeling of getting to the top of the stairs and you can't breathe, you need to be fit enough to run upstairs! Or you're playing golf, and you bend down, your face goes purple because your blood pressure is so high and it doesn't look very comfortable, then obviously you need to be fit enough to play golf. The answer is always fit enough for what?
"Clarity on what you aim to achieve gives you the direction to get the results you want."
- Prabal Arora
How my Overweight Friend lost his Weight in Kenya?
An exercise program has to be designed around what you want to be fit enough for. It's interesting because what the general public thinks or what the fitness professional thinks, isn't essential. It's what you want. I'll give you an example. There was an old friend of mine in Africa who is no more now. I trained him in 2009 when I was running a medical tourism company in India for the medical treatment of patients from across the globe. We had organised medical treatment for him in New Delhi, India. He was 98 kilos, and his height was 5 feet 5 inches.
When he came to the gym in Nairobi, Kenya, where I was working out, it was challenging for him to walk fast, and his goal was to lose weight. Well, I have a straightforward process for helping our clients. The first one was, of course, "What is your number one health and fitness goal? What do you want to achieve?" And his goal was, "I want to be fitter."
The critical question is this "Fit for What"? His reply was astonishing. He said, "I want to be fit to play with my small children and stand up long enough to do gardening in my lawns and. He said, "Playing with my children is a challenging experience, and it embarrasses me that I can't run the way my kids run and play sports. I want to be fit enough to participate in every sport with them." So the programme was designed around getting him fit enough to play with his kids in the garden of his house.
After a few days, he came to the gym and shared, "I played with my kids during the weekend. I was able to run a bit, didn't feel tired and puffed soon." Now, of course, the goals will change. Once you've achieved your five-kilometre fun-run goal, you might choose to do a ten-kilometre fun-run, or you might decide to do more.
"Planning with a commitment to take massive action produces massive results."
- Prabal Arora
What's your Health and Fitness Goal
"I did my five kilometres in twenty-five minutes, and now I want to do it in twenty minutes. So now I've got to be fit enough to run five kilometres in twenty minutes." What I'm asking you to understand is to share your goals, and what do you want to be fit for? Accordingly, if your exercise and diet plan is designed, you will achieve results faster and as per your desired outcome ” no wastage of your time and hard-earned money.
"What's not measured, doesn't change; to experience change, measure it."
- Prabal Arora
If this is what you would like to do, if this is what fitness means to you, please make sure that you get the program that's going to suit you and then take it off. If you want to be fit enough to run around the backyard with your kids and then the day that you do that; you really enjoy it without being puffed, without having high blood pressure or your face going purple. You can say, "I am now fit enough to run around the backyard with my kids. I am now fit enough to run a five-kilometre fun run. I am now fit enough to ski for two weeks in Austria."
"It's not the exercise that builds your body; it's what you put in the exercise."
Don't let anybody take away your goal from you. Don't let anybody demean it. Don't let anybody pull you down. Whatever is significant to you is significant to you only. Surround yourself with people who then celebrate the achievement of your goal for your fitness.
Don't push yourself to do ten or twenty kilometres run or run faster, but be genuinely interested in what your goals are. Be excited when you achieve them and hold yourself accountable for achieving them.
You and Your Fitness Matters
So fitness is all about 'YOU'. You want to fit in an article of clothing; if you want to look and feel a certain way, be able to run, swim, play tennis/basketball or whatever it is, you are the most important person. When you are aiming to get fit, always ask yourself "Fit for What?"
And if this is really important to me, what do I need to do to make sure that happens? Because ultimately, if it is important to you, then you want to make sure that you achieve the goal. Being fit, strong and healthy for a lifetime could also be a great goal. Wouldn't it be great to be able to ski in Switzerland when you are 85? Wouldn't it be great to run a five-kilometre fun run when you're 90?
If that is what your goal is - Fit for What?
"Without a purpose and a well-defined goal, where will you land up?"
- Prabal Arora
