FITNESS – THEN AND NOW

Mamatha Subbaiah keeps our readers glued to her articles! Her immediately previous topic about Civic Sense was timed well to coincide with the District Administration’s drive for cleanliness. Her chant was essentially one of cleanliness is next to godliness. In essence keeping one’s surroundings clean should be a virtue as important as being morally good or religious.

The current topic was a bit of a surprise – yet so relevant. Gymming has become a cult with the youth – fashionable, expensive and an obsession. The mantra of Health is Wealth has once again become a catch phrase. Mere exercise is only a part of the program. Maybe this could very well be an article from MS in the future! – CLN Newsdesk

Losing weight, skipping meals, spending long hours in the gym, constantly worrying about the shape of our body has become an obsession these days. Fitness routine, diet plans and calorie counts seem to dominate the lives of many young men and women.

I do not understand the need to spend so much time in gyms, purportedly on Manicured Fitness. In reality it is more of a socialisation phenomena and a place to be seen. The older and less fashionable would recount with…. “when I was a kid, none of this existed“. There were no gyms, no protein powders, no Fitness apps nor counting steps or calories. We ran because it was fun, climbed trees without fear, walked long distances without calling it exercise and slept peacefully without the need for pills. Movement was never scheduled, it was life itself!

We rarely spoke about lifestyle diseases. Our days were filled with walking to school, playing outdoors until sunset, cycling through lanes and helping with household chores. Physical activity was not something we planned, it was simply a natural part of living. We did not call this exercise. It was our rhythm of life. Estilo de vida!!

Somewhere between then and now, life seems to have changed irrevocably. Work has become sedentary, screens have replaced playgrounds, food has become “convenient” rather than nourishing and stress has settled quietly into our bones. Amidst all of this our mindset has not evolved. We have turned Fitness into an obsession and dismiss prevention as vanity. What we once achieved naturally now demands conscious effort. The gym is no longer about vanity. It is about survival and making a statement. It is resistance against diabetes, hypertension, depression, weak bones, and a future spent in Hospital corridors.

Life has changed dramatically. Work keeps us seated for long hours, screen replace playgrounds. Perhaps that is why Fitness has now become a “conscious” effort rather than an “effortless” way of life. The old mantra of Health is Wealth should always reign supreme.