Jane Fonda Revisited

Jane Fonda . who ?.

Oscar winning Hollywood actress . Right!. That's a correct answer!

Aunt of actress Bridget Fonda & Daughter of equally popular Henry Fonda. Even Better!

Flag bearer of Aerobics/Fitness revolution in US in the late 70s. Perfect! 5 bonus points for this one :).

I so much wanted to write a post about an activity close to my heart. Fitness!.

Flashback to 10 years ago!. I was nothing more than a mildy overweight lazy kid, who had the stamina to play little except may be a game of Cricket or may be TT. Swimming beyond one length of the pool was a daunting task. Running was restricted to a short sprint of not more than 100 m. Growing up in a big city, with an excessive academic orientation, forces you to compromise big time on a physically active life. Hostel Life at Engg. College Campus is somewhat better, but by now you have grown a little too cozy with your lazy self to make an effort to improve. All this continues, until one fine day at the end of long working hours in an IT company you complain of back ache. Your in house medic diagnoses it as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), and recommends a compulsory fitness regime. Now that's what i call inflection point.

If you are one of the lucky ones working in an MNC with an awesome in house gym, you are blessed. Others might crib of the high monthly fees and travel time to gym everyday. I am sure in the first two months, you would think of quitting every single day. May be you even actually quit a couple of times. But you are back again, for the hard work of exercise is still preferable over enduring a painful back ache.

While you start off with modest stretching exercises for the back, but you are soon drawn by towards the omnipresent TREADMILL. This sudden love is something i have seen in so many people and still fail the fathom the reason behind it. and then the treadmill changes your life foreever. As you graduate from your 5 kmph for 15 min to a running at 10 kmph for 45 minutes, you build amazing stamina. This doesnt come easily, might take anywhere between 4 - 6 months to achieve. But you seem to start liking this new feeling, that you lose your penchant for quitting. In fact, you start feeling restless, every single day you miss your exercise. In fact scientific evidence says, that exercise releases adrenalin into the body, which creates the sense of well being. Now you can be classified as a fitness addict.

As you loses multiple tiers of fat that encircle your body at ever available girth, you start craving for more. Now you start eyeing a more muscular physique. Now you have the stamina for doing weights, so there is not much stopping you. except that if you are pure vegetarian (egg is non veg) like me, muscles take their own sweet time to develop. While eggs and whey protein are preferred dietary supplements, a veggie has to make do with plenty of dry fruits, bananas, soya and sprouts. It always helps to have a supportive mom/grand mom at home, to understand your nutrition requirement. As a bachelor staying alone in a big city, good nutrition is one big handicap one has to live with.

While the perils of working out are limited to occasional injuries that may put you out of action for a few weeks, you are back to your best in no time. The positives are innumerable. Besides, showing off a fit body, you are that much more capable of performing strenuous physical activity like playing soccer, trekking, running marathons etc. Physical exercise is also recommended for a stressed out mind, combined with meditation. Now coming to meditation. After reading about a hundred different forms of meditation, I felt the most effective one is the simple breathing exercise. no seating posture required, no locational constraints, not thought constraints. Just slow down your inhaling/ exhaling to three times your normal duration, while closing your eyes. Continue this for 15 - 30 mins.

Talking about a few fitness impediments, I faced while in Mumbai. I have realised that, eating out often throws our diet out of gear. While north indian masaledar food tastes amazing, its spiciness ensures you consume very little sabzi and more carbs (roti/nan). Also the excessive use of alu in food, just adds more carbs at the cost of other nutrients especially fibrous vegetables.

Now what happens is, the excessive carbs all get converted to fat and add your bulk. I call it the MOM'S PARADOX. While mother's expect their kids leaving home to grow leaner because of lack of quality food, their kids actually put on more weight eating junk away from home.

Instead of only carbs, if vegetables were consumed, only a part of them would be absorbed, while rest would help in easy digestion. Ideally, fruits would be best supplement to carbs, as they do provide plenty of minor nutrients in addition to providing the fibrous alternative to a carb rich diet.

Another question that I have been asked by many, what is the ideal jogging/running technique ?. Some complain they exhaust very quickly, others crib that its a boring and monotonous activity. My solution would be simple. If one runs at what is called as breathing speed, you can run any distance as long as boredom/mental exhaustion doesn't catch up with you. Breathing speed, I would define as the speed of running/walking at while you continue your normal breathing and not increase it. Well, this would be as low as 5 kmph ( normal walking speed) and as you build your stamina it increased to say 8 kmph in about 6 months. My breathing speed is about 10.5 kmph and that's the average speed at which i complete my half marathons, which last nearly 2 hours. Now to beat the mental exhaustion/ boredom part, It requires tremendous will power. a few like listening to their ipods, a few others hum songs as they run along. I recollect fond past memories, which keep me occupied during the run. Another simple method helps a lot, while running always look down, not ahead. This ensures that you are not too bothered by how far, your actual destination is, while you focus on continuously build the rhythm.

Whenever, I meet Europeans, I always envy their physical fitness. As Indians, we lack a fitness culture. Its high time, we develop one especially when we are in our 20s and 30s. If not, the consequences are there right in front of us to see. The increasing number of patients suffering cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, especially if one has a family history of these diseases.