Amateurfitathletic

07/11/2024

This is how my university looked today. It’s the perfect set-up to forget about the stress of end-term assignments.

06/08/2024

India’s biggest hope and expectation on the shoulders of this giant.

NEERAJ CHOPRA - THE BEAST HAS ARRIVED IN PARIS 🥶

18/04/2024

Almost after a decade of running my first half marathon, I recently rediscovered my affection for running. Outdoor running is quite unique in that it’s outdoors, self-propelled, grounded, translational — you are one with the environment around you. It’s these elements that keep pulling me away from my confined gym setting to tracks, parks, hills, and meadows. It’s magnetic. So much so that I recently signed up for a half marathon in Hastings.

Read the full article on my blog Amateur Fit Athletic:

https://open.substack.com/pub/vipinpt/p/am-i-missing-something-by-not-running?r=2qeu6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

(Link also in my story)

09/04/2024

Jack of all, master of diversity. Or call me a hybrid athlete.

Long ago, I used to view exercise with a narrow lens of cardio and strength training; now the lens is wide and I also keep changing the lens (perspective I mean).

None of us is an elite athlete, rather amateur yet keen fitness enthusiasts. This is a good thing, because being elite is extremely hard and it doesn’t guarantee long term fitness — but injuries are almost always guaranteed. Amateur is a sweet place to be in.

You can — you should — still chase athleticism, enjoy variety of exercises, play multiple sports, compete, and push boundaries once a while (by running a half marathon for example). Work on strength, endurance, mobility, stability, resilience and whatever fitness parameter that you think is important for you.

However, even as an amateur, what you can’t be is complacent.

06/04/2024

Which one are you?

Also what’s your experience either as a “weekend warrior” or as an “all-week-hustler”

This was a part of an “Exercise I.Q.” quiz in the , and I got this one wrong.

03/04/2024

There are lunges, also called pistol squats, done carrying a heavy weight overhead on a bosu ball (don’t ask me what’s the point) — hurts just imagining doing it I know. Then there are lunges which a one year old baby does, learning to get up from the floor, holding the mother’s fingers with one hand and a cradle edge with another.

There is a whole universe between these two. The trick, the key, is to determine which one suits you the best, i.e. provides you the most benefit.

Why not simply ditch lunges?
Because you need more diversity and more compound movements, not less, in order to be fit, to play, to perform better in life.

Find yourself somewhere in the below sequence:

1. No lunges
2. Climbing stairs
3. Less than body-weight lunges meaning lunges by holding on to a support such as a chair.
4. Body weight lunges
5. Body weight lunges with more than 3 sets
6. Step ups
7. Lunges with smaller weights
8. Lunges with smaller weights, more reps and sets
9. Lunges with bigger weights
10. Bulgarian lunges (done without alternating legs in one set)

Few months or years later, may be buy a bosu ball.

30/03/2024

One week later after my half marathon that left my calves sore for 3 days, it’s time to hasten the recovery. Yes, I don’t feel fully recovered yet, especially in my lower body.

Have patience, listen carefully to your body, and actively work on recovery. Don’t drag yourself just because you feel ‘okay’.

26/03/2024

On Sunday, I ran Hastings Half marathon, with a finish time of 1:54:28 which is almost the average finish time for men in the UK.

It’s a strange feeling to have completed what felt like a gruelling task with an average finish. I have not trained for long distances for a long long time now, my previous half marathon was in 2014 in Bangalore. This was a great opportunity to reflect how much (of my fitness and mindset) has changed in almost a decade.

As I sat down after the race with an extremely sore calves, I read that somewhere else on earth, a 40 year old woman (Jasmin Paris), completed a 100 mile run. She didn’t merely finish it, she did it in a record time (59 hours, 58 minutes, 21 secs). The mental fortitude it would’ve taken her to do that is unimaginable for the rest of us.

That news left me a bit more humble, and a bit less sore.

12/03/2024

Didn’t we all know that walking was excellent for health? To recommend someone to walk more felt like truism, but it isn’t. How much to walk to obtain optimal benefits (especially if you already have an exercise program) has never been obvious, it still isn’t, but this new, well designed study sheds some light.

Ahmadi MN et al has showed that weather a person is sedentary or not, walking 9k to 10k steps per day on an average reduces risk of death (by 40%) and cardiovascular disease (by 21%) compared with those who did only 2200 steps/day.

The minimum walking dose to achieve significant benefit was 4100 steps/day. So yes, with more confidence than ever, we can say that your walking (or running) time is valuable for your overall health.

One important thing to note here is that this study did not measure the rate or the pace of walking. So if, instead, you fancy running — which helps accrue 10k steps much faster than walking — you might still receive those benefits.

04/03/2024

No sweat broke in this session, a quick one before an afternoon meeting. It won’t be the same tomorrow, when I come back for an enduring cardio. 😥

Good start to this week.

20/02/2024

फिटनेस और व्यायाम के बारे में चर्चा और आत्म-बोध बेहतर जीवनशैली की दिशा में पहला कदम है। पिछले कुछ हफ्तों में भारत में अपनी यात्रा के दौरान, मुझे इस विषय पर बहुत अधिक चर्चाएँ देखकर सुखद आश्चर्य हुआ। युवा ही नहीं, बुजुर्गों ने भी बढ़-चढ़कर हिस्सा लिया।

केवल "स्वास्थ्य" के सामान्य विचार के बारे में बात करने कि बजाय, लोग अब फिटनेस और व्यायाम के बारे में बात कर रहे हैं, कम से कम उस कमरे में जहां मैं मौजूद था। इतने सारे आने वाले सवालों का जवाब देकर मुझे बहुत खुशी और गर्व महसूस हुआ। सोशल मीडिया की ताकत की बदौलत धीरे-धीरे एक क्रांति हो रही है।

मैंने यह भी देखा कि लगभग आधे बुजुर्गों ने अपने बूढ़े घुटनों पर भरोसा खो दिया है। कृपया ध्यान दें: चलना, हालांकि कुछ न करने से बेहतर है, आपके घुटनों की कार्यप्रणाली को वापस लाने के लिए पर्याप्त नहीं है। लोगों को एक व्यापक प्रशिक्षण योजना की आवश्यकता है।

अब कार्य करने का समय आ गया है।

#भारत #यात्रा #स्वास्थ्य #फिटनेस

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The discussions around and self realisation about fitness and exercise is the first step towards better lifestyle. During my travel in India for last few weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to witness a lot more discussions around this subject. Not only youngsters, elders too took active participation.

From merely talking about a generic idea of “health”, people are now talking about fitness and exercise, at least in the room where I was present. I was so happy and proud to answer so many incoming questions. A slow revolution is taking place, thanks to the power of social media.

I also observed that almost half of the elders have lost trust in their ageing knees. Please note: walking, although better than nothing, isn’t enough to bring back the function in your knees. People need a comprehensive training plan.

It’s time to act now.

16/02/2024

The discussions around and self realisation about fitness and exercise is the first step towards better lifestyle. During my travel for last few weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to witness a lot more discussions around this subject. Not only youngsters, elders too took active participation.

From merely talking about a generic idea of “health”, people are now talking about fitness and exercise, at least in the room where I was present. I was so happy and proud to answer so many incoming questions.

I also observed that almost half of the elders have lost trust in their ageing knees. Please note: walking, although better than nothing, isn’t enough to bring back the function in your knees. People need a comprehensive training plan.

It’s time to act now.