December 1st 2022. I woke up at 5 am, freshened up, packed my bag, picked up the car keys and stepped outside. It was pitch black and I drove my red Swift guided by its lights. Seven minutes later, I stopped in front of the Titan showroom and took the lift to the fourth floor – the lift was a little rickety which is usually the case in such buildings. I took my first tentative step inside the gym. The first feeling was that of intimidation.

The definition of gym – in my head

I was never a fan of gyms – they made me very uncomfortable. Right from childhood, I had been thin with skinny arms. And in my head, gyms were a place for bodybuilders with huge muscles on every part of their body – I could not relate to it at all. And once you started gym, you had to take protein powders (which would make you abnormally disproportionate) and before you knew it, you would be having supplements and steroids of all kinds. Everyone knows that, right? Going to the gym for “fitness” was not something I had encountered growing up. 

The definition of fitness – in my head

Fitness had a few definitions. One of them was running and cardiovascular exercises. All you had to do was get 20-30 minutes of walking or jogging and that would take care of the entire body. It’s ok if you aren’t able to do it regularly when you’re young – once you are older and have more time, you could always walk a little extra and catch up. If you wanted to go a step further and improve your flexibility, you could get into Yoga. That should tick all the boxes for overall fitness, right? Wrong!