2023

– A year frozen in time.

I started the new year with the aspiration that this would be the year I would be super fit. I spent all of last year on an annual plan on Kenzai. I did the KB 1, 2 & 3 and a couple of the shorter programs in between. while I did not lose weight, I managed to maintain it at a steady muscular 82. And then Christmas happened and I spent most of December and some part of January celebrating. Holidays, traveling, kids, chilling, alcohol and good food. End result = weight spike 82 – 86. And the damn scales never dipped lower. I wasn’t too eager to restart Kenzai, although tbh its one of the best programs I have signed up for. Provided I stayed the course and was disciplined.

Clarity – Get only what you want. State your expectations up front and stick to your guns. You decide.

The long story: I decided to walk down the Marina, and hubby decided to join me. I left my wallet (read: all cards and cash) back home because I was curious to explore a gym nearby. And here, I really mean, explore, I wanted to see what they had to offer, and how much it would cost and I wanted to get back home and compare and then mull over it, sleep over it, chew it up to bits and then decide. And yes, I was expecting it to be a good three month exercise in itself. However, hubby, did not share this brief. To him, me wanting to explore, is equal to, me wanting to try. So, when I walked in, hubby says, ‘I don’t like gyms, but if you want to exercise indoors, this is probably the best place for you.’ I was only in the ‘explore’ phase of the exercise, but he had gone to the ‘shortlisting’ phase and the ‘let’s commit’ phase. So, when the receptionist said, ‘We have a buy a 3 month, get 1 month free AND you get a personal trainer as well’. He quickly changed the tune to, ‘This sounds amazing, baby, maybe you should try this once’. And, I have to say, I am a fence sitter. 100% of the time, I will dilly dally on the most mundane decisions, and that is the ONLY reason I make plans in advance. Even for chores like, cooking. Recipes, ingredients, are planned to the minute. I try not to commit, to anything, unless its forced on me. Because when I do, I give it my all and at this point in time, I was still not too keen to commit, but when put on the spot, like so, I opted to ‘try’. So, hubby whips out his wallet and flashes his CC. Obviously, he had not got the brief about the explore, mull and ponder and chew-to-bits part of this exercise. And before you know it, I had been signed up to a three month stint at a very hi-fi gym in the Marina.

The part that I had not articulated well to myself or to hubby was that while I may have never been to a gym before, exercising in confined spaces is not suited to all. So, in hindsight, I should’ve waited and worked through what I really wanted before I signed in.

Next morning, I got ready, and headed to the gym, more out of guilt than anything else. I had spent a huge chunk of money, and here I was having to ensure that I set the right example to the kids. Then I got the first shock, PT was at an extra cost, charged in packs of 5 or 10. And could be finished at one shot, or over the course of three months. I have trained as a gymnast for close to 15 years and I hate coaches or tutors or ‘count-keepers’ of any kind. So, the PT was trauma for me. But I bit my tongue and went for the sessions out of guilt, at 9am everyday for the next 6 weeks.

What I learnt here was that while it was super glamorous to have a ‘personal trainer’, they are not a one-fit-for-all kind of thing. If you don’t require external motivation to exercise, then PT is not the best for you. I prefer doing my training as I finish my work around the house. Over the years, I have fine-tuned my clock, to work, exerise into my house chores. It saves time. It gets done as do my chores and then I have my shower and we are ready for the day. Exercise and fitness for me is as important as cleaning and cooking, so I fit it in at the same time. And finish both exercise and kitchen work by 8am and have the day to myself.

TLDR:

Don’t sign up for something you are not too keen on. If forced into a spot, and forced to commit, chances are, you are going to waffle and find excuses to not give it your best.

Discipline. While you can take a break from exercise or the gym, you can never take a break from discipline. Because your body demands it and functions well when you follow the inputs you are receiving.

The long story: Let me put this in context for you. I am an early riser, I wake up at 4 am every morning. I go to bed rather early, specially on school nights, around 9.30-9.45pm. I wake up, get the milk/tea, snacks/breakfast/lunch done and cooking if that’s my responsibility done as well and usually wind up with kitchen work latest by 06am. Then I clean the house, as the kids have left, so beds are dusted – made; house is swept/mopped; round 1 of washing is loaded. And then I come to complete my exercise. This is usually around 7am. I have never exercised beyond 730am in the last 15 odd years. I then shower, handle the wash load, and reload for round2 and sit to either finish my art, or write a blog. And this has been the schedule for the last few years. I never get out of the house, without a shower. It’s one of those things, the kids and hubby rag me about all the time. I can go out to play a match, and I will do so after a shower, and return and have another one, rather than step out dirty and come back and have a shower.

TLDR:

Stick to what your body is used to. Post 40, explore gently, don’t commit to something that’s not your norm.

Pain is subjective. If you had to make it universal on a scale of 1-10, where at 1 you can perform normally and at 10 you are immobile. STOP when you reach 3. You don’t have to wait till you reach 10, like I did to get treated.

The long story: SO, while the gym opened at 6am, I was busy with chores around the house, until almost 9am. I spend an hour, every morning, just hanging around with hubby, while he completed his official standup calls, and some office work from home. I leave for the gym around 930am, which is when he stepped out to go to office. I dropped him to the cab, then went to the gym and would return almost an hour sometimes a couple of hours later. Feeling like a lump of jelly, rather than a strong human being. And everything was fine for almost 5 weeks. I had aches and pains, but nothing quite unique. I have a high threshold for pain, so I can manage most stuff without whining too much.

It was around this time, that I had some issue with the lateral presses I was doing. I was unable to do than with the kettlebells. It would hurt, but I was able to finish my set of reps and then sit around. Post the entire stint at the gym, once the PT sessions were done, I took a break from going to the gym, because the pain was higher than the pleasure. I decided to exercise at home, because it was a lot quicker and gave me almost most of my mornings back to me. Roughly a few months after that, I found it tough to lift my right arm up straight. This motion did not really affect me all that much. I had no real requirement to raise my hands above my head to do anything. I just got on with my life. We moved locations, moved our house and while the act of raising my hand was tough, it was nothing that was an absolute requirement and I was able to manage without it. So, I ignored the issue and got on with what required to be done.

TLDR:

Don’t wait on injuries to get treated. Be prompt. Every. Single. Time.

Clarify. Understand. Ask questions. Understand some more. Get after-hour contact details. Research and ask more questions.

The long story: Understand why you are going to take a tablet. What happens when you get a tablet? What to watch out for? Is there an after-hour number to contact the doctor? Does taking the tablet mean that you will have to follow it up with treatments like Ultrasound massage or Cold Laser treatment or EMP massages to get better. How long will this realistically take?

Vacations started, and we made sudden plans to travel back home and it was at this time, that I decided to get the opinion of an orthopedic to see if something had to be done. He did an x-ray said, it my be a strain, nothing looked torn and prescribed anti inflammation tablets and patches to be put on my arm and to return in 10 days. However, since I had tickets to travel on day 10, I decided to postpone the visit for a couple of weeks and visit, when I returned. During the course of my vacation, my arm, froze, literally, I was barely able to move it around. So, I visited with a doctor in India and he referred me to a physiotherapist after he did an Ultrasound and x-ray to ascertain that there really was nothing wrong with my hand. I managed a couple of more weeks with this, and thinking that the pain medication was SOS based, did not take anything until I returned.

Then, I returned and messaged the physiotherapist who referred me to a doctor who insisted I do an MRI which proved the same thing, I had no tears or injuries, but it was just frozen stiff. And that’s when things started free-rolling downhill. Its been four rounds of sessions with the physiotherapist and lots of ultrasound therapies, cold laser, EMP treatments and massages later, that I am finally able to lift my arm up, at an angle of 80 degrees. This is my first round with a physiotherapist, and the one thing I have learnt, is that its a super slow process. You have to be patient and wait for things to get back to normal. Working with a trainer with a healthy body may get you faster results than working with the physiotherapist who is working on your body which is in pain to restore a level of normal functionality. Don’t expect miracles.

TLDR: Medications. Injections. Any treatment. Takes time. Understand what the timelines involved are.

Patience. Patience is a virtue. You have to wait for results. For everything.

The long story: When you injure yourself, you have to be patient to give your body time to recuperate. Unlike a viral infection, where the vaccination started to work as soon as you got the injection, a frozen shoulder injection or a corticosteroid injection given in your shoulder, takes about 2 to 3 weeks to start working. The needle injury itself takes about 2 weeks to stop looking bruised and stop hurting at the site of injection. Effectively, 3-4 weeks post injection, is when you really start to see results. This is in addition to regular physiotherapy sessions supplemented with exercises at home. And after all this, you may just get about 75% of your mobility back. And with continued consistent efforts, post this, you may get back to almost normal. At this point, its important to remember that, what you get back may not be ‘as good as new’ but a ‘almost the same as before the injury’. The operative phrase being, “almost there”.

TLDR: Recuperation from injuries, takes time and discipline and effort.

Conclusion: The biggest learning for me this year, has been that I am growing old. My body, which used to react quickly to most things, requires time to recuperate. Add to this a hormonal imbalance because I stopped the oral contraceptives, and now I have to wait for my body to get back to normal hormone production which would lead to lesser water retention and better muscle tone. My learnings on Clarity, Discipline, Clarifications, Pain being subjective and Patience can be extended to most aspects of our life.