WHY FITNESS IS IMPORTANT FOR A LONG-LASTING LIFE
If you have the habit of observing the flow of events in your life, an interesting observation about age and physical activity can be made. Apart from the mandatory hours of ground exposure that we were subjected to in our school days, most of us don’t exercise by choice thereafter. Higher education, job hunting and marriage tops the priority list and we conveniently ignore physical activity for about two decades. Two decades of gluttony and sloth leaves us in a vulnerable position to force physical activity upon us to combat and delay the associated damages. By then, physical activity would have become a tool to prevent unwanted weight gain and shed excess fat. By all means it’s completely fair to believe that exercise does offer the aforementioned benefits, however, we should not misinterpret the role of exercise and fitness. Most of us use exercise as a weapon to fight and not defend. In reality, physical fitness increases our travel time to the surgeon’s table. But unfortunately, we consider physical activity as a necessity only after we encounter the threat or fear of being sliced and diced by the doctor.
In short, physical fitness is not just about looking good. It’s about promising ourselves a life free of diseases and health issues. Let’s shift the perspective and reconsider exercise as something necessary for a long lasting life. It’s not just about weight loss or fat loss, it’s only about how well you’ve lived till the end.
Why is it important?
The human body is an excellent machine which is capable of not letting the owner know about it’s wear and tear until a certain stage. After the tolerance threshold, it fights back and starts to expose the damages. It’s too late by then to reverse the damages and start fresh. Most individuals hit that point in their life at about the age of 40. 2-3 decades of abuse cannot be reversed in a month or two. It takes time and lot of effort to reset the machine. The bad lifestyle choices that fueled the journey to a vulnerable state of health would have become a habit and it’s almost impossible to unlearn those habits and start all over again. So we are left with two choices: either deal with the situation and make a few changes in our lifestyle or ignore it and move on. Keep in mind that ignoring it will not take us very far.
So what to we do about the situation?
Doing something about this situation starts with rewiring a circuitry in the brain which tells us that fitness is all about looking good. Physical fitness is about being at the best state of health and the cosmetic appeal is just a byproduct of that. So, if you wish to live a long lasting life, prioritize physical activity as early as possible and stop waiting till you hear the monster knocking.
Abhinav. M
