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Dec 3

Are fitness and endurance goals pushing people over the edge? – The Hindu

Fitness Comments Off on Are fitness and endurance goals pushing people over the edge? – The Hindu

Recently, actor Godfrey Gao died at 35 after he collapsed on the sets of Chase Me. A reality show filmed at night, it sees celebrities compete against pro sportspeople, to test those cornerstones of all fitness activity: speed, strength, endurance, balance.

Have you felt of late though, that were all part of a sort of reality show that dwells on fitness to the extent that if youre not doing something substantial lifting a loaded barbell, working the ropes, swimming 1,500 metres thrice a week, youre relegated to the bottom of this new fitness caste system?

You cant just be running 5k or training for a half marathon you better be doing an ultra. And if you dont look like a pro with the right gear, well, whats the point of being? Amateur sport is being seen like a corporate ladder to climb.

How did we get to the point of this extreme, where weve tied ourselves up in knots about going harder, pushing ourselves, working towards a higher goal? Its happened because, as the actor Adil Hussain recently told me in an interview, we have shifted, as a society, from being knowledge-driven to becoming goal-oriented.

This puts our various organs out of sync with each other not just a mind-body disconnect, but an organ disconnect. In fact, my mind may be speaking to my legs telling it to go faster; my heart may be crying out for me to stop.

If you are in touch with your body (mind included, because hell, its a part of the body so can we please stop saying mind-body, as if the mind is dangling like a spare part outside of it), and you slow down or are stagnant, its a matter of great shame.

I am a part of this self-shaming club: some years ago, I took part in the shortest leg of Delhis first triathlon the sprint tri. I havent made any progress. I should have done the Ironman in Goa this year, I tell myself, so I keep quiet at the few athlete meet-ups I attend. I am not a triathlete, I say with shame in my voice, I just dabble, admitting in that one sentence that I havent tried hard enough, Im not as good as they are, I dont know how Im even sitting here facing them.

Down the rabbit hole of self-doubt, self-blame, and the need to prove that we are somehow better people if we just pushed ourselves a little harder to run across ice or a sun-bleached desert.

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Are fitness and endurance goals pushing people over the edge? - The Hindu

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