Physical fitness is one of the best and most productive investments we can make in ourselves. From a more agile and healthy body to a positive mental outlook, the benefits are many. My recent participation in the Dubai Fitness Challenge was a fun and rejuvenating experience that inspired me to share some of my thoughts on the matter.
The Dubai Fitness Challenge 2018 was an excellent opportunity for me to indulge one of my favourite workouts, cycling. The commitment to 30 minutes of physical activity for 30 days during the Challenge has gained substantial momentum and becomes the city’s obsession during those 30 days. From group yoga routines to aerobics, callisthenics, pilates; from cycling and running to brisk walking, people adopt whatever form of exercise suits them best. Although I am a firm believer in maintaining a regular fitness regimen, I had not been able to ride a bicycle regularly for quite some time now. I have taken advantage of the great workout that a stationary bike provides on many occasions, but riding a bicycle along a route one enjoys outdoors is so much more satisfying and stimulating!
For most of us, learning to ride a bicycle is a rite of passage as a child. I still remember my first lessons on a bike that was several sizes too big for me. The few clumsy falls along the way were worth it to experience the thrill of finally cracking the code on how to maintain my balance and enjoy the feeling of the wind against my face. As I made my way along my chosen route during this Fitness Challenge, that same feeling of freedom and joy came back to me.
It was during one such ride that the thought came to me that perhaps we have begun to take physical fitness too seriously for our own good! Let me explain. I don’t take the benefits of exercise lightly at all. On the contrary, I have experienced its many benefits all my life and enthusiastically acknowledge what a difference it has made to me. However, we also live in a culture that too often tends to associate an exercise regimen either with the confines of a gym or the goal that appeals to our vanity of ‘looking good’! Somewhere along the line, the simple pleasure that physical activity brings to our bodies and minds seems to be getting lost in calorie counting and heart rate monitors. I am by no means questioning the reader who is an avid fitness enthusiast, pursuing specific goals with discipline and determination. I find such commitment commendable and inspiring. However, to me, physical fitness is far more than the solitary pursuit of a few driven individuals. I believe that the joys of physical activity should be indulged in by all of us who are blessed with good health to be able to do so.
Our bodies are our most wonderful possession and the greatest gift that nature has given us. Our entire experience of our life is based very fundamentally on the health of our physical form. We are surrounded by distractions and amusements, both physical and virtual, in our modern world. Despite this, it is ultimately our body that we use to experience these things. I think we are all aware of what a positive difference even a single instance of physical activity, let alone a regular regimen, makes to our mindset. In this context, I found the goal that the Dubai Fitness Challenge set for itself – of making the city the ‘most active in the world’ – very encouraging. I strongly believe that if looking a certain way is the primary reason why people have a fitness regimen, they are shortchanging themselves. Instead, remaining ‘active’, as the goal of the Fitness Challenge states, should be our pursuit. The body is a biological machine that functions best when it is active and maintained well. In that sense the old saying ‘use it or lose it’, definitely applies here. In my opinion, the term ‘fitness’ should be reclaimed from an emphasis on losing weight or extreme bodybuilding goals, to the pure satisfaction of a game of Badminton or Frisbee. Or to reap benefits like the sort of creative inspiration that seems to only strike on a solitary brisk walk by the waterfront, or the exhilaration of an hour of rigorous pedalling that clears the mind for strategic thinking!
No matter how much our screens and devices entertain us, we are ultimately physical beings whose quality of life depends on the state of our bodies. And as frantically as the world around us is changing, our biology comes from a simpler time. In the spirit of this insight, I would like to encourage the reader to find the time to include some physical activity as part of their everyday routine, if they don’t already. On the surface, this might be somewhat strange coming from me, rather than a professional athlete or trainer. However, I believe that the experience of an ordinary person might well have more value in this case. On the evenings that I took to the cycling track of one of Dubai’s many green parks, my competitive streak undoubtedly pushed me to try and better the previous days’ timing on each occasion. However, I sincerely feel that the most significant positive for me was to be reconnected with my body and develop a meditative focus that usually seems so hard to achieve. I have since begun ‘30 mins x 365 days’ commitment, and I encourage all our readers and residents of Dubai to make it a part of their daily life.
