Faster, stronger, lighter

When my doctor said I needed exercise, I promptly changed my doctor. When my mother told me a couple of days later that exercising was a goo...

When my doctor said I needed exercise, I promptly changed my doctor. When my mother told me a couple of days later that exercising was a good idea, I furrowed my brow. But when my wife suggested that I should start going to the gymnasium, I realised that matters had become pretty serious.

I said: 8216;8216;No, no, not the gym. With all those fit guys pumping weight I will really feel inferior. And those big, steel contraptions really intimidate me.8217;8217;

8216;8216;Then you must get a personal trainer,8217;8217; said my wife. 8216;8216;But isn8217;t that expensive?8217;8217; I asked, sensing an escape. 8216;8216;It8217;s better to spend a little money on a trainer than pay a lot of money for medicines and tests. The way you are going soon your ticker will start hurting, and believe me, they will put you through a battery of tests. And those tests cost.8217;8217;

There was iron in her voice and that more or less settled it.

My wife and I scanned the papers and found Noshir from the classified ads. He was a strapping fellow with bulging biceps. He nearly laughed when he saw me. He pointed contemptuously at my tummy and said, in six months that will only be a bad memory. We deemed him too aggressive and made our apologies.

Rajesh came next. He looked fit and did not seem too contemptuous of the general disarray of my body. He spouted jargon. We will have to start with a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercises, he said. In aerobic exercises, you fight against oxygen levels. In anaerobic exercises you have to fight against muscle levels.

We will divide the time between exercises like running, swimming, skipping and some weights. He must have seen my eyes bulge with alarm at the mere mention of weights. In my mind8217;s eye I could see those large weight-lifters raising hundreds of pounds. So he immediately said, don8217;t worry, we will start light with ten-pound dumbbells. We will build slowly. You can rest after each batch of exercises.

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Rest. That seemed to trigger some deep primeval reaction. I immediately said, 8216;8216;Let us start with anaerobic exercises.8217;8217; He asked, 8216;8216;Morning or evening? You are more fresh in the morning, but the body is more flexible in the evening.8217;8217; I thought for a while, and told him that evenings seemed fine. So I started at 7 o8217;clock. Thrice a week.

Things are going reasonably well. I think. I have almost begun looking forward to seven o8217;clock. I also find that on the days he is supposed to come and does not turn up, I feel an acute sense of loss. The endorphins begin kicking in a few minutes after I start and really take a grip after I finish exercising. They give me a bit of a high for a while. My guilt pangs have gone down as I consume another samosa.

I am a month into personal training now. My stomach still bulges, albeit a little less. But my doctor, mother and wife greet me with smiles these days.