I Like to Move It...Move It

 

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Have you ever had a dream in which you are running?

I find these my favorite kind of dreams. 

I just love to run around the imaginary landscapes and wake up with my sheets tangled up. Then I start off the day with my special workout routine. 

Exercise was not always my favorite thing but as I started to grow up I began to enjoy it as much as reading mystery novels. There’s a thing about exercise, you can only hate it when you are going to start doing it but when you start doing it and see the awesome results then there is no stopping. 

I became a preacher of exercise all because of my parents.

Right from the tender age of 4 or 5 my mother has chauffeured me off to try various games. 

My first sport was Skating. All I remember is rolling and falling over, I was never too inclined towards this rolling racing game and just spent time getting my bum and knees bruised. 

Finally, in 1st grade we went on to try something new and that’s when I started Karate classes. I remember that fateful day when the coach taught us middle splits. By taught I mean he literally told us all to push our legs open with the help of the wall. 

It was my first time going in a split and when I became the first one in my class to do it I just knew I was never ever going to forget how to do it. That split got added to my core memory. 

Karate classes were fun. I learned many types of kicks, punches and I even learned how to move the nunchuck Bruce Lee style (okay I am exaggerating on the nunchuk). I just touched it once but I swayed it so dangerously that I was banned from it. 

But sadly, our karate coach had to leave. So, again we had to switch sports. 

I know we could have just spent time at home but I was in grade 4 with not much homework and a lot of excess energy so our mom enrolled us in Dance Classes. 

Dancing, is it a sport or not?

 Well, you can drop your views on it in the comment section. 

For me, I always considered dancing as a sport. I even wrote in my English exam for the question: Write about your favorite sport. 

Though ma’am just gave me 3/10. Well, I was in grade 4th. Not much of a writer then. 

The only reason I thought dance to be sports was because I never worked a lot on the cultural part of it. I used to fill all my dance performances with cartwheels, splits, bridges and all other aerobic activities.

 

It's not my fault I hate dancing, it’s the classical dance sir’s fault. 

When I was just in upper kindergarten he told me classical dancing was not for me.

That day 5 yrs old me, pledged to never learn classical dance. 

Anyways dance classes turned me into a kind of semi- gymnast. 

Those dance classes though suited my younger brother. He really knew how to dance. He used to steal the show at every party with his moves. 

Life was normal for 2 yrs. 

The turning point of my life came in the form of a trip to Jaipur. 

Our hotel had a swimming pool in it. 

Out of us four only my father knew how to swim. He told me and my brother to wait on the edge of the pool as he went about showing off skills. 

Then he held us and took us around the pool just once.

That night, I had a secret conference with my brother and mother, in which we decided to learn to swim and show off in front of papa on our next vacation. 

So, I went to the community pool for my first lesson, the jealousy I had in me left as I stared at the water. 

I was not scared but instead I felt excited. 

The water it indeed called me.

I  could feel a connection as I stepped in the water. 

In just a week, I was Swimming and I just loved it. 

Finally, the coach took us to the deep end of the pool. It was 16 feet deep. My brother and mom chickened out and ran back to the shallow end. 

I knew that the water was deep and my feet won’t touch down but then you don’t walk in water, you swim in it. 

So, I held my breath as I plunged in and opened my eyes. 

It was beautiful inside the water. It was so quiet and pretty as the sunlight bounced around on the tiles. 

Enclosing the scene in my eyes I came up and then  doggy paddled to the edge. 

After practicing for another week in the deep end, I got roped into my district’s swimming team. 

Being on the swim team I experienced many physical and mental changes. 

Physically my height grew taller, my body started to shape up nicely, I even grew in love with keeping my hair very short because chlorine used to wrench it up. 

I gained strength and endurance from the long training hours. 

In the morning our coach made us do an intense 1 and a half hour workout on the ground. 

It really confused me that why did we have to run 10 rounds if we were swimmers. 

Turns out that we are not fish but humans so our endurance needs to be built outside not inside water. 

Finally we used to get a half an hour in the pool before rushing to school. 

Being on the swim team we had to inculcate certain changes in our diet. To be honest, eating two eggs and so many almonds each day was not easy. 

Then after school, I used to just plop my bag and head again to the pool. 

It was 4 in the evening yet we stood under the scorching sun doing warm up and then finally jumping in the pool to learn various techniques. 

I learned all four strokes of swimming. I like the backstroke in it. You can watch the sky as you glide on water.

We were even taught flips and dives. In a way, I have certain swim tricks up my sleeve now. 

Mentally, I gained a lot of sporting experience. Being part of so many competitions I was able to realize being a player was not an easy feat. 

Sports and studies are equivalently difficult but in studies a lot of students can score full marks but in sports only one person will bag the gold medal. 

Most importantly swimming taught me consistency. Our coach used to be strict and uptight regarding our training. The change in weather didn’t alter our routine. 

So, even now I know that regularity is the key factor in any workout routine. 

My swimming training helped me push my body to a limit. It helped widen my abilities. 

But sadly my chapter of swimming came to close as I went in grade 9 the pool went under renovation. The coach said we would go for training somewhere else but it was too far from my home, so, with a heavy heart I backed out. 

The next sport I found was Athletics. I learned how to begin a race and how to run faster. It was a good game but I missed swimming, it couldn’t fill the gap in my heart. I gotta visit the gym for the first time due to athletics. 

On rainy days we worked out in the gym and learnt how to use all the scary looking machines. 

After a few months I tried out Basketball. Due to my height boost in swimming I had a slight advantage to my side in basketball. As days went by I started to enjoy basketball and just when I was going to think of it as my next favorite sport, 2020 came in my way.

This was the first time I had no guidance from any instructor so obviously being a silly kid I slagged away with my exercise routine. 

But the spark for exercise was rekindled by a visit to Patanjali Yog Gram next year.

I then realized that I was never born a sports person.

I might have won a few medals at district level on the swim team but that’s it. 

I never had that competitive spirit. 

I am just a simple bookworm who likes to read and write curled up but that doesn’t mean I cannot move my body. 

Yes, I am not a sports person but I love taking care of my body. 

I like being active. 

If you ask me to race I will race with you not to beat you but just to feel the wind on my face. 

In this journey of life we will meet many people but till the end you will have only your body.

So, I devised a special workout routine of one hour in which I put all the exercises, stretches and yoga I learnt. This special workout gives me the motivation to carry on with the day. 

I know we all are busy with studies and examinations but have you ever thought about how fun it would be to do a  headstand or relax yourself by cycling out in the open?  

One hour for your body will freshen you up and boost your learning potential. 

Just spend time connecting to your body.

Who knows you too start to like to move it… move it…