"If you are not flexible you are liable to get injured".

"If you are fat you are inviting joint problems".

This anti-negative propaganda has highlighted the ills of overeating and not exercising. Avoiding disease conveys only half of the benefits of getting fit. The other half deals with the positive benefits of fitness.

Rather than only presenting a menu card of maladies resulting from poor fitness, which most of you are aware of, I would like to highlight some of the positive effects of REAL FITNESS. REAL FITNESS is presented as an elixir. A stimulant to enhance your life positively. If your body is a temple and soul the deity, REAL FITNESS beautifies the temple and pleases the deity.

Fitness improves the functioning of almost all the major systems of the body.

Firstly fitness eliminates major coronary risk factors by making the person more active and reducing obesity, cholesterol levels and stress. Exercise also helps in maintaining blood pressure and blood sugar.

Are fit people large hearted ?

Yes indeed !!

As one gains cardiovascular fitness through exercise, the heart muscles increase in size. The capacity of the heart chambers also increases. Thus at rest the heart has to beat lesser number of times due to increased size. It is like using a bucket to transport water instead of a glass. You would be making lesser trips with the bucket. A fit person with a lower resting heart rate would be conserving a lot of heart beats, and possibly living longer!

Cardiovascular fitness would not only add years to your life but also add life to your years. The quality of life improves when the endurance improves and you have abundant energy for daily activities and more.

Further the blood pressure is better maintained with exercise and often the use of anti-hypertensive drugs is eliminated. The lung capacity increases and oxygen utilization is enhanced.

The changes in the musculoskeletal system are usually very apparent and visible. The muscles when exercised develop a healthy tone and firmness, which adds shape to the body. The muscle cells actually grow in size and strength. Stronger and more flexible muscles adapt better with the aging process and make the body mechanically more efficient.

Better muscles and posture help in maintaining the integrity of structures like the back, neck and knees that have tendency to degenerate with age.

The bones have shown to strengthen with exercise. Exercise improves the bone mass and reduces the incidence of osteoporosis. This is of great importance to females around menopausal age where bones tend to lose calcium and become weak.

Reduction of fat is cosmetically the greatest feat achieved by exercise. As you progress towards REAL FITNESS the fat levels will drop from the depot areas and you start looking better. The waist will shrink and the hips will have better shape. The health benefits of fat reduction are tremendous. Literally a load is taken off the body, the joints function better, the heart is not overworked, you get less tired and your posture improves.

Described above are some of the positive effects of fitness on the body. Apart from these tangible changes brought about by fitness, there are several subtle improvements in the quality of life. The following section deals with real feelings expressed by people indulging in the process of fitness.

You are a winner with fitness. You could be a winner of two types with fitness. The outer winner and the inner winner. The outer winner comes in the shape of a better looking and a better performing you, in the eyes of others. Fitness makes you more effective and helps you stand out in a crowd.

The inner winner comes in the form of better relationship with self, with better self-esteem and more confidence. Fitness improves self-esteem. There is no doubt about it. Scientific papers apart, I have seen this happen very early in a fitness program. Looking good has a lot to do with increased self-esteem. The self-opinion also improves with the feeling that the person has control over self and he can make changes happen for the better.

I am quoting Kiran, one of our subjects verbatim:

"I have inherited this height and this face. I can do little to improve them. But reducing fat and improving my muscles are totally under my control. As my fitness is improving, I feel I am the boss. Apart from looking good and feeling more energetic, I have started liking myself better."

Fitness and confidence: Nihar was a shy boy before he joined the gym. His parents often complained that he left things half done. He was gloomy all the time. He slouched and rarely made eye contact when he spoke. He was very nervous during exams, lacked confidence in himself and took failure as something inevitable.

In the gym, he took up weight training as an exercise where he had to pick up increasing loads much against the wish of his crying muscles. Often he would feel like giving up, abandoning the barbell or shirking the last few repetitions of the exercise. Goaded on by the instructor he started pushing himself, creating a very positive mental desire to proceed with the exercises. He worked through pain and fatigue, lifting more and more weights. He started accomplishing workouts he would not have dreamt about. He started believing in himself, that he could do what he had decided on. His arms filled up, his chest stood out and his whole personality changed. Today the old Nihar is not recognizable. There is a spring in his stride and he is moving upward and forward. Fitness gave him confidence.

REAL FITNESS begets happiness. Intrinsic happiness is induced by exercise, through certain chemicals released in the blood. Endorphins are substances produced by exercise, which beat stress and create vitality. Runner’s high is a common term used to describe an exhilarating feeling induced during a long distance run. Endorphins elevate mood while decreasing pain and feeling of fatigue.

There is ample evidence that fitness changes type A personality traits. Typically a type A personality is the anxious, aggressive, worrying, hurrying individual with burning ambitions, allergic to failures and setbacks. Type A persons respond adversely to stress and have high coronary risk factors. Research has shown that regular exercise changes behavior patterns of these people to create more calm and proactive individuals.

Smita was a typical type A personality before she joined aerobic dance. She would fret and fume for the smallest reasons. There was stress all around and there was stress all day. Stress in the kitchen, stress with the maid, stress with the kids’ homework, stress while shopping, stress with the husband’s pay packet. The irritation threshold was very low. She started loosing hair and her countenance changed for the worse. This is when someone suggested aerobic exercise to her.

You have to meet Smita today to see the difference. She is now an enterprising aerobic instructor cum happy housewife. She is happy, the maid is happy, kids are happy and the husband is ecstatic. All thanks to fitness.

REAL FITNESS increases creativity. In right handed persons the left side of the brain looks after the day to day matters involving administration, organisation and rational thought. The right side of the brain is associated with imagination, creativity, poetry, humor etc. Most of the time the left hemisphere is used for routine matters. Fitness has shown to stimulate the right brain to make life more creative, imaginative and exciting. The dormant right brain when stimulated could add new dimensions to life.

The late music director Sachin Dev Burman was an avid morning walker. He would be seen early in the morning at the Juhu beach in Mumbai taking a brisk walk. I still remember his lean, erect frame, his long strides and the rhythmic gait. Possibly this was the time and place where many a melody originated in his creative mind.

Fitness and sex: The sexual desires and performances both increase with fitness. As fitness improves your looks and makes you look younger, there is an increase in your confidence. It also makes you more desirable.

A healthier heart can tolerate exertion better, making sex less fatiguing and more enjoyable. Better flexibility gives scope for more postures and variety. The frequency as well as the duration of sex improves with fitness. The feel of a warmer, stronger and shapely body is better than a cold, fat, atonic body. Thus fitness helps you both psychologically and physiologically towards sexual fulfillment.

Fitness and money: While fitness shrinks the waistline, things are quite different with the financial bottom line! Fitness and money seem to be directly proportional to one another. The fit person could earn more due to increased production capability, energy and drive. Mornings become lovely and one looks forward to a day of good work. Persons undergoing fitness programs have sworn about increased efficiency and better performance with increasing fitness.

Fitness is supposed to sharpen the saw. A saw gets blunt with continuous use. It is better to halt the work, sharpen the saw and then resume the activity. This is more effective than trying to cut wood with a blunt saw. In life we sometimes drive ourselves relentlessly. Exercise, sports and recreation are considered as a waste of time. That is the mistake. A stale and tired mind cannot be productive. Take a break, pursue REAL FITNESS. The batteries will be charged, saw sharpened. The results will be seen at work.

Fitness helps save money by reducing costs of medical services. For example a diabetic attaining sugar control with diet and exercise could save a lot of money on expensive anti diabetic drugs. A good bottomline equation would be: Investment of Rs. 3,000/- on an exercise cycle could save Rs. 3,00,000/- on coronary bypass surgery!

Fitness and sport: Fitness is the mother of sport. More fit a sportsman better the performance. Probably many of India’s sports results would improve with better fitness levels. An athlete with low fat, superior endurance, flexibility and strength has a great advantage over his less endowed adversaries. Better fitness is associated with lower incidence of sports injuries. Better fitness is also associated with a better mental attitude and confidence, which contribute towards better performance. Fitness improves the length and quality of the sportsman’s career.

Better fitness helps even recreational sportsmen like you and me. I have seen a great difference in my tennis game after starting specific exercises to improve the `tennis’ muscles. The incidence of injuries reduces with improved fitness, at all levels of sport. Listen to Ajit Parmar a keen amateur golfer. "My golf scores were often bad due to tiredness creeping in towards the closing stages of the game. I then embarked on a scientific diet and exercise program. Today I am able to concentrate better, I am less tired and even my golf swing seems to have improved, all thanks to fitness."