Every person has one thing which gets him/her really excited. It's such that they never get bored of it or more so get so bored due to the lack of it. It doesn't matter how they've picked it up: playing a sport, yoga, painting, singing, cooking, writing, poetry, gardening ........ the list is practically endless. The point is, if they don't get to do it for a certain period of time, their life become a void, a feeling of incompleteness sweeps over them. But while they are at it, there is a certain surge of energy, a positive vibe, euphoria and a lot of other unexplainable feelings are felt.
For me, it's always been BASKETBALL!!! I'll not go into the details of how I got hooked to the game, but when I did, it was pure addiction!! Playing for 4-6 hrs each day was no big deal. The only time I didn't play was: having a serious injury or bad weather. Dipping grades, piling backlogs, constant shunting from parents....practically nothing could lure me away from the basketball court. Today, the personality that I've developed over the years is a direct result of me playing sports, and there is no sport that I've played better than basketball. And without my coach, no basketball. Therefore, the best thing that could happen to me was MY COACH (please check my previous post). Without him, I surely couldn't have achieved anything.
This story takes a twist now. I never thought I'd stop playing basketball to such a low freqency: from not playing once a month to just playing once a month!! Moving to the city of B'lore for work changed this aspect of my life. After almost 18 months of complaining of not being able to play or when I did play, not having the right group, even after visiting almost all of the courts in the vicinity! For a person like me who had always kept himself in shape (or better, I was in shape for having played so much), not being able to play actively almost paralysed my spirit! I did try the tradtional fitness forms: running, gyms ..but nothing worked or may be I didn't make them work as all these were not giving me that 'feel good factor'. On the other hand, health and fitness started to take a slow dip.. late nights: binge eating, too many parties, movies, ... what not!
But I did not have the slightest clue that all this would change. Not too long ago, 1 visit to this place 'NAMMA CROSSFIT', 1 day of a trial, 1 week of extended trials, 1 month of actual workouts and after 3 months here I am: 4 competitions, finished. But I get more than what I've asked for. No, I'm not talking about just physiological results, it's far beyond that!! But, let's start with that, since we are talking about a fitnes center.
For any discipline it's an undisputed truth that, without the right guidance, nothing is possible. Or, even if you get to do somehting, it's menial. Having a state of the art facility without a good coach is similar to having to drive an F1 car, on a off-road track. God damn! Sad but, this is what exactly happening in the fitness industry all over, but not here at NCF. Each of the coaches are highly qualified to not just make you 'do' an exercise, but they 'teach' and make you 'learn'. I'd bet that this is one quality that will keep NCF above and beyond the rest of the so called 'fitness centers'. To put it in a better perspective, they offer you this 'pot of knowledge', make use of it and just tell them you want learn more, they simply show you an entire 'ocean'. That's the kind of coaches this place has! And I tell you, that's very uncommon to find this in your local 'gym'. For a guy like me who was always interested in 'functional training' and who has learnt whatever only from senior athletes and not gym trainers; had come to this place with a lot of 'randomely piled up experience'. But once I really got to know the seriousness of this place and the whole CrossFit ideology, its been a constant phase of Unlearning.
Training under such professionals will directly result in only one thing: increased level of fitness. But as I mentioned earlier, it's not just about the physical transformation. NCF has constantly been giving me the very same things that I've experienced while playing basketball. No matter how many times I've played basketball, each time I set foot on that court, it gives me a sense of excitement. Same when I set foot in the box at NCF. Most importantly, one gets to meet people from so many walks of life!!! Men, women, children....WoW!!!! While, the healthy competition of who lifted how much or who ran how much is always there, it's about how one is always encouraging the other to do better. It's only here, after meeting these awesome bunch of people that I got to re-learn something that I forgot: Being strong also means that you help your buddy finish! The bench marks laid by the fellow members are sky high!! But what's more interesting is that it creates this 'I too can do it' feeling and even before you can realise it, you're already half past that bench mark!! May be the coaches do some sort of voodoo or spray some steroids in air... you never know, but whatever the case may be, you end up JUST DOing IT! This place has got so many possibilites and things to be learnt, that one just needs to be open! And I am so glad that I've made such a good set of friends, who are just one another reason to make sure that no session is missed, no matter what! And this masti does not end with the end of a session at the box, but goes on and on in the various groups of Whatsapp!!!
On a serious note, if you really don't have anything that excites you so much, you're missing something really bad in your life. It's better late than never. Keep looking until you find it. For me till now it's about sports, health and fitness. For you, it might be soemhting else entirely. Whatevet it might be, each one of us must be doing that one thing every single day, which will make us: HAPPY! Yes, it will not be easy to do what you love in this cut-throat competitive world, but realise one thing before it's too late: Nothing is more that your own health, it's your greatest wealth! Make health your priority, your life will be at peace and all the materialistic things will fall into place, anyway. I'll quote H.H. Dalai Lama in this regard, "Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he's never going to die. And dies as if never having lived". Therefore, start now.
Wrapping it up, NCF is what I've been missing in my life after basketball. No more, no less. What I'm learning here will be utilised when I get to my long distant goal: Betterment of Sports in Our Country. Jai Hind!
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