What Happens When We Stop Training!
Guru Angad Dev ji, the Second Guru of the Sikhs, took a keen interest in sports and physical training. He had a concept that one has to be physically and mentally strong to achieve anything in this world or on spiritual grounds. He said, "One has to be powerful outside to remain powerful inside because a strong soul abides in a strong body." He encouraged people to take part in physical activity after morning prayers. For this, Guru ji made a special wrestling arena or 'Mal-akharas' where people used to train themselves. There was no discrimination between the rich or the poor. All were equally treated. People, especially children, used to perform in the arena under Guru's vision. That was just WOW.
And later, the sixth Guru Hargobind Sahib ji introduced two swords, 'Miri-Piri'. Miri means Political or Wordly power and Miri means spiritual power. The concept of Guru ji was to make the Sikh panth strong and fearless. A person should be a devotee of the Almighty as well as a warrior, too. A Sikh should be strong inward as well as strong outward. To fight for his rights. To serve humanity. To look after weak people. To live a righteous life according to Gurmat. For all this, you need to be physically and mentally fit. Where 'Miri' makes us fearless outwardly, 'Piri' makes us fearless inwardly. If someone is taking benefit of your silence, humbleness or innocence, then grabbing a sword and fighting for our own right is 'dharma.' And for grabbing a sword or any other weapon one has to be physically strong and fit.
Once Guru Gobind Singh ji was invited by Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was emperor at that time and he offered him his own seat to sit. After seeing this, the 'Pir' or Spirtual teacher of Bahadur Shah Zafar got jealous because Safar never offered his seat to his Pir. And this Pir came forward in jealousy and asked Guru Gobind Singh ji to show some 'karamat' or Spirtual power, Guru ji tossed his coin and said one karamat is this. And that pir said, No I am not convinced by this.
Then Guru Sahib said ok then. Guru ji grabbed his sword and said what about if I behead you in front of your king. And then Pir started shivering and said, "No, no. It's OK. I got it." Guru Gobind Singh ji wants to convey a message that money or power itself is a powerful thing and that is called 'Miri'. Later Guru ji made Khalsa panth in 1699 A.D and made a Sikh Khalsa, 'A SPIRTUAL WARRIOR', who does not lack in anything whether it's spirtualism or worldly power. A complete man or woman. Likewise, in this modern world fitness, is also very important and the thing should be considered that its an important part of Sikhism and always will be.
Fitness plays an indispensable role in our lives. Now-a-days, everyone is a fitness freak and wants to look good. But every coin has two sides. Likewise, everything has its merits and demerits. I won't say exercise, gymnast, aerobics or any kind of physical or cardiovascular activity is bad. I am not saying that. But once we get used to it, it really becomes difficult and tough to leave or to walk away from it. These effects are not severe though so don't worry. Here are some adverse effects of leaving gym or exercise:
If anyone is doing a workout for years and suddenly he quits, he would start feeling its effect in a week or so like anxiety, depression, unusual and irritating behavior because exercise makes us feel light and calm. When we do any kind of physical activity, we not only burn our calories but our mind too becomes calm and soothing. We feel very relaxed after it. It has been scientifically proven that exercise reduces anxiety and depression and stimulates hormones in our body. If anyone is prone to workout, then he or she definitely going to have problems, especially in their behavior.
It affects our insulin level and BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Whenever we stop doing any physical activity whether its cardiovascular, gym, or any other. Our body becomes fluffy and fat and the big reason for this is diminishing of insulin level and metabolism in our body. Insulin helps to balance sugar levels in the body. High insulin level means high metabolic rate and high metabolic rate means you can't be fat easily and low metabolic means you can get fat easily even if you eat less. Low insulin level may leads to heart problems, obesity etc.
It is really hard to re-gain that strength and endurance level again especially on cardiovascular grounds. Whenever we start doing exercise again after a long period we find it very tough and not interesting. And people gets fatigue and sometimes feels like vomit and dizziness.
People often realize loss of muscle strength. Well, It has two aspects. If you are sitting all day long without much activity you will expect to feel lost of strength at faster rate. But if you keep yourself busy in any sport or do some activity everyday to let muscle feels some tension then you may save your endurance. Something is better than nothing. Even a bit counts.
You may experience loss of connection between your mind and muscle you made through years and years of training. This is because when we train any muscle group we give our full tension and attention to certain bodypart we are training. If we rejoin gym and start training after a long period, we may experience an off feeling or a distracted kind of feeling or a feeling of going back home. This is because of the loss of mind-muscle connection.
Exercise plays very important part in our lives. We drink, we eat, we sleep regularly. Just like that, workout or physical activity is also very important. If we stop eating or stop taking enough sleep, we expect to see see the results. Likewise is training. So keep training and stay fit and try not to skip it for so long as it's difficult than to achieve that level which you made by years of efforts.
'Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts Forever'