BENGALURU : Listen to your body’, ‘don’t push yourself too much’, ‘stick to traditional food charts’, and most importantly, ‘avoid fitness goals for social media visibility.’
This is the advice that Bengaluru-based fitness experts are doling out, especially with the reason for Sandalwood star Puneeth Rajkumar’s death still uncertain.
His sudden death has raised eyebrows over extreme training schedules. Unfortunately, the timeline of his demise was such that all theories indicate over exercise to be one of the possible reasons.
From blaming unqualified personal trainers to the lack of knowledge on a person’s medical history, the loopholes in the fitness world are a plenty, claim experts.
Wanitha Ashok, Fit India Ambassador and fitness coach, says, “Screening a person’s fitness levels, especially for those aged above 35, is important before signing them on for a fitness programme. Following my aerobics classes, I suggest my students go for a walk, cycle and do other relaxing activities. This is where the problem lies. Warm-up and cool down activities and following a right diet are overlooked often. Training modules should be based on skill-based workouts specific to our day-to-day routines like picking up, lifting, and turning. This principle of specificity helps improve the quality of your life,” adds Ashok.
Excessive training leads to health complications. According to experts, it can result in chest pain, joint pain, increased stress levels, muscle loss, and postural imbalance.
Shailendra Rane, fitness director at Reset Koramangala, a city-based holistic fitness centre, says, “One needs to get the right amount of sleep, diet and a step-by-step progression during workouts. This tripod module should be maintained, otherwise it can lead to stress on physical joints, spine, heart and muscle.”
Dr Meghana Mevawala, clinical and sports nutritionist, emphasises on sticking to your grandmother’s recipes.
“Re-inventing the wheel and detaching from our grandmother’s curated recipes puts us at risk. Actors, who are used to intensive training routines, usually stick to a low-carb and protein-based diet. However, taking incorrect proportion and combination of these processed foods creates an imbalance, leading to health risks. Rajma-rice or ragi mudde is a safe and healthy option to stick to,” says Mevawala.
Other fitness experts believe that, for professional actors, the workout demands are short-term in nature. And these quick-body transformations might affect their health. Hema Saklaspur, founder of Namma CrossFit, a cross-section
fitness centre, feels that the right amount of theoretical information on how the body functions must be
included in the school textbooks.
“The reason why there is so much imbalance in certain people’s fitness routine is because of lack of education on fitness. Second, the biggest loophole in the system is the lack of certified trainers who quit their professional jobs to invest in fitness. There needs to be a policy that stresses on providing authentic training certificates, so that trainees are not misguided,” says Saklaspur.