The unilateral dimension in which health is propagated leads to many quitting even before giving themselves a chance of getting healthy. The gym has become synonymous to fitness, it is professed that to ensure a healthy life it is mandatory for you to visit the gym. Although getting to the gym adds wheels to your journey towards fitness, but it is not the end game of fitness.

Even before gyms existed, Hanuman and Hercules were both specimens of extremely healthy individuals. They never did a barbell curl, or used a hack squat to sculpt their aesthetic physiques. Even our ancestors had long and healthy lives without going to the gym.

Yes lifestyles have changed and the gym is a good option to mute the stresses of work and focus uninterruptedly on being healthy. But opposed to conventional wisdom the gym is not the only way of getting healthy.

The inertia of laziness

Inertia of Laziness is defined as the force preventing you from getting out of your comfort zone and progressing towards a healthy life.  The very first step towards progression is the most important as it requires for you to overcome all these forces preventing you to move.  At most times the complexity of the solution adds to this inertial of laziness and prevents you from taking the first step.

If you force a lazy person to directly climb a hill, 90% of the time his will will crumble at the magnitude of the task. To overcome the inertia of laziness one has to indulge in micro efforts and then turn them into major ones.

How the health industry promotes pain as a precursor to being healthy scares many even before entering the gym. The heavy dumb bells, complex machines and exercises and sacrificial diet plans  are enough for people to stick to their comfort zones and drop all plans of initiating healthy change.

Healthy hercules and hanuman

Herd thinking will want you to go to the gym, but you have to take some time off and ask yourself if you really need to. Fitness is not to be interpreted as going to the gym. When you make that relation you are inclined to forego your plans of healthy change all together.

Envisioning yourself lifting heavy weights and doing complex training will make you lose interest and quit your plans even before starting. You will feel that the pain and sacrifice you have to invest is not worth the returns.

Rather than accepting what everyone says you should look at variable ways of staying healthy. Healthy doesn’t always mean big bulky biceps, six pacs and shirt tearing physique. Not everyone can be a bodybuilder. Healthy means to be able to undertake all your daily activities efficiently for a long period of time.

Baby steps to a healthy life

Rather than chasing generic health goals, set realistic and achievable short term goals. Invest your healthy time in activities which you enjoy, the gym can be a part of it and not the whole. Devise a strategy which allows you to sustain your plan rather than something complex which you wont be able to follow for long enough.

Again the answer lies in being realistic with yourself and customizing strategies based upon your specific preferences. As mentioned above, the initial bit is most important. Once you start seeing the mental and physical results of investing time on your health, you are bound to increase your activities through free will.

Rather than taking a giant leap which cant be repeated you are better off taking baby steps which you enjoy. Start now and you will see yourself gradually falling in love with the healthy lifestyle.

Men are moved by the aesthetic. This is the main reason most gym hours are spent honing biceps and triceps. Sadly these muscles keep you so engrossed that they alter your perception of fitness. Add to the mix some abs, and that’s here the workout ends.

The motivation to look good is not bad at all but in its intoxication you seem to forget other vital aspects of your fitness regime.

Yes the world promotes the aesthetic, ripped torsos and bulging biceps and triceps are always appealing and imitable. But men often fail to see beyond this masquerade, your body possesses more than 650 muscles and most of you are just stuck on three.    

Here is a look beyond the obvious for the people who actually want to be fitter:

The fascination for the visual is beyond human control, that’s why biceps and triceps are the only muscles people want to behold. 

The others spend sleepless nights and have heart attacks, in admiration or envy of another persons six packs.

But does fitness end at only these things, or do we need to look beyond these anatomical blings. 

People put their body through so much trouble, just to build up these three muscles. 

If only they could realize the importance all other muscles possess, they would come over their urge to impress. 

Fitness involves training so as to provide efficiency to your daily activities, rather than swelling your arms and creating stomach cavities. 

If you think only three muscle groups are important, you are telling yourself a lie, the entire body needs to support you till the day that you die. 

So engrossed with the apparent makes we wonder why, Do they even know the bicep is made of brachialis, brachioradialis and the bicep brachi. 

Most misconceive that the bicep muscle only comprises the balloon on your anterior arm, but these muscles also cover the shoulder and the forearm. 

The tricep muscle has three points of origin at the posterior part of your humerus bone,  Most people train them till they are over grown.

The pectoralis major is shaped like a fan, it covers part of our shoulder and chest, essential on Mondays of most workout plans. 

The anterior, middle and posterior deltoids surround the shoulder, along with the four muscles of the rotator cuff they make it look like a boulder. 

The latissimus dorsi is the biggest muscle of the back, the trapezius muscles is where your shrugs attack. 

The Rhomboid  muscle on your back is diamond shaped, teres minor muscle of the shoulder wraps around the humerus like a snake. 

The rectus and transverse abdominus along with the internal and external obliques form the core, try as hard you can only have 8 pacs and not more. 

In awe of your abs you seldom workout on their supportive muscle group, the Erector spinae on the back often gets you in a hunched soup. 

The iliopsoas, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and adductor magnus are the muscles of your hip, often ignored these along with the core are the anchors to your body’s ship. 

The legs comprise the quadriceps and the hamstrings, chicken legs blame weak genes cause these aren’t visible through your loose jeans.  

The gastrocnemius and soleus work on your calves, its about time you start spending time building your lower halves. 

Your muscle development should be a consequence of your effort and not the sole aim for it. Society wont allow you to look beyond biceps and triceps but you have to ask yourself question, do you want to be fit for the soceity or yourself?