Patna: With gyms mushrooming across Patna and fitness turning into a lifestyle badge for many, experts warn that enthusiasm alone is not enough. What matters, they say, is how one begins the gym journey and whether fitness is treated as a long-term commitment rather than a fleeting style statement.Fitness professionals point out that while doing a variety of exercises is essential for a healthy body, workouts should be guided by purpose and awareness. The gym, they say, is not merely about aesthetics. It is about sustaining physical and mental wellbeing, something that often gets overlooked in the rush to look fit.Before stepping onto a treadmill or lifting a weight, people must share their health details with trainers, especially if they have conditions such as diabetes or blood pressure. Workouts, experts say, should always be planned with these factors in mind. Equally critical is the presence of a trained professional. Wrong techniques or excessive exercise, they caution, can take a serious toll on health.Akash Kumar, a qualified gym trainer with 10 years of experience, said there was no fixed rule on who should or should not go to a gym. Exercise, he said, was for everyone, across age groups. However, he strongly advised beginners to opt for certified trainers and start with low-intensity workouts.According to Akash, a trainer’s first responsibility is to understand a person’s medical history before designing any programme. “Certified trainers are a must,” he said, warning that a large number of gyms have come up in every nook and corner without qualified professionals. He also underlined the importance of proper stretching and warm-up sessions before any vigorous exercise.On the rapid rise of gyms and gym-goers in the city, he said, “No doubt the number of people going to gyms increased, but it is still less when we compare it globally.”He also addressed concerns raised by videos circulating online showing people collapsing during exercise or even while dancing at parties. According to him, such incidents could be linked to people who had never exercised before but suddenly took up extensive physical activity, placing immense strain on the heart muscles.Amin Khan, who has been running a gym on Fraser Road for the past 28 years, said exercise was necessary at every stage of life, though the body’s needs change with age. “Gym can be started from 14. It can be focused on stretching. Between 16 and 18 years, it could be strength gain and increase of height, and 18 to 35 it will be toning of muscles. After 40, I suggest it is important to hit the gym as our body needs balance and a way to get out of a sedentary lifestyle. In a nutshell, a gym or a trainer can be the same, but planning needs to be changed with age,” he said.Khan was particularly critical of what he described as the growing influence of online fitness trends. “Fitness influencers, I guess, are affecting our youth. These youngsters, without understanding the bad effects of supplements, are consuming them, ignoring the fact that a proper balanced meal is enough. But this is a multi-crore business, and youngsters going to gyms think supplements are the way to build their body while whey protein is fine after a certain age,” he said.He too spoke about deaths reported in gyms in recent years, which he said he had started noticing over the past four years. “These could be people who have heart related ailments, or they got into too much vigorous workout. No doubt even supplements are reasons,” Khan said.Another fitness trainer, Ankit Kumar, highlighted a different but equally common issue — quitting too soon. “People do come to reduce their weight, and we saw that after achieving their goal, they stopped coming to the gym, which rather increases the weight later on,” he said.Experts also pointed to routine mistakes made by beginners, including starting workouts too aggressively, copying advanced routines from social media, and chasing heavy weights with poor form. Such habits, they said, significantly increased the risk of injury and burnout. Many people, they added, focused excessively on cardio while neglecting strength training, mobility, posture, and balanced muscle development.All of them flagged over-reliance on supplements while ignoring basics such as diet and sleep, skipping warm-ups, failing to track progress, and changing workout programmes every week as factors that slowed results. Pain, they said, was often misunderstood. While muscle burn and mild soreness could be normal, sharp pain, joint pain, numbness, dizziness, or chest discomfort were warning signs that required immediate attention.Experts said many people eventually stopped going to the gym because they set unrealistic goals, expected rapid transformation, or followed routines that were too time-consuming to sustain. Quitting, they warned, could lead to loss of strength and muscle, reduced cardiovascular fitness, worsening insulin sensitivity, weight regain, increased stiffness and back or neck discomfort and a decline in mood and stress tolerance.
Related Posts
