To those who think I will be writing about what it takes to keep fit or the growing understanding amongst Indians and in India, for staying fit; you are totally wrong… This piece is about the love for staying FIT amongst people in Dakar, Senegal.
I have moved from India to Dakar and its been quite a while that I have been intending to write about the enthusiastic people in Dakar. I use the word enthusiastic to describe their eagerness to stay fit.
When I was in India, I remember holding an unending debate about staying fit. Forlornly, I had always heard people say that people went to gym to lose weight. Even though I had tried convincing them and changing their preconceived notion about gym, but in vain. They would just refuse to accept the fact that gyming is not just about losing weight but to also stay fit. Gym is not only for people, who want to shed weight, but its also for those who would like to maintain their weight. I personally, have always felt refreshed after gyming, have always achieved mental peace, when I walked out of the gym. I use to feel so refreshed, felt as if, the day could start again! But alas, I could never rub off the feeling in others in India.
I met my likes in Dakar, who too loved exercising.
The day I landed in Dakar, the first thing I thought was “wow, people are so FIT”. Back in my school days, I always thought, Africans are genetically thin, but now I know, I was wrong.
The drive to our house made me think so different; I could see people jogging down the road…. The popular myth, that we can only workout in the mornings or in the evening was also proved wrong. In Dakar, I have seen people exercising at all odd time of the day; in short, you would always see someone or other working out, during the day.
To people here, exercising doesn’t just mean, hitting the gym and sweating it out. At ever corner, wherever there is a little space, you would see people exercising. Hence, the fact that you can only exercise in a gym is totally wrong.
When you drive down the cornice road in Dakar, you would notice people working out on ‘very different’ looking weight training equipments. I was quite curious to see those equipments. One day, I just walked down to beach to have a look. I was totally surprised at what I saw. The chest press equipment (don’t know, what should I really call them), was basically a bench to lie down on, tree trunk used as the chest press rod and car tyres as weights. Wow… is an understatement. For triceps training, they either used the car types or tree trunk. Running on the sand helped them build their thigh muscles….
The sight just put me to shame. I had always thought, you could never build your muscles, if you didn’t have proper weight training equipments.
Way to goooooo people… hats off to you guys!
