MADHURIS FITNESS JOURNEY - PART 1

Who is this Madhuri? Surely not Madhuri Dixit! Of course there is a lot to learn from her. But this fitness journey is of Madhuri who is one among us. And there are many such common Madhuris. A Madhuri, B Madhuri, C Madhuri, -------- P Madhuri and so on.

Every Madhuri has a story to tell about her fitness journey. Though the stories are different there is lot of similarity in all those stories.

P Madhuri was a very naughty child. In her school she was known for her sports. She use to be caption of teams for Kabbaddi, Kho kho, throw ball and her schoolmates from opposite party use to worry when she use to enter the ground. In her college days also she played games like table tennis and badminton. Once she finished her higher education she got a job, she got married and she became very busy. No time to play and no day-to-day exercise. As P Madhuri was getting higher posts her work became more sedentary. Whenever time permitted she use to do yoga, walking, cycling but that was not a regular practice. Many a times she was feeling guilty that she is neglecting her health, but she did not have a single minute to spare (of course as what she says. Maybe she didn’t try enough).

When P Madhuri was about 55 years old her knees started paining a little, after 4/5 years the pain increased and she was advised not to fold the legs, not to sit down, not to use Indian toilet and she followed all those advices very sincerely. Under the mask of professional hazard, she developed cervical and lumber spondylolysis, her back started paining, and she started becoming more conscious about her health.

She retired at the age of 70 and thought of starting her daily exercise routine. During pandemic period many YOU Tube channels flourished giving health tips and exercise routine.  Our P Madhuri started following the same. Her doctor advised her to undergo knee surgery, but P Madhuri was reluctant. She thought of taking morning walk as exercise, but after a walk of about 1 km she could not go further. P Madhuri who use to work in kitchen for hours together could not stand for more than an hour. She was gaining weight, fluffiness, lethargy all typical symptoms of old age and she was surprised to see that she was becoming lazy.

Our A Madhuri got married at the age of 15. She delivered three children by the time she was 23/24 years of age. Her health was totally neglected due to home duties, house work. She had not completed her education too and no one to talk. She too developed knee pain, had to undergo surgery.

Our B Madhuri was a house wife. She had support of servants at home. So She had lot of free time to spend with friends in kitty parties, picnics etc. She too totally neglected her health and developed diabetes, blood pressure.

Our C Madhuri was very conscious about her figure. So she reduced food intake without consulting dietician and developed acidity, headache and such complications.    

I can write on and on stories about many more Madhuris.  But as I said the common point is neglecting health, which is seen in most of the Indian ladies. And further after a particular age they feel they are now grown OLD so such problems are bound to happen and we just have to bear with it.

But I will like to tell here that our P Madhuri had a different opinion. She felt age is just a number and she can improve her fitness and journey to fitness started.

To be continued...

Written By-

Dr. Madhuri Pejaver

M.Sc., D.H.E., Ph.D.

Former Dean of Faculty of Science, University of Mumbai.

Former Ptincipal, B. N. Bandodkar College of Science, Thane.

Former Director of VPM's Advanced Study Center, Thane