National Personal Trainer Awareness Day is observed every year on January second with a day to honor the experts who assist us with keeping our goals high. 

As the new year begins, one of the most popular resolutions of every year is getting fit, and hence comes the popular demand for personal training comes for the rescue. Their tasks are not exclusively to inspire us, yet to ensure we figure out how to function our bodies securely. As much as lack of motivation keeps us from our goals, the inappropriate use of equipment can lead to injuries which again can become a reason for getting demotivated. 

So we have for you an exclusive series about the Best Personal Trainers sharing their views on fitness and health.

Honnesh Kamaria, Yoga and Fitness Instructor, TheYogaShrine, has an interest in sports (mainly football) and played professionally for Mumbai FC U16. He took a Yoga class at the age of 14 and became a certified Yoga instructor at the age of 16. Later he branched out into the Holistic Lifestyle, where he started gaining more knowledge in terms of fitness and acquired knowledge in all aspects of health.

Health and fitness if not just 1 hour at the gym

Honnesh explains, “There are plenty of things which come into the process. So at a beginners level, when clients look in the mirror, they notice some differences, some inch loss and if the main goal is to lose weight, they need to know their body and how it reacts, for example, someone would like to eat a banana before working out but it may not work for someone else and this comes with experience. On a professional scale when you see athletes, there are various tests like body fat measurement, depending on the sport they are playing. But we are talking about general fitness, observe your own body, experience it, if you crave for something have it in healthy proportions that won’t make any difference to your body. So it completely depends on your own personal goal and your own experiences and from where you come from, for example, eat something your family's been eating for ages because that is your core, but pay attention to healthy changes because these will appear to be minor changes which shall come together and make a very big change. Talking about health and fitness, health is a very big term and fitness is one part of it. In fitness, there is diet, consistency, dedication, discipline, there are plenty of other things and together it makes health and fitness and it is something you can incorporate in your lifestyle. It is not what you do for an hour in the gym, it is something you experience, live with, and is a part of your life,” he says.

In life, there are no shortcuts

Honnesh sheds light on the subject, “In life, there are no shortcuts, you have to fall, you have to learn, you have to experience things in order to keep going. You learn with experience, that there are some things which work really well for you, and which give you great results. It is important for the youngsters as well as everybody to start from scratch. We can't jump from standard one to standard 10, we have to clear each standard, so it is important for us to have that experience, as well as enjoy that part of it. If someone likes gymming or likes playing badminton then play badminton for 10 - 15 minutes or even an hour with the objective that you enjoy it and not for being fit. It is not important for you to go to the gym and pick up barbells and make 16-inch biceps, fitness is a different term altogether. So there are no shortcuts, embrace the journey, feel the journey love the journey, and keep growing,” he says.

To be in fitness, study the subject

Honnesh explains, “Everybody has their own tips, maybe if I do this exercise this way, it affects me more and I could share this with my friends or audience that this is something I experienced. It doesn't mean, it is wrong, or it is right, there are no projects, which are wrong or right. These are just excellent exercises or movements. So I wouldn't say they're wrong or right but if you are really into fitness, study about it, do courses about the field of fitness which interests you or maybe have a degree in it. As knowledge is endless, keep upgrading your knowledge, as every six months there is something new which is important for us to update with the industry in order to know what is going on,” he says.

Accept what is coming up

Honnesh explains, “Will the year 2045 or the year 2050 have the same technology or same method of teaching as what we do today? With COVID happening, people lost jobs, and there are a lot of negative things happening. But when you look at the side of it, we started with a new era, of technology where we started taking online classes. Though I was not very socially available on media platforms, COVID made me one. So one learns new things and expands their horizons. Also, it definitely doesn't have the same impact as my personal opinion, personal touch, or that rapport with your client. I mean, it is just a one-hour thing and you just teach and you just disconnect the call and you're done. You have to have a personal rapport with a client in order to have a long relationship in terms of fitness. But it is high time we start taking it up and we start expanding our horizons and learn about this and accept what is coming up,” he says.

(Edited by Rabia Mistry Mulla)