The following article is the direct narration of the author ! Gaurav Kumar, a sportsman, swimmer, fitness enthusiast and a Research Scholar at IIT Kanpur, was humble enough to share his fitness journey with ICANBEFITTER !
Being an army brat I grew up in the army ecosystem where a normal day used to begin with witnessing group of cadets doing their morning physical training, things like army personnel in uniform working out in playgrounds was a common sight during my childhood days.This led to ignition of a spark inside me to join Indian army but due to some health constraints I became unfit to do so. Nevertheless the spark to stay fit still remains.I have been an avid sports enthusiast since last 10 years. I have been a part of my national university lawn tennis team during my B.Tech years. Therefore it would be completely wrong to say that I developed my current physique out of nothing. I had a solid base to start with. After I completed my B.Tech I couldn’t continue with lawn tennis anymore due to work pressure. I was working as a software developer in Gurugram, the lifestyle was quite hectic, with irregular working hours. I did not put a lot of weight during that time as I was quite conscious about my diet and didn’t use to eat a lot of junk food, but I surely lost a lot of strength and started feeling weak as compared to my days as an athlete during graduation.
After I started my PhD at IIT Kanpur, I started lawn tennis again. It helped me to regain my
strength and stamina, but after playing the sport for so long and with such seriousness I kinda stared feeling bored and started looking for a change. This is when, I pursued bodybuilding seriously and started to go to gym on a regular basis.
I have been working out for around two years now. I would share my progress in chronological order, I hope this would motivate atleast few readers.
That’s me two years back, when I didn’t use to lift

After 6 months of lifting!
After 1 year of continuous gymming!


This is how I look currently, that’s roughly 2 years of lifting!


FITNESS ADVICE
Now, when I look back, I realise that the key to attain a good physique is consistency and proper knowledge. I have been an avid sportsperson and a fitness enthusiast but still I feel that I made quite a few mistakes through my journey to get muscular. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions prevailing on social media which can delay your transformation process. With theright knowledge and guidance staying fit and achieving a great physique is not that tough.
For Beginners info
Few mistakes that I can point out which I committed during my transformation are, eating too less (in order to lose fat) which I later figured out wasn’t helpful, instead it was hindering the process of fat-loss, second is, not taking proper rest and working out too often. These are the two major ones that I can point out and I am sure there are many others. If I get a chance to reset the clock and start over I am sure I can attain the same physique in 1.5 years rather than two, that’s how much proper knowledge plays role in anyone’s fitness journey.

TAKE AWAY
Well, you either learn by someone else’s mistakes or you make those mistakes and learn. I fell in the latter group. For the beginners the only advise I have is to find a knowledgeable and experienced coach who can provide proper guidance, this would save you a lot of time and energy.Just stay consistent, stay on track, results will surely show up however slow they may be. Cheers!
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