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If someone wants to walk away from you, let them do that. It’s better to be single and content, than to compromise your identity and essence just for someone’s approval.
That’s what I believe. But let me explain. I am a regular at a Virgin Active gym where, about three years ago, I met this guy who became my gym buddy.
What started off as an occasional greeting as we entered the gym evolved into spotting for each other when the weights got too heavy. This finally morphed into a friendship.
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In case you don’t know, gym is psychotherapy. As fate would have it, this ended abruptly when my “gym rat” had matrimonial problems and he stopped coming to the gym. Continuous arguments with his wife got in the way of our routine.
He told me that the arguments were triggered by our three-hour training sessions, which his wife saw as a dereliction of marital duty. He was not spending enough time with her, she said.
I wonder if she knows that the gym can actually improve your sex life and add years to your life.
The wife clearly does not know that people who exercise regularly do so because it gives them an enormous sense of wellbeing.
People feel more energetic all day long, sleep better, have sharper memories and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. And it’s also a powerful medicine for many common mental health challenges.
A recent study done by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health found that running for 15 minutes a day or walking for an hour reduces the risk of major depression by 26%.
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Your muscles may be tense, especially in your face, neck and shoulders, leaving you with back or neck pain, or painful headaches.
You may feel a tightness in your chest, a pounding pulse or muscle cramps. You may also experience problems such as insomnia, heartburn – but all these fade away with regular workouts. Regular exercise also helps many people regulate their weight.
In a nutshell, my training partner’s wife interrupted the process we had started towards making her an ideal or near-perfect husband.
Instead, she would rather settle for a couch potato, staring at a TV while eating his way to obesity.
What a pity.
