IGNORANCE WAS A BLISS

4 years ago, Anushia Siva Subramaniam introduced me to this military-inspired, group, outdoor personal training program in Padang Merbuk. Unbeknown of what it was, Anushia's introductory line was as simple as... "You don't asked so much, You don't think too much, you go and enroll online and just surrender yourself for just 1 hour, 3 times a week for 4 consecutive weeks!!" Then you will know what the bootcamp training is all about". My enthusiasm and deep passion to be healthy and fit got the better of me and I immediately enrolled and fell in love with everything about bootcamp akin of a love at first sight. I was obsessed with its training program. I do not know what got into me but I found some hidden massive energy that made me craved for more and more even now 4 years later.

I did not understand the how(s) and why(s) but what matters, whatever the program was, it worked!!

That sentence then became the tagline of COBC bootcamp workout testimonies year after year... "Just surrender yourself for 1 hour, 3 times a week for 4 consecutive weeks and you will be amazed to see the result". Most recruits stayed on with the program for years to come.

Like most of us, I was not bothered to know the science behind the Bootcamp program but the newly found strength, stamina and especially the leaner-meaner me was enough for me to keep wanting and coming for more.... month after month, year after year. Now, I took a step further to understand the whole science with what is happening inside and within our body. To satisfy this curious mind, I enrolled together with a platoon of Reds to study at the Fitness Innovation Malaysia (FIT) and a mile into the journey of learning, I was lost in a jungle full of jargons but quickly adapt to be able to relate what I learn with all readers.

The very first part of the class was the introduction to this muscular anatomy... which practically means, what does our muscle comprised of, how it work, grow, moves and fueled which became the fundamentals in exercise science... aka the real rules of muscle. Quoting Jerrican Tan's favorite quote:

"Muscle grew by failure. Stressed to exhaustion, it responded by becoming larger. But muscle was contrary and it had a mind of its own. If you stress it too often, it would shrink. If you stress it too little, it would shrink. If you fail to nourish it, it would shrink. If you fail to rest it, it would shrink. If you over-nourish it, it would hide. If you left it alone for too long, it would atrophy. If it did not get what it wanted, muscle would not do very much at all." (Hotten, J., Muscle: A write's trip through a sport with no boundaries. 2004, London: Yellow Jersey).

I now learn, to take care of those muscles takes a more serious commitment than taking care of a women!!

Okay.. enough of blogging, time to hit the books.. There is some homework for tomorrow's class!! Homework!!! Alamak.. Why do I always get myself into this.. I should have stick to the principal of just surrender myself to the 24 years old program without having to understand the science behind it and reap the result of what the program was designed for, but then again.. added knowledge is nothing but the biggest of asset anyone can possess. Until next time, Stay tuned....