Faithful Fitness 101

A Faithful Fitness testimonial from one of my favourite young people in the whole world; 15 year old Amira....

(Mashallah I have to say, teenagers like her truly inspire me!)

Faithful Fitness 101

Salam People,

I’m going to start this off with one word, “fitness/exercise”. What first comes to mind when one thinks of exercise? Continuous Sprints? Push Ups? Weight Training? I personally think of plyometric exercises, for those of you who do not know what this, I will get Calisha demonstrate for you (Jump lunges, squat jumps, power jumps etc.) <<< (Young Amira then proceeded to make (the extremely surprised) me do these exercises in front of an audience of 100 ladies in full abayah and hijab.......I was truly sprung and so now this experience is very high on my list of the most embarrassing moments of my LIFE!)

This type of exercise I absolutely hate and so whenever anyone mentions it, I’m out. This made the word “exercise” a scary word. But then I found faithful fitness. I first heard about it maybe 3 years ago and it was a boxing class. I loved boxing and thought this was the perfect opportunity to get fit while enjoying myself. I rocked up ready to power through this but then came face to face with plyometric exercises. I decided there and then that if I was to ever really get the full benefit of the class that I’d have to face my pain.

But I didn’t do it by myself; I had continuous support from Calisha and the others to push through. The environment was never degrading and always made you feel welcome. Then this year it changed it’s layout to a boot camp style. Boy, was it tough and painful but it never stopped being fun. We got in a trainer and when she would explain to us an exercise, I’d pretty much burst out laughing due to how ridiculously hard it looked.

However, when one finishes working out, it’s legit the best feeling ever knowing that you have accomplished something, even if you have doms (aka Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). When it stopped at the end of 2013 I was gutted, but it had taught me to love exercise so I went on to continue to exercise at home, researching and making my own plans. It’s benefited me more than I could imagine and now it’s coming back. So think of the reasons as to why you should sign up for it.

Do you want a 6-pack, do you want to get ripped, have some guns, lose weight or just be fit? These are great reasons, but we forget the most important reason for exercise.

Our body is an Ammanah from Allah and we have to care for it. By exercising, we are actually fulfilling that Ammanah. No matter what age, young or old, we should all be out there taking care of our body and having fun while doing so.

Amira (15 years old)