PM launches Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols during Fit India Dialogue
   Date :25-Sep-2020

PM launches _1  
 
 
NEW DELHI :
 
Modi interacted with the fitness enthusiasts and inquired about routines, nutrition, challenges, and also the need for keeping fit in today’s day and age
 
 
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the ‘Fit India Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols’ during an online Fit India Dialogue, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Fit India Movement. The fitness protocols have been prepared with the help of fitness enthusiasts for three age categories, from 5-18 years, 18-65 years, and 65 plus age category. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, Paralympics gold medalist javelin thrower, Devendra Jhajharia, woman footballer from Jammu and Kashmir, Afshan Ashiq, actor and fitness promoter Milind Soman, nutrition and exercise science expert, Rujuta Diwekar, Yoga guru Swami Shivadhayanam Saraswati, and National Organising Secretary, Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, Mukul Kanitkar also participated in the event being held through video conferencing. “We have forgotten what is normal in exercise.
 
We are capable of taking regular and strenuous exercise,” Soman told the Prime Minister, who said that he was a big fan of the actor’s mother’s fitness at the advanced age. The Prime Minister inquired about their fitness routines, nutrition, challenges, and also the need for keeping fit in today’s day and age. The attendees shared their experience with fitness, the need to stay fit, and how different approaches and slight changes in the routine can change anyone’s life for the better. “Healthy body is necessary for healthy mind. Fitness has to be our priority. There has to be gap between two meals, so that it allows the body to process what we eat,” Kohli told the Prime Minister.
 
The Indian cricket team captain also said that deciding the priority was of utmost importance to get best results in anyone’s fitness endeavours. Skipper Virat Kohli explained how the Yo-Yo test helped Indian cricketers aim for high-level fitness when Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him about the mandatory running aerobic fitness routine. Prime Minister Modi was interacting with fitness experts and influencers from across the country to mark the one-year anniversary of the ‘Fit India Movement.’
 
Modi was keen to know what is Yo-Yo test and asked if the captain also has to pass it or he gets spared? “I heard these days there is a Yo-Yo test for the team, what is this test,” asked Modi during the virtual interaction. Kohli, smiling, replied, “This Test was very important from fitness point of view. If we talk about global fitness level, our fitness level is still low compared to other teams and we want to take it up, which is a basic requirement.” Modi also interacted with Afshan, who hit the headlines in 2017 as a stone pelter in Srinagar. The 25-year-old played as goalkeeper in J&K women’s football team and later played in the Indian Women’s League in 2019 for FC Kolhapur City. She also trains youngsters in Srinagar.
 
To encourage her Modi said, “You have done very well in football. Mostly, football fans say ‘Bend it like Beckham’, but now they will say ‘Ace it like Afshan’.” Afshan said she gets inspiration from former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, eulogised as ‘captain cool’. “I do meditation at 5:30 every morning to keep my mind cool. I have learnt a lot from M S Dhoni, he is always calm. I like getting that calmness in my life, it helps to do all work calmly. It helps in balancing mental stress.” The Fit India Dialogue is yet another effort to involve citizens of the country to draw out a plan to make India a Fit Nation. The Fit India Movement envisioned by PM Modi and launched by him on August 29, 2019, has seen the collective participation of more than 3.5 crore Indians in various events, with more than 2.5 crore participants in the Fit India Freedom Run that was launched on August 15, 2019, with a digital footprint of 30 crore people.