A Passion for Staying Fit

With a genuine love for sports, what began as a remedy to get stronger and healthier as a 12th grader has now ship-shaped into a passion for running marathons, yoga, strength training for self as well as his colleagues at work. Sajid Patel, Associate Vice President-HR, Head - L&OD and Employee Relations and Engagement, Datamatics Global Services Ltd, shares his fitness mantra

Sporting an all-weather enthusiasm despite two health niggles, he chose to shift his sporting preference, rather than give up on his journey for staying consciously healthy. A Covid-19 warrior who ran online fitness workshops for his colleagues during the lockdown; he has participated in most iconic Mumbai marathons Standard Chartered, Reebok, IDBI, Vasai Virar runs et.al in the pre-pandemic phase. Trained to run half-marathons (21 km), he has completed close to 20 marathons and more while also balancing a work-life schedule as a senior HR Professional.

“Everything underlies our thought process. I too encounter negative thoughts, but it is not as strong as my positive thoughts. The idea is to overshadow such negativity and move forward,” says Sajid Patel.

Fitting into fitness

A college-level champion in carrom and volleyball, Sajid has had an inclination for almost all sports since childhood. However, endowed with a thin frame as a teenager, he was advised to take up gym workouts and exercise routines, which pushed him towards a journey of staying fit and he has since been passionate about it.

However, 2015 was a turning point that changed the course of his fitness regime and inclined him towards the running tracks. A medical hiccup re-programmed him to adapt to a form of sport that did not involve lifting of heavyweights. As per medical advice, post-sonography and diagnosis, “A tear was detected in my abdomen, due to lifting of weights and this actually stopped me from going to the gym. My body was used to exercises and workout routines and I was feeling restless,” said Sajid. He was home-bound for three months post the diagnosis and was under medication, and he gradually resumed office, “During those three months, I became very weak as regards my physical makeup and I was not feeling good”, he said.

This is when his better half, a member of an amateur running group motivated Sajid to explore running and thus began his association with the BNP (Borivali National Park) runners’ club. He initially joined their 5-km marathon group for the basic three months training programme. “Eventually, I did run my first 5-km marathon and the experience was incredibly positive. I gained strength in my body and everything started picking up”, said Sajid.

Rx for fitness

Sajid has kept his passion alive for fitness while also keeping up with his doctor’s advice on pursuing different forms of sports. “I can swim, cycle, run and jog but I am not allowed to lift weights. I started running marathons from 2016 and continue till date,” he said.

A stickler for his 6:30 am workout schedule, especially during the pre-pandemic days, he would try and make-up for his missed morning routines with an evening workout. “On the days that I missed my morning schedule, I would leave the office early and hit the gym between 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.” One-day rest per week was enough to sustain his week-long fitness routine.

However, he has had to take a sabbatical from active running since the pandemic and lockdown phase following the closure of the BNP and is slowly picking up his pace to become marathon ready once again.

“Be positive for each and everything in your life, be happy and develop a ‘let go’ attitude which equates to happiness”

Winner at work and play

Covid-19 challenger

Not to be bogged down due to the pandemic disruptions while Sajid did not run any marathons, he channelised himself into strength training and yogaasanas. “All marathons were stopped as per government’s pandemic protocols but gave rise to virtual marathons, which was not making sense to me”, he said.

For someone who was into active fitness until the onset of the March post-pandemic lockdown, Sajid became restless within the first week of the lockdown phase. “I wondered about how I should cope as everything came to a standstill. I decided to take charge of my own fitness regime as my BNP Group too had to forfeit their runs,” he said.

This is when he decided to leverage his professional position with Datamatics into manoeuvring his colleagues into a health and fitness mode during the pandemic. “I am heading L&D at Datamatics too, so I thought, why don’t I engage everyone into health activities. We then started our online workshops from second of April itself,” he said.

He roped in his colleague, Hussain Naqvi, AVP, Sr. Solution Architect and a trained and certified Yoga Trainer to co-ordinate WebEx virtual classes, which was an open forum for the entire organisation with a global strength of 7000-10,000 employees. “We have around 1600 to 1700 Mumbai-based employees but, we have kept our yoga sessions live for our global colleagues too. With a worldwide reach, anyone and everyone within Datamatics could join in the sessions,” said Sajid.

They coordinated the sessions while holding on to their respective remote working pattern, working around their own meeting schedules to accommodate these yoga sessions. “No matter whatever other meetings come up I reschedule myself to ensure that I am available during the set Yoga hours, preferably in the mornings,” he said.

They have also begun online strength training classes spearheaded by another of Sajid’s office colleague Ajay Patil, Manager-Sales. Between Sajid and Ajay, they chalked out a 3-day a week schedule for strength training from 6 am to 7 am.

Motivating the global diaspora

However, managing time zones and encouraging the global ‘Datamatics Diaspora’ posed its own challenges. As the classes progressed, they realised the lack of participation. On a daily average, we could get a maximum of 50 to 60 employees attending the yoga sessions”, said Sajid.

He observed that people might not be interested especially with the new ‘normal’ onslaught of Social Media, OTT web series and the lure to keep connected via FB and WhatsApp during lockdown; employees seemed least interested in the strength training sessions.

Both Sajid and Hussain analysed the day-to-day participation logs and reworked their training sessions accordingly. They had to change the timings four times since the start till October to accommodate their colleagues. They finally re-settled for an 8 to 9 pm slot excluding weekends, for garnering more responses.

“The participation percentage has been stable throughout, especially with our committed individuals who have been interested right from the beginning. On an average, 20-30 people are part of our online yoga class. We run a WhatsApp group and if even one of the 20 regular participants miss a class, I message them to keep the connectivity and motivation,” said Sajid.

While Sajid was Ajay’s first student to take up the 6-7 am strength training sessions, the low participation for these classes in the first two months finally led to these being abandoned in due course. “It didn’t make sense to continue with a daily average of 3-4 participants”, he said.

Self-motivators

With a robust genetic makeup, Sajid has been able to train himself and others during the pandemic and has kept himself motivated. Post the four-month lockdown phase, he found cycling to rejuvenate himself as an outdoor activity once a few Covid-19 protocol sanctions were relaxed. “I started cycling from Borivali to Goregaon and back, which is around 14 -15 km, which in runner’s parlance equates to 50% of my running output or distance covered,” said Sajid. This also meant that on days when he is lazy to meet his daily running target of 7.5-km, he would go cycling and do double of that distance.

As regards to the diet, Sajid said, “I eat anything and everything but as a family, we are careful about our salt and intake of white sugar, which is almost zero. We do not consume cold water or fizzy drinks too. Even my 10-year-old and 19-year-old daughters are sensitive to eating healthy.”

The 7-day BNP way

A pre-pandemic training mode is what Sajid has been following along with his BNP runner’s group which also closely replicates his daily regime. While the group was unable to congregate in the past seven months, Sajid believes in the BNP routine that enables to take the strain of any one activity.

• Sundays: A long run around 18 km, especially if one is training for a half-marathon.
• Mondays: Rest day
• Tuesdays: The 6-7 am routine involves a 5-km recovery run and stretches.
• Wednesdays: Strength training sessions between 6 to 7:30 am.
• Thursdays: A choice between a 5 km run, a swim, walks or even a lazy run. Members also opt for a 10 km run to compensate for a Sunday off if unable to commit weekends.
• Fridays: Yoga sessions complete with asanas and stretches between 6 to 7:30 am
• Saturdays: Mid-level run or strength training with professionals and noted trainers attached to either Asics or Skechers.

“Be positive for each and everything in your life, be happy and develop a ‘let go’ attitude, which equates to happiness”, signs off Sajid.