Movement vocabulary: Gopi’s fitness journey
I’m Gopinath Devarajan but for the sake of simplicity & joy, you can call me Gopi! Nice to see that you’re reading about me. I was an overweight kid growing up. This was due to my sedentary lifestyle & my excessive love for yummy, sweet stuff.
BACK DURING CHILDHOOD:
In case you’re wondering, I still love me a good treat! There was this 1500 m run in my high school. One kid in school gave me this idea that if I do this race & win it, it would get the attention of this girl I liked. It seemed logical & I dreamed of myself crossing the finish line first and then getting the first prize & celebrating with a lot of chocolates! The funny part is, there was only a week left for the race and I’ve never run that much ever in my life. I was optimistic nevertheless. Looking back, I don’t know if it was optimism or sheer stupidity.
A week later, the race began and every kid in school signed up. I saw all of them & thought to myself, I’m going to beat every one of you, losers. The race began & I started running. I was running in the middle of the pack & after a few metres, I felt a pain in my chest. I knew I had to stop but I didn’t. (This is the “sheer stupidity” part). I kept my legs thudding on the track. Everyone except me finished the race & I was still running. My Physical Education Teacher started running beside me. He said to me, “Look Gopi, it’s been 15 since all the kids completed the race. Can you finish this faster so we can all have lunch?”. I burst out laughing and said no. Finished the race. Felt terrible and I knew I had to do something about my situation or I knew I’d die.
GMB FITNESS:
Started to go to a gym near my home in Coimbatore. Trained myself & lost about 20 kilos in about 4 years. In my college years, I started exploring more about strength training & built muscle. It was also the phase I really strong & loved feeling that way. I got introduced to skill based movement training through GMB Fitness. I admire Jon Yuen, Jackie Chan & Tom Cruise for not only being fit & incredibly strong but also for being funny & relatable.
“PHYSICAL FITNESS IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT KEYS TO HEALTHY BODY; IT IS THE BASIS OF DYNAMIC AND CREATIVE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY”
JON YUEN, JACKIE CHAN & TOM CRUISE:
I started to share my training journey on Instagram as @movement.vocabulary. The idea behind why I named my blog Movement Vocabulary is fairly simple. Just like how we learn different words & improve our vocabulary, I wanted to learn different movement skills for as long as I physically can whether it be Contact Juggling or doing explosive one arm pushups. This year, I participated in Jon Yuen & Jeremy Fein’s The Movement Guild for 4 months during the pandemic. Through this experience, I got to interact with my favourite Jon Yuen & learned a ton about movement & strength training. I also got introduced to Jeremy Fein through this who can teach complex things like Juggling, in an easy to understand format. I now work for Jon & Jeremy as the Community Manager of The Movement Guild — yaay!
Send me a message on Instagram (@movement.vocabulary) explaining what you think I could’ve encompassed better in this article & why you would love to win 3 Months of free training with me!
