You often hear the excuses: “I’m too busy to workout” or “I’m too tired after my job,” as common rebuttals when asked why a certain person doesn’t undertake the recommended amount of exercise per week. And while some people do have extremely busy schedules, if you really want to stay healthy, you’ll find time to workout.
Fitness is a necessity for a good quality of life. Some find it later in life than others, but as soon as it becomes habit, you start to realize how important it is in all aspects of life. For people with sedentary pastimes it’s even more necessary that they workout, if they are sat at a desk all day.
When it comes to sport, not all pursuits exhibit the healthiest “athletes” in the world. You only have to look at darts, bowling and poker to see that their respective playing fields aren’t exactly filled with a landscape of Adonis’s. Once such player who was struggling with his overall health was Eugene Katchalov, a Ukrainian poker professional.
Katchalov was a steady player who had never really fulfilled his potential. And approaching his thirties felt that his health was affecting his performance. His diet was poor, and he wasn’t engaging in regular exercise, which had caused him to balloon to 230lbs.
But it is never too late to get fit by changing your diet and fitness plan, as Katchalov found out. In just 14 months he managed to lose 50lbs while putting on extra muscle as well. He turned his flabby physique into a shredded and slim looking body that he was proud of. But that wasn’t the best takeaways from his punishing fitness regimen.
After engaging in weight training, nutrition, and aerobic activities, the poker star started to see the benefits in his personal life and his performance at the poker table started to get better, too. The 31-year-old is now 121st in the global world rankings and is improving year-on-year.
Katchalov’s story has reached an audience far bigger than the poker world. His story has been recognized by many sports and fashion publications including Men’s Fitness and GQ. And although poker is going from strength to strength both as a sport and online, Katchalov sees this as the beginning as he encourages players to follow his example and change the way the sport is perceived by the public.
Online poker sees millions of people play every week across the globe. Websites have even employed live dealers to heighten the experience for players, so that they feel like they are in an actual casino, but it’s not healthy to be sat staring at a computer screen for long periods. Katchalov suggests interspersing gameplay with bouts of exercise where possible. The same goes for the professional circuit as the Ukrainian feels bigger breaks should occur with intervals long enough for people to workout in between games.
While Katchalov’s theories aren’t being adopted across the board, many people have seen the 31-year-old as an inspiration. He recently completed a well publicized 118km bike ride with fellow poker pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier and some other friends. The ride took them from Cannes, France to Sanremo, Italy all in aid of raising the profile of a healthy lifestyle for poker players.
Katchalov proves that regardless of your profession, there’s no excuse for being unhealthy. You just need to find the time to exercise and once you have designated that time each day, you then build your life around it. Age, gender, nagging injuries, work commitments are all common excuses we seem to fall back on when we don’t exercise. You should always endeavor to find a solution to a problem not erect a hurdle that doesn’t have to get in the way of you being healthy.
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