Why Sport Is Good for your wellbeing – At the end of the 2005 Rugby season, I injured my neck quite badly in a practice session in Northampton. I was rushed to a spinal surgeon who immediately did CT Scans on my neck. I will never forget how he went through the scans before he sat me down and asked me a very frank question. “How long do you still want to play rugby?”
At that time my daughter Sophia was two months old and I had absolutely no hesitation to answer him with “as long as you tell me I can play”. He told me that my disc had moved in my neck and that I could still play if I wanted to but it was very risky. I decided there and then at the age of 30 to retire from rugby for good.
So started my journey of life after rugby and what a journey it has been so far. It was quite a shift. The one day you’re get paid to train, be healthy and be in good shape and the next day you have to try and find time in a day for exercise. I decided at that time that 5 am in the morning was the time that I had no family or work commitments and that I had no excuses.
This was the beginning of my fitness/exercise regime. To this day I wake up at 5:15 to do my exercise. It is incredibly tough when you have a long winter like we just had in Cape Town.
The reason why I am so dedicated to my training is because I really cannot operate properly if I haven’t had my morning dose of endorphins. When I stress about work, family and other important things in my life, I need to make sure I train as hard as I can.
The reason why sport is good for me, is that I see it as a stress release like no other. I have done many endurance events like the The ABSA Cape Epic, Ironman as well as The Otter Trail Run. Fortunately, my wife also loves exercise which allows us to spend a lot of time together training for big events.
I am incredibly grateful that I stopped playing Rugby at a young age and that I am able to do various physical activities. I believe you have to earn your beer or glass of wine and that is exactly what we do.
So the next time you are tired after work or after a long night, do a 1 hour session of running, cycling or surfing. Trust me, you will feel amazing. Sport teaches you many lessons but I think the most important one is discipline. It takes discipline to get up early, it takes discipline to run a business successfully, it takes discipline to be a father or a mother and it takes discipline to lead the person that you look at in the mirror every morning.
Good luck and keep up the discipline!! For more motivation, have a read through the blog section of my website.