Can a neurosurgeon teach us about endurance and flexibility
A brain surgeon began his day with the beginning of the morning to demand surgery. Their fitness routine creates mental strength and patience, which improves their surgical performance.
In the calm hours before sunrise, neurosurgeon Anurag Gupta started his training session. Till 4 in the morning, he is preparing for the day of a demand for physical and mental surgery, patient round and outpatient consultation.
Dr. For Gupta, fitness is not just a passion, it is a parallel discipline that accelerates their attention, creating patience, and strengthening its ability to face the pressures of life-and death in the operating room at Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, Delhi.
It is the same dedication to discipline and endurance that helped them complete one of the most difficult trichothalons in Europe, an achievement that not only demands physical strength, but also has extraordinary mental flying to complete swimming, cycling, and walk continuously in 15 hours and 30 minutes.
“The same thing that helps you tolerate a long race – hydration, nutrition, energy – is what we monitor every day for our patients. In many ways, training for endurance events that we do in surgery, shows it,” he describes indiayatoday.in.
Fitness is new money
When it comes to fitness, Dr. Gupta, who is now an Ironman, is in a hurry to clarify: you do not need to compete in mega-events.
“Peak fitness does not mean racing a patient. It is about being enough active to keep lifestyle diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure and feel happy in your skin,” they say.
As he crossed the threshold in his forty -fifth year, he felt that it was not optional to be fit – it was fundamental. Particularly in high-dot therapy, where mental agility and pressure in pressure are important as a quiet surgical skills.
“Fit is new money. And for American doctors, it is an insurance policy against burnout,” they say.
Mind training for chaos
The race for endurance often tests the body, but Dr. Gupta believes that the real test is mental – a doctor is specificly equipped.
“During my training, I used to be an on-call for 36 to 40 hours. I used to sleep six hours in two days. Such mental flexibility is not easy, but it stays with you,” they say.
This mental patience, honored in the years of medical school and surgical training, gave him the foundation to push him through fatigue and uncertainty. But fitness training added another layer – patience.
“When you are alone on the road for hours, you learn to be calm. You accept that things will not always go on your way, and you still keep walking. It’s really like surgery.”
Balancing work and fitness
The biggest obstacle? Time. With unexpected emergency calls, long surgery and patient round, the challenge is not just physical, it is logistics.
“I take training early, sometimes at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, because it is the only time when I can control. Yes, it becomes difficult. But over time, your body is adjusted. And the higher you receive it as high as you get – it keeps you all day,” he shares.
A specific week means getting up before morning, training, handling outpatient consultation, then scrubbing in surgery that can spread for 10–15 hours. Then there are night calls. Still he insists that it is manageable, if not easy.
Change India’s fitness mentality
One of his concerns is cultural: India’s relationship with exercise is still a long way.
“In Europe, people come out to make you happy, even if they don’t know you. Here, the reaction often occurs: ‘Why does the road close?” Or ‘Why are you doing this for your body?’ “He says.
They believe that physical activity should be seen as a default part of life, not pain or response to disease in India.
“I was never a congenital athlete. I have made it over time and this is what I tell my patients. If you have back pain, don’t stop exercising. Just correct it or pull back for a while but do not stop,” they say.
Sharp Mind, Cool Surgeon
Many unseen about fitness have a hidden advantage and this is cognitive clarity.
“Exercise releases endorphins and gives you a neurochemical high. It is also determined as the first row treatment for depression in some countries,” they explain.
But the real advantage, he says, the internal is quiet, it promotes.
He said, “I used to lose my cool more easily. Now, I am calm in the operation room even during the longest surgery. Fitness gave me the edge,” he says.
On the doctor’s day, Dr. Gupta’s story is a reminder: even those who save life every day need to protect their own health, and do it better to do what they do.