ADI SALEEM- MEMBER OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER 2024 AT FIT2LIVE!
September 2024
This month’s spotlight is on the positively cool and consistent Adi Saleem.
Adi has been kicking butt at Fit2Live since October of 2021.
He is a regular in the evening classes, getting his fair share of the 4:30pm, 5:30pm and 6:30pm classes depending on the day and week.
Adi shows up 3-4 times each and every week.
He scales appropriately to what his body is ready for that day and has a blast kicking butt with his fellow F2Ler’s.
He is a professor in his day job and uses Fit2Live to balance out his mental workload while also adding plenty of functional fitness, strength and muscle on top.
He’s got a great head of hair and a cool and friendly demeanor. If Adi is in class you know his friendly support (and hair) will be there for you.
For these reasons and many more, Adi has been chosen as our member of the month for September of 2024!
Read all about Adi and his Fit2Live journey below!
Tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do outside of Fit2Live, family, hobbies, etc.
I was born in the late twentieth century in Singapore, a city-state in Southeast Asia that, by that point, had only been an independent country for a period shorter than my current age. My parents were themselves born into a quite different political context than the one I would grow up in. For starters, their childhood Singapore was a Crown colony of the British Empire and they were not citizens of Singapore, but rather British subjects or, perhaps more accurately, people subjected to the British Empire. As such, empire and colonialism had always been in the periphery of my vision as I grew up in the twilight of the twentieth century. I eventually came to understand empire and colonialism not just as living history (my parents and one grandparent are still alive, after all), but as features of the modern world. In my adulthood, I pursued this interest in colonialism and modernity in my studies and eventually completed a PhD and took up a position as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan where I currently write and teach on topics related to colonialism, modernity, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, particularly in the French context.
In terms of hobbies, I enjoy reading and writing fiction and poetry. Like most people, I enjoy listening to music of a variety of genres. I am not a talented chef, but I do enjoy cooking, particularly for others. I must also say that working out at Fit2Live has become an important part of my routine. I am very grateful to all the coaches I’ve worked with and everyone who shows up to workout. They truly help me be #Fit2Profess!
When and why did you get started at Fit2Live? What keeps you coming back?
I got started at Fit2Live shortly after arriving in Ann Arbor. Bryan, who has by now taken the gym by storm, but back then vowed to never pick up weights nor run (except if chased), introduced me to Kira, who very quickly introduced me to Fit2Live. Within days of my first introduction, one fine Thursday afternoon, I embarked on the Foundations course with Coach Brandon and the rest, as they say, is history. I had only been looking for a place to keep fit, but I found a community of inspiring, welcoming, and supportive people.
What is your fondest memory at Fit2Live thus far?
It has to be the last endurance workout with Coach Brandon. It just kept going on and on and on and on, but I loved it!
You are a busy professor, what is your hack to prioritize regular fitness and how has fitness helped to balance out your mentally tasking day job?
I haven’t always been able to be super regular at the gym, but over the past few months, I’ve been able to prioritize my fitness better. The one hack that has helped me do that has been to simply treat my time at the gym as sacred and as important as any other meeting that I might have on my calendar. Before every new week, I decide when I’ll go to the gym and I put it in my calendar. In the same way, that I wouldn’t miss a work meeting that is on my calendar, I don’t miss my Fit2Live meetings!
What is a fun fact or hobby that you have that someone might not know about you?
I have been advised by my lawyers not to comment on this one. Sorry!
You’ve had an ongoing wrist injury for a while now that you haven’t let slow down your fitness habit. How have you adapted to keep moving around your injury/irritation and what is your mindset/approach to scaling in workouts?
There was a time when I nearly quit the gym because of my wrist injury, but Coach Ryan sat down with me and helped me figure out how to work around my injury. I learned that everything can be scalable. I might not be able to do everything that everyone can do at the gym, but I can do what I can do pretty damn well! The important thing, I learned, was to keep competing with myself.
If you could travel to any place in the world tomorrow, where would you go and what would you do?
If money and time were not an obstacle, I would travel across Japan, eating all the amazing food, visiting shrines and temples, exploring neighbourhoods and natural wonders.
If you could make the workout “Adi”, what would it look like (movements, repetitions, etc)?
The Adi is probably a devilishly bad idea, but here it is:
Buy-in: 666 m run/row/ski
66 Devil’s Press 35/50 lbs
66 Sandbag Lunges 40/60 lbs
66 Ball Over Shoulder 20/30 lbs
Cash-out: 666 m run/row/ski
Ideally, the workout would be accompanied by songs such as AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil, and Judas Priest’s A Touch of Evil. You get the idea.
Favorites!
Movie:
I can’t pick one out of my two favourites! Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
TV Show:
Same problem! Stranger Things or Atlanta.
Song:
Disintegration by The Cure
Book:
À l’ami qui ne m’a pas sauvé la vie [To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life] (1990) by Hervé Guibert.
Quote:
“Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same: leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order.” – Michel Foucault
What daily habit has changed your life for the better?
Just showing up to the gym 5 times a week and keeping active during the weekend! This exercising stuff really works!
What future fitness goal are you currently working towards?
I am gradually working towards 15 strict pull ups in a row (up from about 10 currently) and improving on my deadlift, front squat, and back squat.
THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME ADI!
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AT FIT2LIVE!
NEXT UP: GAYATHRI AKELLA- MEMBER OF THE MONTH FOR AUGUST 2024!
