Do you ever feel like quitting your boring desk job and just chasing after your dream, doing something you love?
Bilal Tariq was an investment banker and is a fitness coach now. Bilal Tariq was a trainer at several gyms before opening MatrixFit in Karachi, which is now affiliated with the global CrossFit brand as CrossFitBnB.\
“I was introduced to CrossFit back in 2013, immediately fell in love with it and never looked back. In the beginning, it was just experimenting; I didn’t really have any guidance. Whatever I saw on social media, I’d just do that. I was doing CrossFit but I did not have any type of routine or any goals; I was just doing it to stay in shape. Slowly and gradually, learning new things every day, it started coming into a routine and I started becoming competitive. I won the National CrossFit Games Open Championship in Pakistan for the last three years. Now the work has kind of paid off and I’m heading to the CrossFit games to represent Pakistan”, said Bilal.
Bilal says, “You can call it the Olympics of our sport; it doesn’t get any bigger than this. It’s is a 4-day event where the fittest people on earth come and compete. At the end of the games, the fittest male and female are awarded the title.”
Bilal further added, “I’m the first Pakistani going to the CrossFit Games and will be competing in the individual category next to 143 of the fittest men in the world. It’s happening in the U.S, in Madison, Wisconsin.”
“When you’re a full-time athlete and going to a competition of this magnitude, you have to dedicate yourself 110%. I’m a coach, a business owner, and committed to CrossFit so juggling all these responsibilities isn’t easy.”
As a professional coach, he gave a message to those struggling with their fitness goals as well.
“It’s a very broad topic so there are no right answers. People struggle differently; the one thing is that consistency is always beneficial. You’ve got to trust the process and in order to succeed in whatever mission you’re on, just stay consistent.”
A lot of us get into this fitness journey with unrealistic goals and it’s important to have definitive goals according to your lifestyle, he added.
About his future plans, he shared, “I keep telling people I’m just getting started. There’s so much that can be done in this country and so much potential in terms of what you can do. So I have a bunch of ideas and I’m excited to execute them.”
Here’s hoping he brings the title home!
