While some people struggle to try and lose weight, others like Noor Ashikin Aziz struggled to gain weight. “At 1.78m, I was a scrawny 50kg at my lightest and never got above 55kg until I reached 39,” said the 50-year-old founder of sports performance wear PURPOSE.

Attributing it to his high metabolic rate, Noor remembers growing up as an outcast because he “just didn’t look cool enough.” He recalls, “Being too thin when I was young put me at a disadvantage, especially for a guy. When I became outcasted, I ended up spending more of my time running and that led to more weight loss, making things worse.”

Although Noor represented his school in athletics – 400m, 800m and 1500m – up to Junior College where he also played rugby, he thought that most of his sporting achievements were attained later in his 20s because he was a late bloomer. In hindsight, he realised it was because he was denied the opportunity to show what he can do when he was younger due to being shunned by others.

He ran for the Police Club in the 5,000m and 10,000m events during National Service and also picked up mountain biking when he first started working, but eventually he stopped sports because he wanted to focus on his career.

For a good part of his working life from his mid-20s to mid-30s, Noor was climbing the corporate ranks – at one point in his role as Executive Creative Director in an advertising agency, he was managing a regional team of 75 people. With his career progressing well, it simply took over his life.

Then somewhere in his late 30s, his love for endurance sports returned when he picked up running again. He also got back to cycling and soon found himself in duathlons and over time, in triathlons where he had to learn how to swim. “I also realised in order to gain weight, I needed to switch my regime to do less of the high endurance stuff and more time in the gym building strength and muscle,” he said.

While he was trying his hand at Ironman 70.3 triathlons, Noor was trying to find apparels that will help his problem of sweating too much during his runs and rides. Seeing this as a weakness that affected his performance, he remembers how uncomfortable he would get when the clothes get soaked in sweat and pulls down on him as he is trying to focus on running or riding.

“That was when I made up my mind to be daring and start my own company PURPOSE to design triathlon, cycling and running apparels that are made to deal with the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia,” he explained.

The PURPOSE community is made up of professional athletes with world records as well as recreational athletes who enjoy pushing their limits. “There is a misconception that when a person does sports, you have to excel very well in it. I think we should be celebrating the fact that you are doing it and daring to do it.”

*This #FitForAll series is brought to you by Rock The Naked Truth x HUAWEI, with the objective of promoting inclusivity for fitness. Fitness is for all and fitness looks different on everyone.

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