During these challenging times, many of us are trying to find ways to keep fit and active.
It's easy to lose motivation when you're stuck at home, but personal trainer Karzan Eskerie has taken to YouTube to help people in his community stay fit.
The 33-year-old Auckland native is a real estate agent who has had a passion for fitness since his school days.
His passion stemmed from helping others achieve their lifestyle goals.
Amid the coronavirus restrictions, he was recently asked by the New Zealand Kurdish Community organisation to create at-home workout videos in Kurdish, to keep people motivated and moving while helping to achieve their fitness goals.
"To me, fitness is more about the mind than the body because the body we can control by what we put in our mouth, but the mind needs chemicals released when you exercise which are called endorphins," Mr Eskerie said.
"These endorphins interact with the receptors in the brain that reduce our perception of pain and they also trigger a positive feeling to the body."
Overcoming adversity
Mr Eskerie overcame his own battles following a freak accident that landed him in a coma for 40 days.
The experience helped shape who he is today, along with his "never give up" attitude which he continues to live by.
"In 1995 I was flying a kite on a roof and fell backward onto another roof on which there was a steel bed," he explained.
"The back of my head hit the steel framing making me unconscious. I was unconscious for 40 days which all that time my parents were looking after me at the hospital along with the doctors.
"The doctors didn't really give much hope of me coming out normal again and thought I might be a vegetable for life even if I woke up."
However, after the 40 days had passed, Mr Eskerie, a young boy at the time, opened his eyes.
Mr Eskerie on a hospital bed at a Pakistani refugee camp in 1993. Source: Supplied
"They took me home and for a whole year I had to learn to sit, crawl, walk, and talk all over again."
He also had to start school from the beginning.
Mr Eskerie and his family are from Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. They called New Zealand home in 1999 after they fled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Eskerie walking after 40 days in a coma in a Pakistani refugee camp. Source: Supplied
"My Parents were Peshmargas and fought against Saddam in the war of 1988. In the hopes of saving their kids, we fled Kurdistan and went to Iran and stayed there for two years before heading to Pakistan."
They stayed in Pakistan for nine years before being granted a refugee visa to go to New Zealand.
"We came here as refugees and I started school again not knowing how to speak a word of English and for that reason, I would get into a lot of fights with other boys and there was a lot of bullying that went on.
Mr Eskerie with his children in NZ. Source: Supplied
"It wasn't until I was in my third year of school, I had a PE teacher take me to the gym and introduced me to boxing and I immediately fell in love with it."
It was there where his passion for fitness was born.
In 2003, he dropped out of school and took on a course in engineering, however, after a year he decided it was not for him.
It wasn't until he went back to Kurdistan in 2006, where he met his wife, that he realised his true passion was fitness.
"When she got pregnant with our first child, I decided to change our life for the better and followed my passion and that was training so I became a personal trainer and trained clients with all sorts of health goals for seven years."
While Mr Eskerie works as a real estate agent full-time, his love for health and fitness remains a priority.
He continues to help others achieve their fitness goals in any way he can, particularly during these unprecedented times.
It's his experiences that have laid the path for his health advocacy.
"The experience helped build the 'never give up' attitude I have now and that anyone of us can achieve anything we set our mind to."
