IBA Icons 2021: Meet Namrata Purohit, Holistic Fitness Icon

As this year marks the 10th edition of Travel + Leisure India & South Asia’s reader’s choice India’s Best Awards, we are elated to introduce IBA Icons—an editorial-led category that felicitates 10 changemakers and trendsetters across hospitality and lifestyle industries. Presenting the Holistic Fitness Icon, Namrata Purohit.

Namrata Purohit
Fitness Trainer & Co-founder, The Pilates Studio

At 16, Namrata Purohit was thrilled to become the youngest trained Scott Pilates instructor in the world. “It was very exciting. At the same time, I realised that it came with a lot of responsibility,” she says. Why Pilates, though? A year before bagging the title, Purohit had suffered a severe knee injury that wouldn’t fully recover. A teenager with a passion for sports and dance, Purohit was determined to find a solution. So, she did. “Around the same time, my father was hosting a Pilates course in Mumbai and had flown down an instructor from Canada. I requested to be in the course. In just four days of Pilates, for the first time in an entire year, I was absolutely pain-free. It worked like magic for me,” she shares. Not many know that she holds a master’s degree in sports management and is also an economics major. “I realised that if Pilates could help me, it can help a lot of people. That is when we decided to start our first studio.” At 28, Purohit is a celebrity instructor, entrepreneur, and author. Her skills and passions are not limited to the gym. “I love the ocean and thoroughly enjoy scuba diving; I am now learning free diving and surfing. I also love equestrian sports, and I’m learning show jumping. I also hope to try my hand at polo,” says the multi-hyphenate trainer.

 

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