[100 Emerging Women Leaders] This fitness coach is challenging stereotypes and making her way in the fitness industry
Fitness coach Diksha Chabbra has been spreading awareness about health and nutrition since 2015. In a conversation with HerStory’s 100 Emerging Women Leaders, she dwells deeper into the ups and downs of her journey so far.
At 29, Diskha Chhabra was diagnosed with underlying health issues due to her excess weight. She needed to change her lifestyle to recover. She would go for a walk, eat less, and eventually she began starving herself. With this, her health further deteriorated in the next three to six months.
Soon, she realised she was not functioning the right way and knew she needed to change her approach. Upon researching, she found that akin to her, there were many women who needed help, but were not getting it from reliable sources.
She shares, “I wanted to encourage the idea that if you want to get fit, you do not have to join a gym. You just have to understand the nutritional concept of food.”
This was the beginning of Chhabra's journey towards helping people take a conscious step towards transformation.
In 2017, she became the runner up of Mrs India Earth. She says, “After winning the competition, I knew I had access to a platform.”
She was also titled Mrs Body Fit in the fitness category after she weight-lifted in the talent round, which was an unusual performance for a pageant participant.
“That was the only thing I loved, and I wanted to showcase my hard work. Everyone was excited because it was a different sight! Nobody had expected that someone would come to a beauty pageant and do deadlifts,” she states.
Chhabra wanted to challenge the stereotypes that associate masculinity with a muscular physique, and so she did.
Becoming a fitness coach
Now that Chhabra had a platform, she wanted to use it to spread the word around fitness. She started with Instagram posts, and soon people began connecting with her. While being a fitness coach was not something she had planned, she did not take the conventional approach to becoming one.
She says, “I think that was because my qualification was also based on self-learning. I just wanted to learn things and apply them to myself. Eventually, I started helping some of my own friends, and they started seeing results.”
There was no looking back after that. Within a year, she had gone from being a freelance fitness consultant to becoming the founder of a registered fitness consultancy firm.
She states, “When I started, I could hardly see a woman in the gym lifting weights. The scenario has changed now, but it is in a nascent state.”
Gender bias
Chhabra highlights the prevalent male dominance in the fitness industry.
She states, “Male trainers are always busy, and they will have more clients. People associate their muscular physique with their knowledge about fitness. However, women are biologically different. Even though we lift as much as them and work equally hard, we may not look that muscular.”
Further, she shares how often male trainers come up to women in the gyms and tend to correct them, which is a recurrent issue.
Diksha also highlights the gender-bases in the structural foundation of most gyms as well.
She says, “One or two kg dumbbells, mostly in bright pink, blue, or yellow shades, are placed beside treadmills. It is expected that after doing treadmills or cardio, women will lift those weights. You will never see a 10 kg dumbbell in same colours. The heavier weights have a more masculine connotation.”
“Changing rooms for women are mostly near the cardio sections. However, changing rooms for men are near the weight section, placed quite conveniently,” she adds.
However, Chhabra says, “The best part is that women are conquering all the biases,” and we agree.
Advising women leaders, she says, “There will always be ups and downs. It is not going to be a straight line when you are progressing. Your success is not going to be permanent, neither is your failure.”
Edited by Megha Reddy