'They felt little girls should be playing in the park, not pumping iron'

Kasha Nia Sachdev, 13, and Noa Sara Eappen, 11, students of the BD Somani International School, work out five days a week. Pics/Ashish Raje

You are bound to do a double take when you see Kasha Nia Sachdev, 13, and Noa Sara Eappen, 11, students of the BD Somani International School, powerlifting in the gym. Far from the stereotypical image of muscular beings straining under the weight of a metal barbell, the teens are happy being outliers. "Initially, we received a lot of disapproving tuts from people because they felt little girls should be playing in the park, not pumping iron. But, my dad insisted that it's good for us," says Sachdev.

Last week, they silenced their trolls by winning a gold each at the World Powerlifting Congress Indian National Championships in Bengaluru.

Till about five years ago, Sachdev had knock knees, a condition in which the knees bend inward and touch or "knock" against one another. After a corrective surgery, she began working out at the gym as part of her rehabilitation and physiotherapy journey under the guidance of her father Nicholai Sachdev, a powerlifter himself. "It started with light weight training and gradually grew to power lifting. It has strengthened my physical constitution. But, it has also made me more confident. I used to be diffident because of my condition." And right now, when there's so much focus on health since the world is grappling with the pandemic, Kasha says she is happy to be on the right track.

Nicholai Sachdev

Today, she stands at a lean 5'10", bench presses close to 27 kilos, squats over her body weight and deadlifts close to 1.5 times her body weight with ease. Her gym buddy, Eappen, forayed into powerlifting only last year. It began when her mother Arshiya Fakih decided to bring her to the gym to help her get fit because she was a bit overweight. "Initially, at the gym, Kasha and I would sit and chat. But her father got me to do basic functional training with no weights and I realised it's fun. It got more serious only later when I had reached a certain degree of fitness," says Eappen, who competed in the under 44 kilo category at the competition.

Nicholai, a gallerist by profession, says championship was never on the agenda. "The idea was to get them to grow stronger, by doing it right and doing it safely. That if you lift weights, you're going to grow muscles and stunt your growth is nothing but urban legend. Training is a slow process; you work on form and technique. Weight training helps pre-teens because it assists in the secretion of growth hormones from the pituitary gland. It makes them active and athletic." He says initially, Kasha and Noa were the only kids at the gym. The number of teens has now grown to 10. He laughs, "The moms want me to train them as well."

27kg
Weight Kasha Sachdev, 13, can bench press