Life started at 40 for this 47-year-old mother of two teenagers from Pune, who was introduced to weight training six years ago. Even though Bhavna Tokekar had always maintained an active lifestyle all her life, she started training at the gym six years ago to reduce the side effects of the medicines she took to deal with skin inflammation. Now, she competed at the Open Asian Powerlifting Championships of AWPC/ WPC at Chelyabinsk, Russia on Sunday and won 4 gold medals for the country.
Bhavna, wife of an Indian Air Force fighter pilot, started weight training after members of the IAF bodybuilding team informed her about weight training to increase her strength. “There are many myths surrounding body building, weight lifting and other strength sports, especially related to women, like it is meant only for young people and that it makes the body bulky. I started training initially when I was 41, but I wanted to be sure of it since I didn’t want to injure myself or do the wrong technique since weight lifting is not popular here,” says Bhavna, who is currently in Russia.
That’s where a millennial’s best friend comes into the picture in Bhavna’s story- the Internet. Bhavna, who is a full-time homemaker, started spending time researching and reading about weight lifting through Youtube videos and other websites.
Introduced only recently to Instagram, Bhavna started following handles on the app which gave out fitness information.
Read more of this story of courage, motivation for others, in a report by Shivani Sadanand Singh published in Hindustan Times... (Link given below)
(We usually talk of the negative effects of social media, the internet and various platforms - this story of Bhavna shows us that how useful are these platforms in shaping ones life - the only catch is using it purposefully. - Editor)
