The one name that comes to mind when we hear Pilates is Yasmin Karachiwala, the OG of Pilates. Needless to say, she made Pilates popular in India with her vision and mission to make this mindful movement more accessible for Indian fitness enthusiasts. Known as the pioneer of Pilates in India, Yasmin has over three decades of experience in Pilates which made her a trusted and go-to name in the Bollywood fraternity. So far, she has trained celebs including Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt and Hrithik Roshan and the list is only getting bigger. In an exclusive interview with Yasmin, we spoke about her passion, motivation and mantra for success. Keep reading to get some amazing insights.
The Beginning of Yasmin’s Pilates Journey
“I had been a personal trainer for around 10 years, and after I had my children, I realized that no matter what I did I couldn’t lose my belly fat. I researched online what was the best way to work on belly fat, and that’s when I came across something called Pilates, I researched further and found that Pilates is a form of exercise that works on your core. I thought the core at that time was just my abdominals and I said hey, this is great to lose my belly fat so I called a studio that I found in the US, which was very reputed, and I told them that I wanted to become a Pilates instructor and that’s when I went to the US for three months and did my training in Pilates.”
While this marked the beginning of her inspiring Pilates journey, it was not as smooth as it sounds. She had to overcome many obstacles to establish herself as a celebrated Pilates instructor, that she has become now.
Crossed Many Hurdles For Becoming The Pioneer Of Pilates In India
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Talking about that, Yasmin says, “I think the biggest hurdle I faced was explaining to people what Pilates was, what it did for their bodies, and the price point. The price point of a Pilates class was much higher than a personal training class and people couldn't understand why I was charging more, so the justification for that was a little difficult, but what I used to tell people was, ‘Come try a class and see how it makes you feel’. It's very difficult to explain to somebody what Pilates does for you until they experience it for themselves, so once people came in and started experiencing Pilates and understood how it made their body feel, I think that is when I crossed that hurdle.”
The driving force behind the increasing popularity of Pilates in India
While pilates itself is the driving force behind its increasing popularity because it's a way of exercise that makes you feel unbelievably wonderful. Siding with the statement, Yasmin elaborates, “Pilates is the perfect combination of strength and stretch. You feel strong from the inside out whereas every other form of exercise works you from outside to in. Pilates is the only form of exercise that works you from the inside out, originating from your core. It makes you feel stronger, more flexible, and more energetic, and doing all this without actually fatiguing or making you run away from a form of exercise. I think everybody who I do Pilates with or who does Pilates looks forward to their Pilates session.”
Also Read: Mrunal Thakur’s Power-Packed Pilates Routine Is the Mid-Week Fitness Inspiration You Need
For the uninitiated, Yasmin Karachiwala has a total of 11 Pilates studios all across the globe including Mumbai, Gurgaon, Indore, Bhopal, Dhaka(Bangladesh), and Dubai. She has launched her latest Pilates studio at Juhu- YKBI Juhu. The partners in this most recent venture are her son, Zahaan Karachiwala, and his business partner, Zainab Bashey, at the forefront.
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Yasmin’s Advice To A Beginner Looking To Start A Pilates Journey
- Firstly, make sure that your Pilates instructor is certified
- Secondly, work on building your foundation in Pilates because once you have a strong foundation, then you can do all those complicated lovely exercises that you watch on social media
But, don't rush into wanting to do what you see in the media before you build your foundation.
In addition to following the abovementioned pieces of advice, you should also take note of these common mistakes while doing Pilates that people generally make:
- Looking out during a Pilates class is a compensating form. Under no circumstances, when doing Pilates, can you compensate for your form with movement.
- If you find that your body is not getting the movement right and you want to cheat a little on your form to be able to do the movement, that means your body is not ready for that movement.
- Build on the strength and flexibility and all the other tools that you require to do a movement but never, under any circumstance, compensate form for movement or replace form for movement.
Summing up, Yasmin says that each person has unique needs for their own body and it's very important to know what the need is. There's no set routine that works for everyone, of course, having said that if a person just does normal Pilates sessions and also watches what they eat and adds a little bit of cardio then definitely they will see results in their vitality and vigor.