Monsoon: Growing Physically and Mentally with her Clients

Do you also sometimes form very personal bonds with your profession? If yes, you could find solace in the fact that you’re not alone. Fitness is a profession that allows you to help people become better versions of themselves and makes you a part of their personal journeys.

Monsoon's story is about impacted her clients' lives and vice versa.
Monsoon's story is about impacted her clients' lives and vice versa. 

Do you also sometimes form very personal bonds with your profession? If yes, you could find solace in the fact that you’re not alone. Fitness is a profession that allows you to help people become better versions of themselves and makes you a part of their personal journeys.

Monsoon, a fitness trainer based out of Delhi has formed a very personal connection with her work, and some of her clients. In a conversation with SocialBoat, she discusses her journey so far as a fitness trainer, and clients whom she recalls for their sweet gestures and strong determination. Read on to know about her.

Earlier, Monsoon worked in the event industry.
Earlier, Monsoon worked in the event industry.

Introducing Fitness in her Life

Monsoon, originally from Assam, moved to Delhi for her higher education around 2004. After graduating from Miranda House, Monsoon had been working in the event industry since 2008. Planning weddings and other events here and there, it was a very hectic lifestyle that didn’t allow time for healthy eating, let alone exercise. This affected Monsoon’s health drastically. She developed PCOS and gained a lot of weight.

When Monsoon went to the doctor, she was asked to work out. She loved the experience so much that she hasn’t stopped working out ever since. She joined the gym in 2010, got her certification within a span of two years, and became an instructor.

Now she is practicing and teaching both Yoga and strength training.
Now she is practicing and teaching both Yoga and strength training.

From Zumba to Strength Training

By 2012-13, Monsoon came to be known as the best Zumba instructor in Delhi. Although she continues doing Zumba with the same zeal, she has also started with more conventional forms of training, especially strength training due to three major reasons-

  1. Firstly, cardio doesn't help maintain long-term fitness. Once you stop doing it, all the lost weight comes back. Hence, strength training is a better option.
  2. Secondly, cardio is more injury prone, as compared to strength training. So, as an instructor, Monsoon thought she had to make the jump.
  3. And lastly, Monsoon had realised that women becoming bulky due to strength training was completely a myth, and that strength training was actually more beneficial for them.

When the pandemic happened in 2019, like many others, Monsoon too experienced a complete change in her work culture. While earlier she was working only with gyms, now she had started taking personal one-to-one sessions via the online mode.

Currently, she has programs where she teaches ashtanga yoga, mat pilates, functional training, and core training. She has various sessions and her own training that keep her active throughout the day.

Monsoon usually forms a very personal connection with her clients.
Monsoon usually forms a very personal connection with her clients. 

Some Lives Impacted

Monsoon tells us that apart from the various changes that shifting to the online mode has brought about, one of them has been the loss of, or delay in building a personal connection with her clients. She narrates two such memorable client stories from a few years back-

1. In one of the gyms that Monsoon was working at, she trained an 18-year-old girl who had joined the gym to lose some weight. She was a shy and introverted person and was very low in confidence.

“Once she came up to me and said I want to be like you. I asked her to tell me why and listened to her talk about how she was uncomfortable with her shyness.”

Monsoon told her that she couldn't be someone else, just like nobody can be anyone else because of their uniqueness.

“I told her that she should work on herself and be comfortable in her own body firstly and foremostly.”

A few months later, that girl went to Bangalore for her education.

“Recently, she sent me her pictures and asked me to recognise her. I couldn't. She looked very different. Then she called me to thank me for the transformation. and told me that she was the same shy girl from the gym. She had worked very hard on her body and her confidence had escalated.”
The lives she impacts, impact hers in turn.
The lives she impacts, impact hers in turn.

2. Another time, when Monsoon taught Zumba at the German embassy, there was a woman in her class, who was her most regular student. However, she was the wife of one of the German officials, she had to leave Monsoon’s class because her husband was being transferred to a different place. Monsoon had had a very teacher-student-like relationship with her by far.

“But in her last class, when she met me for the last time, she cried a lot and told me that she had been in depression for a very long time and that my classes were really helping her get through it.”

This conversation really touched Monsoon, so much so that she kept in touch with her all these years.

“The last time we spoke she told me that she was doing great, much better than she was when she had to leave the class. And that she still continues doing Zumba regularly.”
She will be pursuing some advanced Yoga training courses in 2022.
She will be pursuing some advanced Yoga training courses in 2022.

What Lies Ahead

Monsoon, who has been through a difficult time of depression herself, says that it was her work and these connections that she formed with some of the clients that helped her get through it all.

“Going to the gym, working on yourself, this is not just about the physical transformation, it is about the change in the mental state that comes with it.”

As for 2022, Monsoon has two major goals. Firstly, she will be pursuing a two-month-long advanced yoga training course, and a course specializing in prenatal and postnatal exercises, to learn and teach better.

Secondly, since she will be shifting to Faridabad from Delhi, she aims to create a network of clients and connections in the new place. Plus, Monsoon also has a keen interest in travelling and makes sure to travel once every six months, so doing that will also be a part of her 2022.

You can find out more about Monsoon's work here.

For more stories from creators, visit SocialBoat.