No Gyms? How About No Limbs? – Lockdown workouts with Tinkesh

No Gyms? How About No Limbs? #LockdownWorkouts with Tinkesh

By Pranav Ashwath

“Difficult office hours”, “Expensive fitness programs”, “Too tired to exercise” are a few classic excuses that all of us have made at some point or the other for not being “able” to work out. And now with Social Distancing being the new norm across the world, we’ve all got an even better excuse: “All the gyms are closed”. This seems to be a pretty solid reason for everyone, right? Wrong!

Meet Tinkesh Kaushik, a man who has not let the fact that the gyms are closed, or the fact that he is a triple amputee, affect the quality of his fitness routine.
Tinkesh, with no legs and just one arm, is described as having 90% disability. As a nine year-old, he suffered an 11,000 Volt electric shock while flying a kite on the terrace of his house. Four months and eleven surgeries later, after having lost three of his four limbs, Tinkesh is now a multi-adventure sports champion and an Asian Record Holder in bungee jumping! Not just that, he is a fitness and nutrition trainer, para cyclist, swimmer and a white water rafter. Among other things. Whew!

Tinkesh is nicknamed ‘Will’ at the Cross Strength Fitness Club, where he works as a ‘group batch expert’, where his students are in awe of his will power, dedication, and focus. And now during the lockdown, he’s working from home as well. And this time, it’s not just the members of the Cross Strength Fitness Club who are reaping the benefits, all of us sitting at home can implement his stunning fitness tips while working out from home.

I managed to catch up with Tinkesh recently over the phone, so let’s see what fitness hacks the great man has for us. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
“During the lockdown, in the absence of gyms, what kind of exercises do you recommend?”
“Gyms offer weight training, so in their absence, we substitute that with bodyweight training.”
“Is just one type of training enough to maintain fitness though?”
“There are so many types of training using bodyweight itself! There are HIIT workouts, cardio workouts, tabata workouts, strength training, endurance training etc.”
“So what exactly are these HIIT workouts?”
“HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. These are quick, powerful routines which are aimed at building explosive strength.”
“What about training all the different parts of the body? Don’t some exercises need specialized equipment?”
“There are so many different variations of body weight exercises! Each one hits a different muscle group of the body, and the whole physique can be shaped to perfection.”
“Wow! That’s truly encouraging for all of us stuck at home. But how do you manage to do this day in and day out?”
“Motivation must come from within. You aren’t working out for anyone else, you are doing it for yourself.”

Tinkesh is a true inspiration. His greatest strength is not his ability to do 80 kg squats, or even to perform mind boggling 120 kg leg presses (with no legs)! His greatest strength is his incredible power to turn any situation around, no matter how hopeless they seem, and it’s something we can all learn from him. So get off the couch, throw aside that bag of chips and the bundle of excuses, and start getting in shape! As Tinkesh says, ‘Nothing is Impossible’.

For those of you who are interested in the technical details of Tinkesh’s workout routines and wish to implement them yourselves, the links at the below will take you straight to his official YouTube channel, where you can find instructive, detailed workout programmes.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsz1BGXDJZ2M9l0nCn9waA

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Pranav Ashwath

Fitness and sports enthusiast with a passion for architecture, inclusion and accessibility.