Janhvi Kapoor successfully overcame persistent lower back pain through Pilates, under the guidance of celebrity trainer Namrata Purohit. Initially viewing it as temporary rehab, Janhvi quickly found relief as Pilates strengthened her core and glutes, fostering crucial body awareness. This transformative experience led her to embrace the practice, making her more mindful even during weight training.
About seven years ago Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s elder daughter Janhvi Kapoor made her debut in movies with Karan Johar backed Dhadak. She then went on to do films like Gunjan Saxena- The Kargil Girl, Mr and Mrs Mahi, Roohi, Bawaal and the recently released Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumar. As the actress grew in her journey, her back pain grew as well till she found the solution to it with Pilates under Namrata Purohit’s supervision. The celebrity trainer in an exclusive interview with ETimes in the end of 2024 opened up how Pilates played a transformative role in actress Janhvi Kapoor’s fitness journey, especially in helping her overcome a persistent lower back issue. Namrata, who has trained several Bollywood celebrities, shared detailed insights on how the mind-body form of exercise worked wonders for Janhvi.
“Pilates is such a magical form of exercise because it works on all aspects of fitness. So while it can really work on strengthening the muscles, it also works on lengthening them,” Namrata said, explaining the holistic benefits of the practice.She further added, “And it doesn’t only work on the superficial muscles of the body, but also the deeper stabilizers. And now in terms of a back issue, it’s very important to have strong glutes and a strong core that will support the spine.Pilates are extremely joint friendly. So while it might be tough on your muscles and help you build stronger muscles, it’s very easy on the joints and your spine. So there’s no extra load on it.”Recalling the initial days of Janhvi’s Pilates journey, Namrata said, “So when Janhvi came, she had a lower back issue, which was the first thing we wanted to tackle. And when she came here, she had this misconception as well that Pilates is only going to help her with her rehab and then she’s going to go back to her weight training.”“So she came here thinking this is a temporary gig and then I’m going to move on back to weight training or whatever,” she continued. “Of course, when she came here, the first thing we did was take care of the back through exercises on the reformers. We worked on strengthening the glutes, working on the stabilizers and more importantly, helping her understand how the body functions and moves.”Namrata also highlighted the importance of educating the body and mind connection: “So how to fire the correct muscle to support the back and spine because that education is also very important. So we worked a lot on that and she realized that in just a couple of sessions, she was absolutely pain free after having tried so many things for so long. So that’s when she understood the benefits of Pilates.”Once Janhvi started feeling better, her approach to Pilates changed completely. “And then, of course, I started upping the intensity and she’s like, wait, I don’t need to do anything else. So she started really enjoying this.”Namrata concluded by saying, “And now once in a while, even when she wants to lift weights, she’s more aware about how her body works. So she’s more careful about how she lifts those weights because she’s able to engage the muscles much better because of her awareness that’s come through Pilates.”
