Anshuka Parwani, a well-known name among celebs like Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and many others, is a sought-after celebrity yoga and holistic wellness expert.
Anshuka pioneered Fly Fit in India, a combination of Aerial Yoga, Aerial Pilates, and Aerial Fitness.
Apart from training high-profile celebrity clients like Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sonam Kapoor, and more, Anshuka is also a national level gold medal swimmer, an athlete and a commercial pilot.
For the unversed, Anshuka Parwani has also trained Deepika Padukone to foster flexibility, strength, and stamina for the yoga instructor role that Padukone essayed in the film Gehraiyaan.
On International Day of Yoga 2024, celebrity yoga instructor Anshuka Parwani sat down with iDiva to enlighten the masses about the invaluable and transformational effects of yoga, its role in a high-paced hectic life, its lesser-known benefits along with a few glimpses from her celebrity yoga sessions.
Anshuka Parwani’s venture into yoga
Anshuka Parwani
Anshuka’s venture into yoga wasn’t exactly planned. In fact, her first celebrity yoga class with Kareena Kapoor Khan was a favour. She filled in for a friend and the rest is history. Yoga was ingrained into her life by her family. She pursued it passionately for its holistic benefits. And when yoga came to her rescue during a challenging time in her life, her belief in the wellness exercise cemented further.
Anshuka said, “My venture into yoga began when I was very young. It was introduced to me by my family. The holistic approach of the practice really resonated with me. I got into a near-fatal motorbike accident which left me immobile for many months. And yoga really came to me as magic and healed me.”
She added, “Yoga has been transformative in every aspect. It provided me with a sense of courage, magic, sense of balance, clarity, a lot of inner peace that goes beyond. It helped me connect with myself, my breath. And of course, it helped me mentally and emotionally because it taught me a lot of resilience and that’s how it gave me a new life and the holistic transformation inspired me to share all gave me a new life and the holistic transformation inspired me to share all these benefits through my teaching and what I do. This led me to create my yoga brand, Anshuka Yoga, that integrates everything fitness, wellness and holistic health.”
Tidbits from Anshuka Parwani’s celebrity yoga sessions
On first celebrity client
Anshuka Parwani
Anshuka landed her first celebrity client when she, by chance, filled in for a friend to train Kareena Kapoor Khan. She was empowered and gathered more courage to establish her brand after Kareena loved the session.
Anshuka said, “My first celebrity client was Kareena Kapoor Khan. It was amazing. It was so few minutes and I forgot who I was teaching because I guess the teacher role comes over you. But she’s so humble and disciplined. It was an incredible first session. It was very enriching and it helped me sort of really build up courage.”
She added, “The best part about training Kareena Kapoor Khan is that she is just so genuine, full of love. She’s taught me that. She’s really taught me how to embrace self love. And her attitude, which is so positive, always eager to do more, and her dedication as well.”
On celebrity-favourite yoga poses
Credit: Instagram/anshukayoga
Anshuka led us in on some tidbits from her yoga sessions. From how often celebs love to practise yoga to customised yoga routines, here’s what she divulged, “Celebrities like to train minimum three to five times (a week). Sometimes we also bring in six practices a week.”
On celebrity favourite yoga poses, Anshuka said, “Everybody has their own skill sets. So when it comes to asanas, some people are more flexible than the others. For instance, Bebo loves Surya Namaskarshe and can do so many. Deepika loves deep backbends and inversions. Alia loves her deep backbends, too. So, different for different people.”
On Alia Bhatt’s postpartum yoga routine
Credit: Instagram/anshukayoga
Anshuka also spoke about Alia Bhatt’s postpartum yoga routineand how she started at a gentle and restorative pace and worked her way up, “We started with a lot of less restorative, gentle poses. Then we started working on a lot of strength and then we worked on stamina, endurance. We started with a lot of variations, not too much of a deep back bend. We built core strength again and then worked up from there. We incorporated a lot of planning, a lot of breathwork to enhance her mental and emotional well-being as well.”
On training Deepika Padukone for ‘Gehraiyaan’
Credit: Instagram/anshukayoga
For those who don’t know, Deepika aced the portrayal of a yoga instructor(and also the super impressive deep inversion pose) in her movie Gehraiyaan with the help and guidance of Anshuka Parwani.
Parwani said, “It was exceptional. Deepika’s dedication to a role and a commitment to yoga made our session super productive. I was involved on such a creative level with the director, with all the actors, you know.”
“We did a lot of workshops to get everyone comfortable with asanas and each other because we had a lot of partner work involved. We focused on different blends of flows, restorative practices, and a lot of fiery practices to maintain physical fitness.”
“Of course, the progress was just unmatchable and it was really gratifying to witness everything that came up on the screen. It was amazing being involved not only as a wellness and fitness consultant, but being involved creatively was just such a beautiful experience in itself.”
On celebrities she would love to train
“I would love to train Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and also Christian Bale.”
Anshuka Parwani on yoga myths, benefits and more
On the role of yoga in a high-paced and stressful lifestyle
Instagram/anshukayoga
Anshuka explained the mechanisms behind the positive effects of yoga on lowering stress levels in the body, “In a high-paced and stressful lifestyle, what yoga does is really taps into your parasympathetic nervous system which serves as a powerful tool to counterbalance the pressures of your daily life. All your practices promote relaxation, clarity. Certain practices like pranayama also help your physical health as well. Even if you incorporate just a few minutes of daily practice, you are doing wonders for your hormonal system and your parasympathetic nervous system.”
On effective yoga asanas for busting stress
Instagram/anshukayoga
To reduce stress levels in the body, Anshuka swears by a few yoga poses that really make a difference, “Child’s pose, Legs Up The Wall pose calm the nervous system down, Cat-Cow pose helps create mobility in the spine and it releases a lot of tension. Savasana with Yoga Nidra which is conscious relaxation and any sort of forward bend really helps.”
Speaking about relaxing poses, she added, I’m a big believer of breath work, Pranayama. So just doing bhramari pranayama, being present or even just doing kumbhaka pranayama which is breath retention could help.”
On quick yoga poses to start the day with
Anshuka believes that starting the day with “Viparita Karani, Pawanmuktasana, Malasana, Surya Namaskar, and Cat-Cow pose” can be highly beneficial.
On lesser-known benefits of yoga
Anshuka Parwani
There are many other lesser-known benefits of yoga apart from the many physical and mental health advantages. Anshuka made us understand the deeper positive effects of embracing yoga.
She said, “It connects you with your mind, body, soul. It gives you a lot of strength, enhances sleep quality, and it balances your hormones. Most importantly, it encourages a lot of tuning and self-awareness apart from the strength, stamina and flexibility and all the various benefits. You just make better choices internally and externally.”
On debunking yoga myths for beginners
Anshuka busted a dew common myths, especially for beginners and those who are not knowledgeable about the basics of yoga. Here’s what she said:
• “Yoga is for the flexible only. The reality is it’s for everybody, anybody with a body and a mind. Yoga is about the mind, body, soul, connection.
• Yoga is only for women. This is not true. Yoga is for everybody.
• Third myth is that yoga is a religion. It’s not a religion. It’s a spiritual practice.
• Fourth myth is you need a lot of time to practise yoga. Not true. Even a few minutes of yoga practice can make a difference.”
On yoga tips for beginners who want to start their yoga journey
Anshuka Parwani
If you are wondering if it’s time to start your yoga journey, here are a few things you should keep in mind according to the celebrity yoga trainer.
Anshuka said, “Start slow, start with basic movements. Focus on your breath. Consistency is key. Listen to your body and respect your body’s limits. Find a good teacher who you connect with. A certified teacher is very important. Don’t compete with anybody and focus on the process.”
Social and lead images credits: Anshuka Parwani
