Too fat for yoga? Too inflexible to attempt an asana? A plus-sized woman shows you how to master the mat
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If you happen to be at Bandra’s Bajaj Park or Union Park, and spot a sprightly young woman comfortably gliding from one yoga position into another, feel free to join her or request a few tips. Thirty-three-year-old Dolly Singh, a content manager for a leading youth channel through the week and a successful home chef dishing out Bihari delicacies over the weekend, weighed over 90 kgs when she first started yoga. “I grew up in a family where no one called me fat. I was happy and confident. About four years ago, I sprained my leg and the doctor told me that this would happen often if I didn’t lose weight. My legs weren’t able to take the weight of my body. That’s when I decided to shed the excess,” shares Singh. “I went to the gym, got a personal trainer and then finally tried yoga. Today, it is a regular practice, almost like brushing my teeth,” she adds.
Dolly Singh
While she joined a group class initially, she had a tough time matching the pace with other members as she found herself ahead of the class all the time. “I was also amused to see the surprise on people’s faces when they saw me perform the asanas effortlessly. ‘You manage to do it in spite of your weight!’ they would say. It is then that I realised how yoga being for a certain body type is a big myth,” says Singh, adding, “Have you ever seen a picture of a person who is overweight or doesn’t have a lean silhouette on the poster of a yoga class? People associate fat with unhealthy and unfit. This is the notion I want to change.”
Singh practises yoga in the park
Singh, who would earlier practise at home, now makes it a point to go to a public park for her sessions. “It encourages people to come by and talk to me. Many of them have appreciated my skill and told me that I get into difficult postures that even lean bodies find difficult to do,” she shares. “Yoga is holistic. It hasn’t helped me shed all the kilos but has made me strong, flexible and competent enough to undertake mountaineering and difficult hikes. I encourage people to join me for free sessions. They could learn or simply do it to keep each other company. It has changed my life and I want to initiate a body positivity movement and help others discover it too,” she says.
Email: dollysingh82@gmail.com (to sign up for a free session)
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