StrongFirst Inspired Tourism
So what is StrongFirst Inspired Tourism? Well, our Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi believes that India has a lot of beautiful tourist destinations and each and every region of India is different from the other having it’s own regional dialect and cuisines. He has encouraged his fellow Indians to visit at least 15 domestic destinations across India before 2022. You can read more on this here. This inspired me also to combine my interest, my passion, my quest for more knowledge in learning StrongFirst Strength Training Principles and at the same time to use opportunity to travel to different tourist destinations.
Background on my StrongFirst journey
When in May 2017, I decided to learn the StrongFirst Kettlebell course and Ground Force Method from Master Instructor Shaun Cairns in Chennai, little did I knew that I was starting on a journey of discovering the Strength Training Principles and Movement Principles distilled by StrongFirst Founder and Chairman, Pavel Tsatsouline. Believe me, it’s a whole new World within Fitness Industry and the Leadership Team at StrongFirst teaches these Strength Training Principles with great focus on “Quality over Quantity” and “Inch wide mile deep” concepts (checkout StrongFirst article here).
I am proud to be a part of the StrongFirst family. I became a StrongFirst Kettlebell Certified Level 1 Instructor last year (2019) in February, the very first StrongFirst Kettlebell Instructor in North India (I believe) and gained immensely strength wise by practicing the principles learnt from Master Instructor Shaun Cairns.
After my first Kettlebell course in May 2017, I invited Master Instructor Shaun Cairns to conduct workshops in New Delhi at FMA Fitness so that more students could benefit from learning the StrongFirst Strength training Principles directly from him. He agreed and did his first ever workshops in North India at FMA Fitness in September 2017. Master Instructor Shaun Cairns is also the “Original Beast Tamer”. A beast tamer in StrongFirst terminology is one who has successfully completed 1 repetition of a Strict Pull-up, Pistol Squat and a Military Press all with a 48 kg Kettlebell which is called as the “Beast”.
In these workshops he conducted at FMA Fitness, he invited me to assist in teaching the students and which was a great opportunity for me to not only get a refresher but also to learn how to teach at workshops. I was really blessed for this opportunity. Since then, Master Shaun has given me several opportunities to be his assistant in workshops in New Delhi and in Chennai. I believe each time I am able to learn something new and my concepts have become more clearer and I have gained more confidence through assisting in these workshops which has led me to train my PT clients and my Group Class Students in a more structured way.
Spending quality time with Master Shaun before these workshops and after these workshops is also great opportunity for me to learn more and more from such a brilliant, skillful, experienced, strong and knowledgeable Teacher. So, when another opportunity came in April 2018 for Master Shaun Cairns to come to New Delhi for conducting StrongFirst workshops, I requested him to keep a day or two extra after the workshops so that we can visit the famous Taj Mahal in Agra. He was kind enough to accept the offer and we were able to visit not only Taj Mahal in Agra but also Lotus Temple in South Delhi, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Central Delhi, Humayun Tomb in South Delhi.
Another wonderful opportunity to visit more beautiful tourist destination in South India was provided by StrongFirst India, when the decision was taken to conduct the SFG Kettlebell Certification (level 1) in Mahabalipuram. It was a great opportunity for me to visit the famous beaches, famous Shore Temple, Lord Khrishna’s Butterball etc. Checkout the photos in the Instagram post below. The Certification was held at the famous Grande Bay Resort & Spa.
In May 2019, I was supposed to travel again to Chennai for learning the StrongFirst Barbell Course from Master Instructor Shaun Cairns and assisting in a Kettlebell course workshop. So, I planned my visit to Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore as I have been listening and watching a lot of videos of Sadhguru and wanted to visit his famous Ashram in Coimbatore and spend two days experiencing the environment there. As you can watch in the video below, the Isha Yoga Center is a one of it’s kind in the World situated at the foothills of the Vellangiri Mountain Foothills. Inside the Isha Ashram I meditated in Dhyanalinga, which is a very powerful meditative space, prayed in the Suryakund, consulted the health professional there, played frisbee also with the students there in the evening, had Sattvic food which is served twice in a day and is very fulfilling.
So there you have it, I have combined my love for learning Strength Training Principles from StrongFirst with my desire to visit new tourist destinations throughout India to get the most out of life.
What would you like to share in your life’s journey for how you are looking into maximising life and becoming a better version of you? Please leave your comments below in the comments section. If you liked this article, please share it with your family and friends. Thanks
Strength Coach Jazz
Movement and Strength Coach, StrongFirst Certified SFG 1, Functional Fitness Master Trainer, TRX Certified Instructor, Kettlebell Expert,Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Expert
