'Yoga calms me down,' says national-level rower Aishwarya Krishnan

Ever since her days of playing cricket and football on the streets at a very young age, Aishwarya Krishnan's life has always been intertwined with sports.

"My father used to row, so he put me into rowing when I was 11-years-old. I joined the Lake Club in Kolkata, and this is how my journey started," she said.

A wide-eyed Aishwarya had taken up the task of playing a sport that always asks the most from you, be it physically or mentally. But, this didn't dampen her spirit. Krishnan went on to represent her state at the nationals thrice in the sub-junior category, winning a bronze and a gold.

From such an impressionable age, sports and fitness has been an inextricable part of the athlete's day-to-life, teaching her lessons in how to grow and fall with others at her side.

"Unity in sports leads to resonance. Resonance leads to success," she said.

Aishwarya with some of her medals

However, the journey hasn't always been easy for the ace rower.

"I was discouraged a lot from doing sports as I was, and still am, a vegetarian. I was never the tallest and neither did I have a big-build which is deemed ideal for sporting activities. But, I have always used this as a motivation to give me the much-needed kick for me to keep going," she added.

While she might be super active on the field and the gym, Aishwarya makes it a point to slow it all down by fitting a session of yoga in her daily routine.

"My parents always insisted on me doing yoga as I was a very proactive child. This was their way of calming me down. As a kid, I was too impatient for yoga and pegged it as something that only older people do."

"Last year I wanted to explore yoga. Since then till today, I have done yoga every single day without fail. It just calms me down. Despite lifting weight for all my life, yoga poses a different kind of challenge to your body. I have really started to grow fond of it," Aishwarya said on her newfound admiration for yoga.

Apart from sports, fitness has been another facet of her life which has stood by the 24-year-old through thick and thin. "My passion is surely women's fitness. Recently, I became certified as a women's fitness specialist. Training other people is something which I love doing, something that I have been doing since my college days. I want to make fitter women in our country," Aishwarya said on her fascination with fitness.

Even during her college days, you would find Krishnan's name in almost all participating lists across various disciplines! "I am the happiest when I am playing. I don't think I remember a life when I wasn't an athlete," says a chuffed Aishwarya.

As she takes up a new sport in rugby, Aishwarya is a quintessential example of someone who is a sports lover not by trade, but by sheer unadulterated passion and zeal.

We proudly present this story to you in association with Myntra's #UnitedInSports campaign on the occasion of National Sports Day.

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