Weight lifting for me is the elixir that if I’m unable to take, I shrivel up, turn brittle and begin withering from within. That is metaphor but not too far from truth.
This is a road that I started on in boarding school in 1979 but only half-heartedly. The full-bore purposefulness of exercising regularly and making physical activity a part of my daily routine came when I went to Hofstra University in the US in 1985. It happened to be the year that my college along with many others decided to make Physical Education a requirement for all Freshman.
The one credit course that the college required called for an hour-long PE course of our choice, three times a week. I chose weight training. My teacher for that class was an older gentleman, a very fit, former Olympian and a no-nonsense guide for a class of twelve freshmen, a mix of young men and women in their late teens. His name has slipped my memory. We fumbled around the weight room, figuring out how to get the most out of calf raises and lat pull downs, how to squat while pushing our bums back and keeping our knees behind our toes. We learned how to protect our backs and our knees, while strengthening our glutes and hamstrings. Very simply, the class was an introduction to the school of slow and steady, heavy and heavier, and simple is best.
By the time I graduated in 1989, went on to graduate school for an MBA in 1990 and on to various jobs, regular exercise had become a part of my life – mostly. There were many times that I slacked off. But in retrospect, those were precisely the times when life went sideways for me. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, hospitalized six times in five years, had multiple blood transfusions and was on the verge of losing my colon in 1994. But exercise re-entered with a vengeance and miraculously, my colitis symptoms vanished. I joined a local gym, one I could barely afford, and stopped for a workout on my way home from work, three to four times a week. At the time, I had not quite registered that exercise was my medicine but I had an inkling.
When I was pregnant with my first child in 1997, I didn’t exercise. I thought, mistakenly, that it was a time to take it easy. I escaped any flares during pregnancy but they returned soon after I delivered. I began exercising, spending scarce time and money on a gym membership, and voila, good health returned. I continued exercising when I got pregnant with child #2 in 2002, at a wonderful maternity exercise class at my gym. I went from work at lunchtime, got in an hour of walking lunges, bicep curls, tricep dips and what not and came back energized and strong.
My husband, me and my two young children moved to India in 2004, settling in Pune. I continued to work. The stress levels were higher, the drive times longer, the expectations greater. I floundered till I found a gym and a trainer I could afford and magically, the mental stress eased as the physical body found strength again.
In 2018, at age 51, I was in the US for a holiday when I felt a little twinge in my lower back. A good stretch solved the problem. Upon returning to India, that twinge had become more of an ache. I ignored it and went on with work and life. A few weeks later, one early morning, I couldn’t get off the bed. It was a slipped disc which after an MRI several days later was confirmed to be a herniation of L5 and S1 discs. I was confined to my bed, couldn’t get up even if I wanted to.
Two weeks later, Dr. Nilesh Kamath, aghast at the state of my spine as reflected in the MRI insisted I see a surgeon right away. The surgeon had intended to recommend immediate surgery but backed off when he saw me walk in quite comfortably. The MRI didn’t match what he was seeing. I began swimming. My back got stronger. I began walking, first 1-2 kms, later 5-6kms. But I couldn’t do yoga and I couldn’t lift weights. I tried both. My back hurt. I kept swimming.
In June 2023, I began Yoga under the able guidance of Trisha Maharaj Singh. Always mindful of my back, much more so than I had ever been, I did Yoga with Singh twice a week and swam or walked on the other days. In June 2024, I returned to weight training with young Atharva Bendarkar, a fantastic trainer who made me believe once again that my body was strong and capable. My Yoga classes with Trisha also continued.
I don’t know if my years of weight training helped me recover quicker and better. I do know that if I hadn’t gone back to weight training when I did, the ravages of time and menopause would have worn me down a lot more than they have been able to. At 59, I am no longer afraid of low back pain or weak knees. I’ve also gone through a variety of iterations – lift light with more reps, heavy with less reps, full body relaxed workouts, focus on upper body and lower body, micro movements, macro movements, strength vs. endurance vs. cardio health.
I have concluded that it doesn’t matter which iteration you adopt as long as you keep increasing resistance, slowly and steadily, heavy and heavier, and keep it simple. Add regular Yoga to the mix and top the whole thing up with just a little good cardio of your choice.
Transformative journeys is a monthly series of triumphs, failures, and shifts related to health.
Priya Hajela is the author of Ladies’ Tailor (HarperCollins India, 2022), and For Whose Dear Sake Our Fathers Died, Speaking Tiger, 2026).