Two years before she gave her nod to participate in an ongoing stunt-based reality show, Shweta Tiwari had sought professional help to tend to a shoulder injury. The TV actor, 40, who despite having a lean frame throughout her life, hadn’t particularly dedicated herself to a fitness routine, was eager to revisit her lifestyle. “She was lean, but not fit. When we began to work with her, a lot of rehabilitation training, and physiotherapy was involved,” says Sahil Rashid, who not only worked her back into shape, but also readied her for the reality show.

Rashid had been specifically appointed to enhance her skill-work, a regimen he distinguishes from strength-based training, which was being catered to by another trainer. “I was dealing with stability, balance, explosive work, and agility. We had to prepare her for a stunt-based show, which means agility work was important to reduce her response time. That implied making her capable of reacting to situations faster during training. We were working on movements, instead of merely targeting muscles. For instance, lunges work on specific muscles of the legs, but couple lunges with torso rotations, and that becomes a movement-related training employing motor skills.”

Aligned with the nature of the show, Rashid introduced her to new routines each day, thereby preparing her body for the kind of physical work it would be exposed to. “My area of expertise is posture correction and skill work. Obstacle courses that involved vertical, horizontal, and rotational movements were designed to challenge her muscles in different ways. Explosive training is always sports-specific, and we added rope climbing, monkey bars, stability ball exercises, and hanging routines to enhance her grip strength.”

Rashid — who had also been training Tiwari’s daughter — paid particular attention to developing the actor’s core strength, which, he says, enhances appendicular movement. “The body should have good mobility. You need to understand what movements can cause injuries, and, should know how to tackle them. Isometric work was included to prevent injuries. Also, your muscles must be well-nourished to manage the task at hand,” says Rashid, who trained her thrice a week.