No lift kara do for these girls

If the teenage years are meant to raise some hell 15yearold Kasha Nia Sachdev and 13yearold Noa Sara Eappen are truly different At an age when peers are riding the latest viral Insta trend or figuring which Taylor Swift aesthetic to style themselves after the two are winning gold medals and that too in the hypermasculine sport of powerlifting The two have just returned from the World Powerlifting Championship in Kyrgyzstan where Kasha won Gold and set world records in Teen 1 Female Under 75 kg and Noa won Gold and set world records in Teen1 Female Under 60 kg Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts squat bench press and deadliftWe spoke to them and their fathers Nicholai Sachdev their coach who is a powerlifter himself He won Gold in bench press and Silver in deadlift at the recent championship Rij Eappen is a luxury lifestyle digital content creatorNoa with dad Rij Eappen who is a luxury lifestyle influencerKasha who stands at an impressive 6 feet tells us how it all began for her at age eight after a knee surgery It was to correct genu valgum or knock knees a condition where the knees tilt inward while the ankles remain spaced apart ldquoFirst of all everybody sees my scars and asks lsquoAre you okayrsquordquo she says while her father quips ldquoThose are battle woundsrdquo ldquoI was doing all these exercises to get back into shaperdquo Kasha continues ldquoand dad couldnrsquot see much improvement He did some research and decided to enroll me in a gym I felt better after working out and since he is a powerlifter toomdashand a competitive one at thatmdashwe decided to give it a try It fixed my knees and I grew eight inches to be sixfeettall But the biggest transformation was in my confidence I started seeing my body change and truly began blossomingrdquoNoarsquos journey began at nine when her parents wondered whether she was short for her age ldquoWe consulted a few doctorsrdquo says Eappen ldquothey confirmed it and suggested exercise Her mother began taking Noa to the gym where she met Kasha and Nick Inspired by Kasha she also took to the sport and Nick saw potential He started training her and thatrsquos how she is where she isrdquoKasha with dad Nicholai Sachdev who also coaches the girlsWe wondered aloud whether there is a connection between powerlifting and growing those extra inches ldquoThere are so many myths about weight trainingrdquo clarifies Nicholai ldquoThat if you lift too much it will stunt your growth I read up clinical trials researched preteen training and realised it actually helps secrete a growth hormone In a closed supervised environment a child who runs will run faster a kid who jumps will jump higher if someone has weak knees like Kasha they will get better Growth rate can be damaged even by sports such as horseriding but not in a training facility where everything is micromanaged These two have been training for five years and there have been very few injuries They have challenged all misconceptions We noticed a connection between growth and trainingmdashKasha grew a foot and Noa grew four inches The whole body composition changesrdquoThe burden of being role models at such a young age may be heavy but they are familiar with lifting the loadmdasheven excited by it If Kasharsquos main challenge was missing out on normal teen stuff such as attending birthday parties Noa says building confidence in the face of teasing by peers was tough ldquoWhen I first startedrdquo she says ldquoboys in my grade would tease me about powerlifting I didnrsquot know how to cope but as I kept training I realised I didnrsquot have to prove anything to anyone Another challenge was to remain in my weight categorymdashI had to eat mindfully count calories and do cardio for at least three to four hours after weight training But training made me realise I didnrsquot need to compare myself to othersmdashhere was something I was good atrdquoFor Kasha it was more about FOMO fear of missing out ldquoI was in the gym and people were at partiesrdquo she exclaims ldquoOne has to sacrifice a lot as an athleterdquo interjects Sachdev ldquoKasha and Noa have come in during periods while suffering headaches with broken legshellip they have even trained in crutches There are no days offmdashno friendrsquos birthday motherrsquos birthday Whatever challenges life threw at them they turned them around and fuelled their training The last two years have been extra toughmdashmeticulous eating traininghellip There is no time for friends Rij has to make an appointment with Noa to meet herrdquo Rij smiles as he says ldquoNoa would love to eat pizza every day but she knows she canrsquot Thatrsquos the kind of discipline ingrained into their systemrdquoSachdev nods affirmatively ldquoPowerlifting is not a movementrdquo he says ldquoitrsquos the discipline we instill in them and the courage Itrsquos a huge win for the country and for the girls They keep smiling and thatrsquos worth itrdquo The duo does get time off which Kasha spends playing with her dogs and singing and Noa by binging on the TV show FriendsAs the girls recuperate before getting back to training they are very clear about why they are doing this To confront ageold notions that women canrsquot lift weights Noa is following something she loves and her father considers this sense of purpose most important ldquoTo be so committed to something at such a young age is commendablerdquo he says Kasha sums it up when she says ldquoItrsquos so important for girls my age to aspire to things that people think they canrsquot do Societyrsquos belief of what a woman can do and canrsquot do is rubbish We should jump in and support young women in their endeavorsmdashlike our dads have helped usrdquo