Gyming not must to achieve a fit body, says fitness champ Kuwar Amritbir Singh

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

At a time when Punjab gets into the national news for all the wrong reasons, a young boy from the state is trying to set the record straight.

Meet Batala resident Kuwar Amritbir Singh, the recipient of the REX Karamvir Global Youth Icon award 2020-21. Singh also holds two other world records, both in fitness – he is the youngest boy to perform maximum ‘Knuckle Pushups’ in one minute, and the youngest to perform maximum ‘Superman Pushups’ in 30 seconds. A passionate fitness enthusiast, Singh, 19, is all for the desi ways of achieving a fit and well-toned body.

Foray into Fitness

Interestingly, Singh’s foray into fitness is born out of his deep idolation for freedom fighter likes Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh.

Coming from a family of farmers, he had an avid interest in all kinds of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities be it sports, fitness, debate competitions or stage plays as a child. In the plays at school, he often essayed the role of freedom fighters like Sardar Bhagat Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha and Uddham Singh among others.

“As I role-played these great men, I was drawn towards their personalities and wanted to know more about them. This made me reach out for their biographies, which taught me very many great things about them,” he says. And, as he learnt more about these men, Singh realised that they were the role models for the many people, which lit a little spark in him for following their path. “I also wanted to do something different whereby I could become a role model for others,” he says talking about how he embarked on his fitness journey two years back.

The first time when my parents saw me doing workouts with home-made desi equipment, they were not only shocked but also dissatisfied with what I was doing,” he says. They were not wrong, for Singh had completed his class 12 science with good grades and they expected him to take up further studies, perhaps engineering since he had studied non-medical. But Singh had chalked out his plan for life. He wanted to pursue his career in fitness, and be a part of the entertainment industry.

Singh uses bricks and sticks to weight-train

“I was (still am) passionate about fitness, and wanted to develop my own fitness regimen,” he says. He did exactly that. He not only developed his own exercise plans but also fitness equipment. He made dumbbells of varying sizes using plastic bottles filled with cement and iron rods. He also used cement tiles to make innovative dumbbells besides making use of bamboo sticks, tubes of wasted tyres and bricks to turn out other equipment.

Singh uses old traditional methods of workout that pehalwans (wrestlers) follow like desi dand bethak, sapate, bethaka etc besides tabata workout (crossfit) and calisthenics. “I practice these exercises for four hours daily, except Sunday which is a rest day,” he says.

Interestingly, Singh does not go to any gym. Ask him why, and pat comes the reply, “Did our pehalwans go to any gym. No. They all practiced at home or in their khets (farming fields). Gyms are a modern discovery, but fitness is age-old and not dependent on gyms or modern equipment,” he says.

“I am not saying that gyming is wrong, but the fact is one can be fit and make strong body even without going to a gym. There are scores of youngsters who either cannot afford gyms as these are costly or don’t have access to these. I want to reach out to them, and tell them it’s ok if you cannot go to a gym,” adds Singh.

And, to spread this message to a wider cross-section of people, Singh makes regular posts on his instagram handle. “These posts are about home workout tips for beginners, mediocre and advanced level that how they can practice without gym regularly,” he says.  He also runs a youtube channel for the same.

Singh with medals and citations he has won so far

Eyeing Entertainment Industry

Singh has also taken his first baby steps towards the entertainment industry, which is his ultimate aim. He participated in two reality shows – Hunar Punjab Da on PTC Punjabi (he was one among the top 10 contestants in this show) and Punjabiya Di Dadagiri on Zee Punjabi, wherein he has reached the semi-finals.

“I want to become an action hero in Punjabi Industry, but before that I want to enter the national–level reality shows so that general public gets the actual picture of Punjab and the ‘real talent’ that exists in the state,” he says.

He holds two world records in fitness –  he is the youngest boy to perform maximum ‘Knuckle Pushups’ in one minute, and the youngest to perform maximum ‘Superman Pushups’ in 30 Seconds at the age of 17 and 18.

He also bagged the REX Karamvir Global Youth Icon award 2020-21.