New Delhi/Gurgaon: Being an ace fashion photographer, a successful entrepreneur, and a TEDx speaker, Richa Maheshwari has not been a stranger to awards and felicitations but for her, nothing beats seeing her name in the prestigious Limca Book of Records. Richa, a Delhi NCR-based photographer by profession and a fitness enthusiast by passion recently broke the world record of the maximum number of burpees in one minute. Burpees are a tough combination of push-ups and squats and Richa not only beat the previous record of 38 burpees but took the new record to an astounding 46!
Weighing 72 kgs right after college courtesy careless binge-eating, Richa was finding it difficult to meet the physical strength needed for carrying heavy cameras and equipment in shoots that went on for several hours. She decided to lose the flab and get fit to be a better photographer but soon found her passion for fitness growing. While Richa was enjoying this new-found interest, it was her fitness trainer, Dheeraj Kumar who rightly identified her mental and physical strength to achieve something unique. “My profession is quite demanding. You don’t just need talent and diligence but also the physical fitness to be able to carry a 13-15 kg camera kit around for 10-12 hours. This made me take up fitness but the feat I achieved is all because of my trainer who thought I could accomplish something like this. I never planned anything like this but his confidence in me and his pitch-perfect training gave me the belief that it could pull it off. I am just happy that we made it happen,” says the woman who takes great pride in her unconventional life choices.
To achieve the feat, she went through intense training for a couple of months to develop an insane level of stamina. All her efforts showed results and today she beams about her achievement while talking about it. The workouts have now become an inseparable part of her life and she hits the gym six days a week. Gurgaon-based Fitness instructor, Dheeraj Kumar trained other 6 individuals who also got their names in Limca Book of Records under his guidance. Talking about Richa, he proudly says, “From day one – I had an intuition that Richa had it in her to excel in fitness. Few people show the dedication and drive that she has displayed at H2O Fitness, despite her professional commitments. It’s not only an achievement for her but for me as well to see Richa inspire women around her.”
Richa, who hails from Kanpur, always aspired to be different and was never daunted by the challenges. Today, her life might appear picture perfect but zoom in a bit and one can easily witness the unflinching dedication, commitment and hard work that it has taken to get her to where she is today.
