Arshia Goswami is the ideal Gen-Alpha kid. She’s a class three student who likes to paint. At home, she is comfortable spending time on Netflix. Jurassic World is her favourite movie, she says. Arshia has an Instagram account too.
She is a bubbly bundle of energy who gets fascinated by something new every five minutes, just like most eight-year-olds.
But there’s a catch. This demeanour only lures you into assuming she’s a regular school-going kid and veils her extraordinarily astounding abilities. At her father’s gym in Sector-25 Panchkula, Arshia stumps you into disbelief.
At just eight, and weighing 25 kilograms, she deadlifts more than double her bodyweight. Her personal best of 60 kg is an Asia record.
Ask her to perform a snatch lift, or a clean-and-jerk, and she’ll execute it to the tee. “Weights are my toys,” Arshia says, with an ear-to-ear grin.
Her exploits are a hit on social media and her follower count, currently nearing four lakhs, has been on an uptick for a while. She’s got sponsorships from MuscleBlaze and Jerai Fitness — two of India’s popular fitness brands. Clearly, Arshia is no ordinary kid.
“I don’t know how she does it. Is it genetic or maybe she’s got some rare gift?” remarks her father Avnish Goswami.
Early start
Arshia’s interest in fitness was first stirred in 2020, Avnish recalls. He had to close his gym and sit at home during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. A fitness freak himself, Avnish just about managed to sneak in a few basic weights for training at home.
They were meant for him and his wife until the couple found their daughter tagging along, shadowing them every morning.
“My wife and I had a daily fitness routine during the lockdown. Arshia, who was just five then, used to join us. We even played music, so she used to dance a bit as well. We did squats, push-ups and other basic exercises. She was very passionate about it, trying to compete with her mother.
She’d say — ‘I did plank for this long, I did these many squats, these many crunches.’ If her mother used to do a plank for two minutes, Arshia used to push her over saying no I’ll do it for longer,” Avnish says.
“Weights are my toys”Arshia Goswami
It was after stumbling upon an article about a Canadian kid lifting weights that Avish realised the potential on offer.
“One day I read in the paper that there’s a girl in Canada who lifted around 70 kg at the age of seven. I wondered how she did it at such a young age. That’s when I thought about Arshia. I knew she was showing interest,” he says.
When the lockdown restrictions were lifted, Avnish immediately took Arshia to his gym. He brought in light weights and a makeshift barbell into her workout regimen. To her credit, Arshia did not relent.
Blocking the noise
But before the father-daughter duo’s pet project properly took off, they were confronted by their family with an all-too-familiar conjecture in this part of the world — ‘ Height ruk jayegi!’ (It will stunt her growth)
Be it Avnish’s parents, his neighbours, or the members of his gym, all had the same advice, rather, a word of caution — ‘Don’t make Arshia lift weights for it will stunt her growth.’
“Even if she got a regular fever, they used to attribute it to exercising. If she had any pain — a stomach ache or a headache — it was linked to lifting weights,” remarks Avnish.
Continued spurts in Arshia’s growth, extensive research on the correlation between lifting weights and height, and even Avnish doing a certification course on the subject failed to silence the crowd.
“I don’t know how she does it. Is it genetic or maybe she’s got some rare gift?”Avnish Goswami
To fight back against this vehement opposition, Avnish got Arshia’s Instagram account rolling.
“I thought if other kids can do it, so should she. Her videos started going viral. And that seemed a bit of a reward. Kids at my gym used to tell me that the videos got these many views. So that gave me a sort of satisfaction, that people are at least seeing what she is doing,” says Avnish.
To further prevent people from meddling in Arshia’s training, they visited the gym during afternoons when few members would be present in the gym.
Despite these doubts from people, Arshia’s commitment was unwavering. No one would hold it against her if it wavered. She’s an eight-year-old, after all. But she stuck to the routine. Perhaps, she’s a bit young to gauge things. Or, maybe, she’s more mature for her age. Whatever the case, it’s the one quality that makes Avnish proud.
The resolve, as dissociative as the word may sound for a kid, convinced him that Arshia would continue to progress.
That was reason enough to get more serious. It was time to bring in standardised equipment. The ones meant for weightlifters. And he was willing to do that even if he had to dig deep into his pockets.
“I imported a separate set of barbells for her. Since the standard 20kg barbell was too heavy for her, I got that 5kg rod. Then I got 1/2kg and 1kg plates. These are fraction plates used by weightlifters. Then we got a platform made for her,” he says.
Preparing for the flight
From browsing through hundreds of videos on YouTube to contacting weightlifting coaches through Instagram, Avnish took all the help he could get.
Avnish’s obsession to get the best for her daughter stems from one goal — to get Arshia into the Olympics.
And it is not a mere obsession. He carries it with a touch of pragmatism too. It is what assures him that he’s not frantically pushing Arshia towards chasing an unrealistic dream but has a step-by-step, far-sighted plan in place.
“At times, I feel we should show her talent a bit more. But there is barely any competition at her age. So, we’ll continue working. By the time she is 12-13 and old enough to compete, she’ll have a proper base and will be better than most kids her age,” Avnish says.
As per ‘India Book of Records’, Arshia set the record for being the youngest deadlifter when she lifted 45kg weight at the age of 6 years, 11 months and 27 days, as confirmed on December 28, 2021 | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
With the work put in so far, Arshia has displayed remarkable progress. She can now manage 30 kg on a clean-and-jerk while her best in snatch is 25 kg. Last year, she stood first in the district weightlifting competition, and third in the state championship. On both occasions, she competed in the under 40kg weight category against kids five to six years older than her.
While she may have limited competition, her Instagram fame provides plenty of opportunities to be occupied with. The most recent being a movie audition by Yash Raj Films and an invitation to the popular TV show ‘India’s Got Talent’.
“Jab tak competitions nahi hain toh yahi sahi,” Avnish remarks. But he’s not losing sight of the bigger picture — Arshia competing internationally.
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