NEW DELHI: Fitness routines and gym workouts play a huge role in every sportsperson's life, and having someone who can push you to do better makes all the difference. India batter KL Rahul revealed the one 'gym bro' behind his own training - Virat Kohli. Rahul shared that Kohli is the one who pushes him to his limits in order to help him achieve peak fitness.
According to Rahul, if there's anyone in the Indian team who comes close to being a "gym bro," it's Virat. But not the loud, local gym-wala type who flexes for attention. Kohli, he said, is the kind who silently pushes everyone around him to do better.
Rahul painted a vivid picture: Virat walking past you during a workout, casually glancing at the weights you're lifting, giving a subtle eye-roll, and moving on - without saying a word. And somehow, that tiny gesture is enough to make you feel you're not working hard enough.
That's Kohli's way of motivating his teammates - not through lectures, but through presence, intensity and example. As for technique and training form, Rahul added with a grin, "That part is always handled by the trainers," Rahul told Humans of Bombay.
Rahul also spoke about the challenges of leading an IPL side and how difficult it is to explain team losses to people who do not come from a sporting background.
The Indian opener was apparently referring to his former Lucknow Super Giants owner, Sanjiv Goenka, without mentioning his name. Several clips of Goenka losing his cool at Rahul had gone viral after LSG suffered a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad last year.
“What I found hard as a captain in the IPL was the number of meetings that you needed to do, the number of reviews that you needed to do, and the number of things that you needed to explain at the ownership level. All of that is really like energy draining. So I realised at the end of IPL that I am more mentally and physically drained than after playing 10 months of international cricket," Rahul said.
“There are so many things. Coaches, captains, you’re just constantly being asked a lot of questions, and after a point, it almost feels like you’re being questioned as to why did you made this change. Why did Jatin play in the XI? Why is it that the opposition got 200 and we couldn’t even get 120? Why are their bowlers getting more spin?"
“I mean, these are questions that we never get asked through the year, right? Because the coaches who are there know what’s going on. You’re only answerable to the coach and the selectors who’ve all played cricket and understand the nuances of cricket and sport. No matter what you do and how many boxes you tick, there’s nothing in sport that guarantees victory. So that’s the hard part to explain to people who come from a non-sporting background," he added.
