It’s not often you find young entrepreneurs who are passionate about what they do.Nor do you often find women who are  as much into personal fitness and training as Natasha Amarasekara.

At just 23 years old, Natasha is the co-owner of fit.lk, a newly run business offering personalized fitness training and group classes, along with her boy friend, Isuru Fonseka.

Natasha says her love for fitness training began in 2011 when her boyfriend introduced her to her first gym. “Initially when I started to go to a gym I wasn’t too keen.

 

 

It was a bit of a task to get me to go to one but once I started seeing results I got excited” she says.

She also began watching fitness training videos on Youtube to get a wider knowledge of the different types of workouts.

When asked about how the idea to open up a training business came up she says, “a friend of mine was having a cardio fitness training class with a group of ladies, and she asked me to take over as she had to go abroad.

 

 

I took on the challenge and found that I really enjoyed it. Also around that time my boyfriend was studying to be a personal trainer in Malaysia, so we decided to set up this business together.”

A past student of Lyceum International School and Alethea International School, Natasha is also a professional dancer and had been participating in competitions and dance events since she was a child.

Her favourite style of dance is Hip Hop and she says she tries to incorporate that into her training sessions whenever she can. She also does Tae Bo, a type of total body fitness system that incorporates martial arts techniques such as kicks and punches.

 

Natasha is currently studying for an HND in Media and says she tries to juggle her work and studies as best as she can along with finding time to hit the gym whenever she can. “Nowadays when I miss gym I feel really bad.”

The biggest challenge she has faced so far is to try to find ways to motivate her customers. “A lot of women start a program but are reluctant to continue with it. I guess some like the workouts and others simply don’t” she says.

Natasha’s classes are open for any age group and gender; however, she adds that her clientele is mostly female since males are a bit reluctant to get trained by a girl.

She has put together 2 categories of Cardio Programs under her label ‘Cardio 360’ -one for beginners and the other an advanced programme.
 

 

By Ashanthi Navaratne

Pics by Kushan Pathiraja