A few years ago, Huda (she goes by one name) from Delhi, noticed she was gaining weight, losing hair and always had a vague sense of anxiety. The 26-year-old communications professional spent long hours at work and never managed to get her eight hours of sleep. She enrolled at a local gym for strength training just to keep off the weight but found it renewed her confidence instead. “Lifting gave me something more than physical strength; it gave me confidence. That confidence pushed me to resign from my job,” she shares. As she worked out for 9-10 months regularly, it became clear to her that if she could change through training, she could help others do the same—and a fitness coach was born.
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Now, when a client tells her they feel an emotional release while lifting or strength training, she nods. “Strength training isn’t just about building muscle. It rewires your brain and body,” says Huda, who has been training clients for over a year now. “It boosts your mood by increasing endorphins and dopamine, your feel-good chemicals, and reduces cortisol, the stress hormone that, when elevated for too long, leads to poor sleep, belly fat, sugar cravings, and hair fall.” Studies have also shown that it helps regulate hormones, improves sleep, supports fat loss, and renews energy and focus.
This emotional aspect of workouts is reshaping the fitness market in India. The gym or the fitness studio is no longer only about silent struggle and reps. Increasingly, it is designed to provide a holistic healing experience. According to a Deloitte-India & Health & Fitness Association (HFA) report, named India’s Emerging Fitness Economy: India’s fitness market report 2025, India’s fitness market is projected to more than double by 2030, from ₹16,200 crore in 2024 to ₹37,700 crore, with boutique and niche studios (HIIT, yoga, Pilates, etc.) growing at nearly 19% annually, while membership per capita is still below 1%.
To monetise this shift, gyms and boutique studios are curating premium add-ons, such as retreat packages, one-on-one counselling tie-ups, and emotional wellness workshops. This has opened up a new revenue stream, as urban consumers increasingly see emotional health as part of their overall fitness spend.
According to the somatic theory of emotion, which shows that emotional feelings arise from physical responses to stimuli, a concept explored by William James in the 19th century, and research done by the National Institute of Health, in the USA, emotions aren’t just felt in the mind; they’re also stored in the body. Think about how your heart races when you’re anxious, or how your stomach churns before something important. They are your emotions speaking through your body.
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Ajinkya Deshpande, head of yoga at luxury wellness retreat Dharana at Shillim, Maharashtra says, “The weight you feel in your shoulders might not be muscular. It might be unspoken pressure, fear or grief.” Dharana’s emotional wellness packages integrate detox programmes, panchakarma therapies, fitness training and nutrition counselling with emotional resilience coaching. Guests not only practise yoga but also engage in cooking workshops, journaling, and stress management modules. By turning emotional workouts into structured, billable services, fitness centres are not just responding to demand but actively reshaping what it means to run a profitable wellness business.
Supriya Bhasin, 41, a holistic yoga-based coach and the founder of Anaahat: Fitter Within in Mumbai, shares, “We don’t just teach asanas, we guide people to understand why their pain or illness exists. We pair yoga with targeted affirmations, emotional awareness, and simple lifestyle tools to help people release stuck emotions and welcome true wellbeing.” Her centre attracts both fitness-focused clients and those seeking tools to manage burnout, stress and emotional imbalance. “Most people coming in are dealing with stress or burnout, not just fitness,” says Bhasin. “When they move, they cry. They release. They don’t want a hard-core gym that pushes them; they want to listen to their bodies. They know that sometimes a physical problem will keep on existing till the root cause, the emotional tie, gets opened,” Bhasin explains.
Regulars at gyms also say they have experienced similar “releases” during intense workouts. “After a demanding day, I went in for a training session recently and midway, I could feel the tension ease, both physically and mentally. It wasn’t about performance; it was about recalibrating,” says Gurugram-based Rohan Bhargava, co-founder of cashback app CashKaro. “Since then, I’ve learned to be more attuned to what my body and mind need. Engaging in physical activity, whether it’s boxing or lifting, has become a reliable way to process and release stress. It helps me approach challenges with a clearer, more composed mindset.”
These “releases” that people feel during yoga, running or other workouts isn’t just a feeling or a sensation. “Our bodies are like journals. Even when we stop writing, they keep recording,” says Arathi Jose, 28, a counselling psychologist, Alliance University, Bengaluru. “The nervous system plays a vital role in how we process and release emotion through the body. Movement becomes a way of reading those pages—and sometimes, rewriting them.”
Meghna Banerjee, 27, a counselling psychologist at Alyve Health, a healthcare company in Mumbai, has been practising emotional workouts, including yoga and pranayama for over eight years. “When a specific yoga pose stimulates a part of the body that holds emotions, it can trigger what researchers call ‘somatic experiencing’—the body’s natural ability to discharge trapped energy,” she explains. “It’s not about fixing anything,” she says. “Physical practice isn’t just for strength; it’s for softness too.”
Anjali Kochhar is an independent journalist and writer based in Mumbai.
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