Putting a premium on fitness, wellness is need of the hour, feels Bindra

What goes into the making of a world-class athlete is a question best answered by Abhinav Bindra -- through his cutting-edge High Performance Centres.

He now wants people at large to put a premium on fitness and wellness.

By ushering in the new age sports and medical care hitherto unseen in India, the country's lone individual Olympic gold medallist is helping improve the lives of people outside the sporting arena.

"That is the need of the hour," the 37-year-old, the brainchild behind the Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP), told PTI in a telephonic interview.

"The work that I have been doing revolved around prevention of injuries, proper rehabilitation, it revolved around well being and holistic approach," the champion shooter added.

Daivam Wellness, India's first functional medicine centre, has tied up with Bindra's ABTP and asked about the collaboration, he said this happened because of similar visions.

"It is very similar to what Daivam really does like lifestyle ... going to the route cause of the problem, the philosophy is same.

"It is really the need of the hour. What the people in the country need is meeting of minds between similar philosophy for betterment and well being of people."
"An athlete is also a human being. Once we take care of wellbeing of an athlete then performance will automatically come. An athlete is not a robot, not a machine. Wellbeing of athletes is absolute necessary."
Asked about awareness, he said, "There is much more awareness than before, we have to train the whole ecosystem and only when we take this to the base level we will start to make a real impact."