The Fit Folk
Every person we feature, in one place — public creators we cover editorially and everyday people who share their stories with consent. Real people, real places.
All the folk — page 2
- Rohtak, Haryana, India
Dharambir Nain
Dharambir Nain is an Indian para-athlete competing in the men's club throw F51 category, born on 18 January 1989 in Badana village, Rohtak, Haryana; he won gold at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with an Asian-record throw of 34.92m, having earlier turned to para-sports after a diving accident in a canal left him paralyzed from the waist down.
- Delhi NCR
Diksha Chhabra
Diksha Chhabra is a Delhi-based mother and army wife who was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and PCOD (Polycystic Ovarian Disease) after noticing unusual weight gain, at a point when her weight had climbed close to 100 kg; she has also spoken publicly about fighting depression and body-shaming during that period. She started strength training in April 2016 and is widely reported, including by The Better India and YourStory, to have won the Mrs Earth/Mrs India Earth pageant title in 2017. She is married to an Indian Army officer, and the relocations that come with that life shaped her decision to build an online coaching model. She is a certified fitness trainer and sports nutritionist who has coached clients internationally as a virtual coach, and she founded Diksha Chhabra Fitness Consultancy, a fitness and nutrition coaching business focused on women's hormonal health.
- Los Angeles, United States
Ezra Frech
Ezra Frech is a Los Angeles-born Paralympic track and field athlete who competes for Team USA in the T63 classification across high jump, 100-meter, and long jump, and who won two gold medals within 24 hours at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, including a photo-finish victory in the men's 100m T63.
- Delhi
Garima Barnoliya
Delhi's IFBB Figure Pro — earned her pro card after an Overall Champion win, competing and coaching from Delhi.
- Delhi NCR
Gaurav Taneja
Gaurav Taneja is an IIT Kharagpur-trained civil engineer (2008) and former commercial pilot for IndiGo and later AirAsia India who moved into full-time content creation. He runs the YouTube channels Flying Beast and FitMuscle TV, which together have drawn more than 3 million subscribers, and posts to Instagram as @taneja.gaurav, where his bio reads "Content Creator Flying Beast// FitMuscle TV."
- India / United States
Guru Mann
Guru Mann is a fitness educator and nutritionist born in a village near Rayya, Amritsar, Punjab, now settled in San Francisco, USA. He built one of India's largest fitness education audiences — around 6 million followers on Instagram (@gurumann) — through free, structured training and nutrition programs centered on Indian home food. He runs Mission India Fit, an initiative touring Indian cities to educate youth about exercise and health, and is set to make his film debut in the lead role of 'Pagalpan Next Level,' releasing October 27.
- Dimapur, India
Hokato Hotozhe Sema
Hokato Hotozhe Sema is an Indian para-athlete from P. Vihoto, Niuland district, Nagaland, and a Junior Commissioned Officer (Subedar) with the 9 Assam Regiment, Indian Army, which he joined in 2000. At 18, during a 2002 counter-infiltration operation at Chowkibal along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, he lost his left leg below the knee in a landmine blast and later had to relearn how to walk. He went on to compete in Men's Shot Put F57, winning bronze at the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou and then bronze at the Paris 2024 Paralympics with a personal-best 14.65m throw — reported at age 40 — becoming the first athlete from Nagaland to win a Paralympic medal for India. He was later named World No. 1 in the F57 rankings, received the Arjuna Award in 2024, and became the first Paralympian conferred the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM).
- Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India
Jeet Selal
Jeet Selal is the founder of the Himalayan Stallion fitness brand, which he started in 2016 after moving to Australia to work with a sports team, and holds a sports science degree with a double major in sports management from the UK; he was named to Forbes India's Top 100 Digital Stars list in 2024 and is recognized as a top influencer partner for Optimum Nutrition in South Asia, where his content champions natural fitness.
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll, born Jason Bradley DeFord on December 4, 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee, is a country-rap singer-songwriter known both for his music career and for speaking publicly about personal struggle, including a five-year, 275-pound weight-loss journey detailed in a Men's Health cover story that emphasized therapy for food addiction alongside physical change. In February 2025, he founded the Losers Run Club, a running community operated through Strava and Facebook, coached by his trainer Ian Larios and ultramarathoner Matthew Johnson, aimed at people who've felt excluded from running and fitness culture.
