Dhinil’s journey started when he was at university, at the formative age of 18! At that time his struggles were rather textbook in nature with respect to his constant yo-yoing and program hopping. This meant that even though he was training really hard he just couldn’t shake his skinny-fat look.

“When I started, I lived in a flat opposite Shyam Kotecha for 3 years and we went to the gym and trained together. Shyam was training with Akash and I followed along. It was so much fun and we had so many learning experiences at that time. In the beginning it was about trying to have a better body. It’s evolved through the years through that and now training is a refuge, it’s a place of restoration, it’s a place where you feel like you can have better ideas, it’s a habit that has enhanced my life in ways I can’t describe.”

The Guinea Pig Years

At the start of Dhinil’s journey, Akash had just begun his own career in the industry. He was reading and learning everything he could about training and nutrition, and as he learnt he was applying it and fine-tuning it as he went along. In many ways Dhinil along with a couple of other friends were like guinea pigs for Akash’s experiments!

“All I can say is I’m glad that Akash has moved on from the experimental phase, which was during my 3 years in university(!). And now, all RNTers can benefit from all that knowledge as he is now a master of his craft and he knows exactly what he needs to do.”

Akash started training when he was 16 or 17 and was experimenting on himself. Shyam Kotecha was his first ‘unofficial’ client; at the time he wanted to see if what he was doing on himself could work on another person, and so he started to guide Shyam on his fitness journey. A year later, Shyam and Dhinil met each other at university, giving Akash another person to experiment on!

From Experimentation to Expertise

Today, Akash and RNT have years of experience working with individuals from different walks of lives with different cultural backgrounds and they have the knowledge in training, nutrition and the mindset needed to facilitate transformations.

However, looking back to those early years, these experiments are really quite hilarious!

Coming from a vegetarian household Dhinil had to start his day eating sirloin steak and macadamia nuts for breakfast! What was even harder to swallow, literally and figuratively was the 30 gms of Omega 3s they had to drink everyday!

“You can’t get this stuff in tablets and we had to get the oil from a store in canisters, which would leak all over the place and smell so badly! 4 out of 5 days ended up with us throwing up!”

At the time, Akash didn’t believe in any colourants or flavourings so they were all asked to drink unflavoured protein powders and BCAAs! They were downing this deadly concoction that in Akash’s words literally resembled battery acid with Leucine powder, L-Glutamine, unflavoured BCAAs and Creatine! The fact that that their friendship survived this daily torture is a testament to the bond they still share!

“I remember we used to train like animals as well, heading to the gym first thing in the morning and on an empty stomach! We would head to the gym at 6am for some heavy-duty German volume training that was 10 by 10 squats and 10 by 10 leg curls! After which we would hobble back to our rooms completely knackered! I remember I could barely walk for most of the week!”
To hear the full list of experiments and have a good laugh, tune into their podcast to hear Akash and Dhinil reminisce about those first few years.

Although really funny to talk about now, if it wasn’t for those experiments and all the learnings derived from all of those trials, RNT wouldn’t have such an amazing track record of phenomenal transformations! Through those early years of more errors through trials Akash really understood what worked and what at the end of the day was a lot of BS!

Those formative years helped Akash’s knowledge expand and the training and nutrition shifted from being random to specific and targeted, which gave Dhinil the structure he needed to really transform.

The Five Phase Methodology

Akash’s book, Transform Your Body, Transform Your Life. features Dhinil’s journey as one of the first few that helped him shape this methodology that is now intrinsic to every transformation.

When Dhinil started, his program was constantly being changed every 4 weeks triggered by a new, shiny and exciting goal.

However, when that wasn’t really working and wasn’t getting the progress he desired, Akash decided to stop changing the program but instead shifted to sticking to the same program for 20 weeks. Reading this, most people would assume that that is a recipe for boredom with little or no progress! On the contrary, he was still getting stronger, still building muscle as well as getting leaner. At the inevitable dip, instead of chopping and changing Dhinil leaned into it more and pushed through to get even better gains!

The revelation in this format was the basis on which RNT’s Five Phase Methodology was crafted and is now the blueprint that has helped 1000s of people across the world transform.

Structure, Strategy and System

Today, Dhinil’s training has given him the accountability and structure he really needed to nail down his lifestyle fitness solution even during the difficult time of the pandemic when having structure and routine was challenging.

“I am not great at following a structure in my day and working and training with RNT has helped me enforce that. Things like steps, the weight training and the cardio sessions… if you plot that in the week it adds a skeleton of structure around which other aspects of life get slotted in.”

Having this structure in place has helped him speed up his growth in all aspects of his life, especially with respect to building his own business. During lockdown, sticking to the core training structure and having a transformation checklist was hugely beneficial, which meant he wasn’t tempted to slack off and while away his time on the couch, instead he leveraged the change in dynamics during the pandemic to work in his favour.

The Journey Continues…

Dhini’s training journey has influenced all areas of his life especially his business which has gone from strength to strength.

When he started on his journey in his late teens it was just a need to look good and have a great body. Now it’s way more than just the aesthetic benefits. Training is now a cornerstone of his life. His focus and dedication to training has given him the focus and dedication to building his career and has seen his business in the FMCG industry thrive.

Today, training is a non-negotiable and is the framework around which he shapes all the other essential aspects.

Dhinil’s advice to other RNTers comes from the heart and from his own experiences through his journey.

“Commit and stay true to the process as you will find benefits that far outweigh the benefits you thought you would get. These benefits will surprise you along the way. Even if you are a beginner you are in wonderful hands as the RNT team lives by the values that they imbue into the process, values like integrity and amazing customer service. You cannot be in better hands.”