How to Stay Fit During Navratri, Durga Puja and Diwali: What Our Members Actually Do
October classes are full of reschedule requests: in-laws, travel to Lucknow, Durga Puja, a 28 to 30 October holiday. From recorded classes and chats: how members and coaches move sessions, what gets kept, and the 3-rule festival plan.
October is when the class recordings fill with calendars. "I need to change session timing due to the festival schedule." "I have also told Anish about my Diwali thing." "I'll be away 28 to 30 October." "The in-laws are here, what time is breakfast, can we do early?" Durga Puja, Navratri, Dasara and Diwali land in six weeks, and most of our members travel for at least one of them. Here is what they actually do, from the recordings, and the plan coaches give.
Method: from recorded YourTrainer one-to-one classes, 1 to 12 October 2026, and member chats with coaches. Members anonymised, quotes verbatim. Missed-class reasons are from the Aug to Sep 2026 class sample.
The short answer
Move the hour, keep the week. Members who held two sessions and their steps through a festival week came back at the same strength. Members who cancelled the week came back sore and restarted. Coaches move the session, lighten it on fasting days, and ask for steps on the days in between.
Our data
19%
of classes mention travel or jet lag
23%
of classes had a missed, late or moved moment
#1 reason
travel; guests and festivals are on the list every year
7 to 10 Nov
YourTrainer Live's Diwali break, built into plans
Source: a sample of recorded YourTrainer classes, Aug to Oct 2026, and the Live class calendar
What members asked for this month, and what happened
| Said in class or chat (Oct 2026) | What the coach did |
|---|---|
| "I need to change session timing due to the festival schedule and family visits." (Durga Puja) | Moved to early morning for the week; the session stayed |
| "My in-laws are here. What time should I work out given breakfast?" | Shifted to 6:30 AM before the household woke; coach noted it for the whole visit |
| "I'm travelling to Lucknow for Diwali. I've looked for a gym there." | Bodyweight and band plan for the room; sessions kept on the app link at the same hour |
| "I'll be on vacation 28 to 30 October." | Two sessions that week instead of three, schedule updated in the app |
| "Can we start class 30 minutes earlier on Saturday?" (member abroad, family plans) | Yes; Saturday class moved to 6:30 AM her time |
| "Sorry, I was in a work conference all weekend and my flight was delayed, I can't make 6 AM." | Rescheduled to the next morning; no penalty |
The three rules coaches give for a festival week
Protect one hour, early. The morning is the only slot nobody else claims when guests are in the house. Our data on why people skip is blunt: evenings are where meetings and family pile up. Move to 6:30 or 7:30 AM for the week.
Two sessions, not zero. Three is the plan; two kept during a festival week is a win. "80% for like a year is better than 100% for a month." (Coach Vivek)
Steps on the days between. 8,000 on a no-class day. Temple visits, pandal hopping and market runs count. One member logged "almost 9,000 steps" on a festival day and the coach called it the workout.
Coach's tip: Decide the festival plan the week before, in the chat, with dates. Everything decided on the day gets cancelled.
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Start Your Journey →Fasting days: Navratri and Karva Chauth
On fasting days our coaches do not cancel; they change the session.
- Strength with lighter weights or mobility, not HIIT. A fasted body and jumping jacks is how people get dizzy; a dizzy member mid-circuit in our recordings had not eaten since a 5:30 PM snack.
- After the first meal if the fast allows one. Many Navratri fasts allow fruit, milk, curd and sabudana; a banana or a few dates 30 minutes before the session is enough.
- Water first. Fasting days are where "hardly 1 litre" happens. Coaches ask for 2 litres by the time of the session on days when water is allowed.
- Diabetic members do not train fasted. On 7 October a member had a low blood sugar moment; the coach's rule after that was fast carbs before every session. Read how a diabetic member times walks and sessions around meals.
Sweets, dinners and the scale after Diwali
This post is about the training; the food side is in our festival eating strategy. Two things from the chats belong here anyway. First, the scale will go up 1 to 2 kg in a festival week from salt, sugar and water, not fat, and it comes back within a week of normal eating; our coaches ask members not to weigh on the day after a big dinner. Second, the members who did best kept protein in the first meal of the day (eggs, paneer, curd) and let the sweets be the one indulgence. A 1,000-calorie plate "takes 7 to 10 days to undo", in one coach's words, so one plate, not five days of plates.
Travelling for the festival
| Situation | What coaches set up |
|---|---|
| Visiting parents or in-laws, no equipment | Chair squats, glute bridges, push-ups on a table edge, bands in the suitcase; 20 to 30 minutes; same app link |
| Hotel or a cousin's apartment gym | The usual session on machines; coaches adjust on the call ("which machine, which grip") |
| Flight day | Steps only. 8,000 in airports is normal |
| Jet lag for members abroad flying home | First session 48 hours after landing, lighter; sleep first |
| No signal at a village home | Coach sends the session as a written plan in chat; member reports sets back |
The travel version of a full session is in the hotel room workout for Indian travellers.
Member story
Kavya, 30s, visiting family in India
Heel pain, in-laws at home, Diwali travel to Lucknow coming up
- Asked in class on 12 October what time to train given breakfast with the in-laws; moved to early morning.
- Her line: "I finished my workout in the morning itself, as long as I am in India."
- Coach adjusted for the heel (shoes for the jumping parts, barefoot for weights) and kept the session.
- Diwali plan agreed in advance: room sessions at the same hour, steps on travel days, gym search in Lucknow optional, not required.
From her recorded classes, Oct 2026. Name changed.
"The entire team has always been flexible around it, which I really appreciate, because it helps me maintain my practice." (member, recorded class, 10 Oct 2026)
If you are in a group class
YourTrainer Live classes run Monday to Saturday at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 AM and 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 PM IST, and the plan calendar already skips Diwali (7 to 10 November 2026) and Holi (21 to 23 March 2027) so no paid class falls on a festival day. Your seat is held at your hours every week, and days and hours can be changed once every 30 days, which covers a travel fortnight.
YourTrainer Live
Festival breaks are built into every Live plan. Pick your 3 days and hours; the calendar does the rest.
See class timesA festival-week plan you can copy
| Day | Plan |
|---|---|
| Mon | Session, 6:30 AM, full |
| Tue | 8,000 steps; sweets at one sitting after lunch |
| Wed | Session, 6:30 AM, lighter if fasting |
| Thu (travel) | Steps only; water 2 litres |
| Fri (at family) | 20-minute room session: chair squats x15, glute bridge x15, table push-ups x10, band rows x12, plank 30 s; 3 rounds |
| Sat | Walk with the family, 60 minutes |
| Sun | Rest. Back to the normal hour on Monday |
Want a coach who moves your hour before the festival, not after you have missed it?
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About Anish Agarwal
Founder & Head Coach, YourTrainer · NASM & K11 Certified Personal Trainer · coaching since 2022
Featured in Dietitians.io, Fitness Interview, NRI Pulse, The MASALA Study. Press and media
Anish Agarwal is a NASM and K11 certified personal trainer coaching fat loss, body transformation, strength, and nutrition for clients across India since 2022. He founded YourTrainer to make expert, science-based coaching accessible online and in Bengaluru. Coach Anish's profile and the YourTrainer story.
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