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Ashley D’cruz | Hybrid Performance, Physique & Mindset Coach

@getfitwithjonathan

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strength, endurance & physique
build a strong body • calm the mind
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This post is more than just a physical transformation. It is a testament of overcoming your fears, flaws and troubles to become something greater.

Sayantan approached me with the desire to regain his athletic self and build an impressive physique which had always been a lifelong dream of his.

Here is a summary of his journey:

1. The first hurdle we faced was gym-timidation which is a very normal thing to face especially as a beginner. So we started with a home workout plan. We would set up video calls and I would help him understand the forms of all the exercises and how to do them properly.

2. Once he gained enough confidence, we switched to a gym setting. With a well optimized plan - he was able to workout almost everyday despite his time constraints. Soon he started to see his strength levels go up and as a result he fell in love with the process.

3. For his nutritional needs - we first got a blood test done and then sorted out his deficiencies. He is lactose intolerant and vegetarian which made getting enough protein a struggle but we eventually found middle ground with a good vegan protein supplement, whole eggs, lentils, paneer and simple homemade meals.

4. We ran our first cut back in January of this year where we managed to drop a whopping 12kgs, from 83kg to 71kg after which we focused on pure hypertrophy and strength gains for the entire year and the results speak for itself.

5. He also suffers from a condition called COPD which always used to hold him back but this year it was different. As he started to reach a healthier BMI, eat more nutritiously and exercise regularly - his COPD symptoms drastically improved which enabled him to do a lot more physically than he ever could before.

6. During the journey we faced many hurdles which included a minor sprain, stupid opinions of other people and bouts of self doubt - but no matter what, Sayantan kept showing up.

By far my most hardworking and dedicated client and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

If you wish to see such progress for yourself, comment or DM “NEW YEAR, NEW ME” for program details. Enroll on or before 1st January 2024 to avail a FLAT 10% discount. Hurry to book your spot. by @getfitwithjonathan

Catch a glimpse of everything I’ve done to get to where I am now.

Hopefully this inspires you to aim higher, and to work harder and smarter for your goals.

In case you're new here - My name is Ashley D'cruz and I am a health and fitness coach specialised in exercise science, optimal nutrition and lifestyle improvement.

If you're interested in working with me towards achieving your fitness goals, sign up using the link in bio to avail a FLAT 10% DISCOUNT if you sign up before January 1st 2024.

Follow @getfitwithjonathan for more 💪

#fitnessprogram #beginner #newbiegains #fitnesscoach #newyearnewme #inspirational by @getfitwithjonathan

We started working together back in June when she enrolled for the 3 month program.

This was her first time taking up fitness coaching and although she was enthusiastic and hopeful, she also expressed some of her concerns to which I reassured her that she had my full support and we were going to take it at her own pace.

Here's a summary of the journey:

1. She came in 85.5kgs which put her BMI at 32.3 which is considered obese. But today, she stands at 79.4kgs (which is a 6.4kg drop) which officially takes her out of obesity. The weight loss also had a positive effect on lowering her elevated triglyceride levels which was seen on her initial blood test report.

2. Her initial blood test also displayed several deficiencies for which we made that our number one priority to fix before starting anything.

3. She was new to the gym and was rather intimidated about going there. So we started with simple home workouts to build her confidence and foundation for exercise. Today she works out confidently in a gym setting.

4. Coming to her diet protocol - we first discussed her eating habits, and how often she would eat outside. She also had gas and bloating issues. I helped her understand the importance of good nutrition and how it doesn't have to be boring, bland or dry. She was rather enthusiastic about it and made great efforts at fixing her nutrition on the daily and most importantly tried her level best to be consistent at it.

5. To highlight some inch losses: she lost an inch off her arms, 3 inches off the hips, 3 inches off the abdomen and a whopping 4 inches off the waist!

Furthermore, she came out of this 3 month period - a new and improved version of herself, who is determined to keep on bettering herself in every way.

For which, I couldn't be more proud of.

Want to achieve such progress? Click the link in bio to sign up! by @getfitwithjonathan

I’ve been coaching @sanketnathfit since 2025. He came to me wanting to lose fat, build strength and muscle, and get back to running, one of his favorite things in the world.

Midway through, knee pain showed up, and it turned out to be more serious than it first seemed. Surgery was on the table. But one principle guided us: we don’t treat the MRI, we treat the patient. His history, his symptoms, every viable option.

Being a brilliant coach himself, Sanket knew his body, trusted the process, and followed through on everything. We built muscle, dropped fat, and got a lot stronger. Today he’s running 5Ks, and running them fast. Something he couldn’t do before.

Two things I want you to take from this:

1️⃣ Strength saved him. His muscle and strength helped him recover far faster than average. No matter the injury, strength helps you bounce back quicker.

2️⃣ Mindset matters. Social media is full of fear-mongering about pain. Most of the time, it comes down to managing load vs. capacity. Surgery is the right call when training isn’t working and the risks of not operating outweigh the benefits. But for many people, the answer is building strength. It took Sanket over a year, and it was worth it.

I commend his tenacity. Being told by countless professionals that you need surgery is hard to understand unless you’ve lived it.

Take calculated risks. Work alongside your doctors and coaches. And know the future is bright when you keep working toward it.

Never lose hope. Keep moving forward. 💪 by @getfitwithjonathan

This training session deserved a post cause i have delt with dip plateau for over 3 years now due to my elbow tendon injury.

115kg dip was done for 1rep in 2023, 110kg dip was done at World Championship in 2025. And just repped those weights like warmup for the first time, with another PR of 120kgs.😤

Some pain is still there but i have learnt to manage it with training heavier weights.

So much of trial & error with training & nutrition all these years but now i can confidently say i am back on track.

Just basic vegetarian nutrition protocol by @getfitwithjonathan 🥗

Magical workout programming by @roky_power 🇭🇷

And ofc the best setup for streetlifting at @cagemuscle 🙏

I surely got atleast a double bw dip at Asian’s on 7th Nov.

Let’s get it done. 🇮🇳 by @getfitwithjonathan

Movies are built to entertain, not provide life advice. You can learn from them, be inspired by them, and take something meaningful away from them, but entertainment is ultimately their primary purpose.

Social media, however, has blurred this line. Platforms like Instagram reward attention, clicks, and watch time. When people scroll past content in seconds, grabbing their attention becomes essential. And so, entertainment finds its way into advice.

There is nothing wrong with hooks, marketing, or making information engaging. The problem begins when information, especially concerning your health, gets oversimplified, exaggerated, or taken out of context just to make it entertaining.

You end up consuming something that sounds convincing, exciting, and heartfelt, but offers little meaningful understanding.

I have nothing against this reel or the person who made it. I’m using it as an example to highlight that there is often more to information on Instagram than meets the eye. There is no universal system vetting everything you consume, which means you need to take responsibility for questioning the information and the people you get it from.

If you take everything at face value, you’re setting yourself up to be misled. Confidence doesn’t equal competence, and a compelling presentation doesn’t equal credible information.

There’s also something to be said about how little we know about people beyond their online personas. People are nuanced, contradictory, and complex. What someone preaches online doesn’t necessarily reflect how they think, behave, or live in reality. You rarely get to see that entire picture through a screen.

Enjoy the content. Be entertained, be inspired, and learn something new. But don’t confuse entertainment with education, or something that grabs your attention with something that deserves your trust. by @getfitwithjonathan

Odd but true

Link in Bio for 1:1 Coaching 🫶 by @getfitwithjonathan

The best posture fix?

There is no fix.

Most of the time, you don’t need fixing, taping, bracing, or some fancy posture hack. You just need to notice how you’re sitting and change it when you want to.

And honestly, there’s no such thing as good or bad posture. Your body is built to move, shift, slouch, straighten, rotate, and adapt.

The worst posture is the one you stay in forever.

Move. Adapt. Repeat. That’s it. 😌

Link in Bio for 1:1 Coaching 🫶 by @getfitwithjonathan

I really like this chapter of my life because, for the first time, I feel like I’m thinking beyond just myself.. beyond my fitness, and even beyond my business.

A big part of my life was spent just trying to get myself to a better place. Mental health, body image, physical health, just trying to figure myself out. There were periods where I felt so defeated that even cracking a smile felt difficult.

It took me about six productive years to get here.

I think there are phases to that process. First, you’re deep in it, just trying to survive. Then you reach a place of balance, where your goal is simply to maintain it and not fall back.

And then, eventually, your foundation becomes strong enough that you can start thinking beyond that.

I think of it like starting a generator. Those first few pulls are fucking hard. But once it’s running, you can finally make use of all that energy. You still have to maintain it, give it fuel, and take care of it.. but you’re no longer spending all your energy just trying to get it started.

The generator is running now.

And I want to make use of it.

I’m not thinking about calories all the time. I’m not obsessing over losing more fat. I’m thinking about performance, growth, creativity, travelling, meeting people, exploring, learning, and finding out what I actually enjoy.

Even with my business, I feel like I’ve moved past a lot of the foundational work. Now I’m asking, what more can I do?

And honestly, it’s fucking fun.

For the first time, my life doesn’t feel like it’s primarily about fixing myself.

It feels like it’s about finding out what I can do with myself. by @getfitwithjonathan

🤡

BMI is definitely not something I’d put up there with the more meaningful metrics of health.

It’s very surface-level. It only considers two things: your height and your weight. And we know that two people of the exact same height and weight can have completely different health profiles.

They can have vastly different amounts of muscle and body fat, different strength levels, blood markers, nutritional needs, goals, lifestyles, and even different psychological factors that affect their health.

So no, BMI shouldn’t be used as a definitive measure of health.

But there’s an important distinction here.

If you’re clearly carrying a significant amount of excess body fat and your BMI happens to classify you as overweight or obese, completely dismissing that information by saying “BMI doesn’t measure health” can also be a form of denial.

BMI isn’t telling you why you weigh what you weigh. It’s simply giving you a very broad signal based on your height and weight.

For someone with a high level of muscularity, BMI can obviously overestimate their health risk because muscle contributes to body weight too.

But for someone with relatively little muscle and a high amount of body fat, a high BMI may actually be pointing in the right direction.

So I wouldn’t say, “Follow your BMI.”

I’d say: use it as a starting point, not a conclusion.

It can give you a direction. Then you look at body composition, waist circumference, blood markers, fitness, strength, lifestyle, nutrition, and the rest of the picture before deciding what that direction actually means. by @getfitwithjonathan

There comes a point where playing it safe can actually start holding you back.

And I understand why you do it. Maybe you’ve had bad experiences with dieting, training too hard, feeling hungry, pushing yourself, or trying something that didn’t work. So naturally, you start protecting yourself. You tell yourself, “I need everything to be sustainable. I should never be hungry. Training shouldn’t feel too difficult. I shouldn’t go through stressful phases. I should always listen to how I feel in the moment.”

But sometimes, protecting yourself from every uncomfortable experience also means protecting yourself from experiences that could completely change your life.

You might be avoiding something because you’re afraid of the disappointment that could come with it. But what if it actually works? What if that challenging training block makes you stronger? What if pushing through a difficult phase teaches you what you’re capable of? What if trying something new gives you the confidence, knowledge, or progress you’ve been looking for all along? You’ll never know until you give yourself the opportunity to experience it.

And this is something I really want you to understand about your fitness journey: not everything has to feel good to be good for you. There is beauty in challenge. There is beauty in discomfort. There is beauty in going through difficult periods and coming out the other side with a better understanding of yourself.

Think about a butterfly. The transformation from a caterpillar into a butterfly isn’t effortless. It goes through an incredibly demanding process of metamorphosis. But without that process, there is no butterfly.

Your journey doesn’t have to be suffering all the time, and it shouldn’t be. But don’t become so afraid of discomfort that you never give yourself the chance to discover what you’re capable of.

Sometimes the thing you’re trying so hard to protect yourself from is the very thing that could help you grow. by @getfitwithjonathan

FAFO by @getfitwithjonathan