Sports Medicine & Pain Doctor
Rajat Chauhan

M Sc (Sports & Exercise Medicine)
MBBS - Manipal University of Medical Sciences

Dr Rajat Chauhan did MBBS from Manipal University of Medical Sciences and then went to Nottingham University to do M Sc. in Sports & Exercise Medicine. After that, he did MLCOM from London College of Osteopathic Medicine and started working as Head of Kieser Training Centre, London, and External Consultant for Musculo-Skeletal Medicine (Back, Neck & Knee Pains) with National Health Services. After working in London for 5 years, in 2006, he came back to India to set-up Sports & Exercise Medicine department at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. In 2009, along with a running buddy, he founded Runners High in Bangalore, a running institute with the belief and intention that everyone can do more.

Rajat has been organising arguably the world’s toughest race in Leh-Ladakh, La Ultra - The High for last 10 years. It has 55, 111, 222, 333 & 555 kms categories where temperatures can vary from minus 10 degrees Celsius to plus 40 degrees Celsius, crossing the highest motorable mountain passes in the world. Oxygen content is below half of what we breathe in the plains.

He started running very early on in life and has been doing so for 34 years now. It's given him an edge over his medical colleagues in understanding the human mind-body connect better. When you race middle to long distance, you have conversations with pain at an all together different level, on a daily basis. He has run half (21 km) marathon in 1hr 18min, full in 2hr 38min and 100km in 11hrs 25min. In 2013, he got involved in a Couch to 6 km running program for ladies. He soon experienced first-hand why ladies are the nucleus of the society. There were 18 ladies from all walks of life, age ranging from 13 to 60 years. In less than a couple of months, more than 100 people were walking, ranging from their children, not-so-significant halves, parents, in-laws, neighbours, partners, someone who had a crush on them to complete strangers. He is on a very simple mission, to get people to keep miling and smiling, as long as they are on this third rock from a star called sun.

He has been a columnist for Mint and Hindustan Times for over a decade now. He has done a series of running podcast, MoveMint for Mint newspaper and series of FacebookLive for Hindustan Times newspaper. He has also been an Associate Editor at British Journal of Sports Medicine and a columnist for The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Mint, Forbes India and Founding Fuel. His book on Pain, published by Penguin Publications, The Pain Handbook was released in 2016.