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Fit reply to health
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GYMS Fitness is the new buzz in Pondy. Rajesh Nair writes...
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Photo: T. Singaravelou
Sweat and svelte? At a fitness centre in Pondy.
Murthy, fifty-seven years old and a food product consultant, has developed a habit. That is, spending more than an hour a day at a fitness centre. His initiation into the club of `health freaks' in Pondicherry was born out of a need, after he met with a minor accident. But if one is to go by his words, working out has become part of life.
"I feel I am getting younger by the day. I am having fun with these young people (pointing to the body builders in the gym)," he says. He is one among those Pondicherrians, who have realised, of late, the importance of keeping fit and ever youthful.
There are many more in Murthy's age group, who are joining health centres. Take Ashish Roy, for example. He is a sports man, who can't think of even a single day in which some time is not spent at a fitness centre. "I feel restless, if I don't exercise," says Ashish. He is now a trainer at the fitness centre.
S. Biswas, a geologist with the ONGC at Karaikal belongs to the same league. Every 15 days he is in Pondicherry with his family, the rest of the days at his work spot. And when he is in Pondicherry, he is invariably at a fitness centre in the evenings, sweating it out. "I've become addicted to working out," he states.
If you thought it is only the men who want to stay fit, healthy and evergreen, you are proved wrong. Forty-five-year-old Blondel, a housewife, works out in a fitness centre in a hotel, twice a day. This has been her routine for the last 20 years. "I haven't put on even an ounce of extra weight and it keeps me youthful," says Blondel.
Her friend at the gym, Deva (30), who works with the French Institute, started exercising only to lose weight. "What started off as a weight reduction programme has become a habit," she says.
For people like Sabita (22), a lecturer at an engineering college, doing aerobic exercises, for half-an-hour a day, has helped reduce stress and improved physical flexibility. "I don't think I will give up exercising," says Sabita.
There is a fitness centre inside a hotel in the town, which has almost become an exclusive club for students from medical colleges, here. Every evening, they are there in batches. Gauthaman, a second-year MBBS student, says "Only when I'm fit can I advise my patients about the importance of maintaining a healthy body. I've been doing aerobics and cardio vascular exercises for the last two months. And this has brought in an element of discipline into my life," he says.
An interesting aspect of this new trend that is slowly catching on in Pondicherry is that many don't mind spending extra, if the ambience in the fitness centre is good and if there is a proper trainer.
And this feeling is more prominent among women. Deva says, "I decided on a particular gym after I found it had the right ambience and separate timings for women."
Simanthini Gaekwar, trainer-cum-owner of a fitness centre here, says, "The number of women coming to the gym has increased over the last few years. We have 15 of them, at present. The exercises suggested for the women are different from what we offer the men."
Most of the fitness centres have a trainer and some even have doctors as consultants, who advise people what exercises they should opt for. Ashish Roy, trainer says, "I have categorised the exercises to suit all categories of people who come to work out, from beginners to the advanced level."
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Pondicherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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