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METRO WORKOUT

Step by Step, baby!

step up in style Jacqueline Wong, Regional Group Exercise Trainer for Fitness First, Asia

She is taut as a rubber band and fit as a sprinter. Jacqueline Wong, Regional Group Exercise Trainer for Fitness First, Asia, recently took special classes at Fitness First. Opened in Gurgaon not long ago, this U.K.-based gym is already seeing a rus h of subscriptions. With 68 clubs across eight countries, it is sure to lure the health conscious and the fitness fanatics.

The studio is a large brightly coloured hall. Jacqueline is poised on the stage, facing the students. At the step aerobics class, she infuses everyone with an infectious zeal. Never once flagging in enthusiasm and energy, she belts out instructions through a cordless mike. The class never lets up in its intensity. It is an hour-long relay of step-up, step-down, side, back, front, bend, squat. It’s clear that the participants of the class are of different abilities and have varying stamina. The members in the front effortlessly keep up with Jacqueline. The ones at the back lag behind. (Guess where I was.) The back-rowers gently step up and down on their individual platform, while the students in front perform rapid acrobatics and expansive stretches.

While aerobics classes vary from instructor to instructor, Jacqueline’s class is more athletic than dance-y.

There are different kinds of exercises, from normal step exercises to floor exercises. The heights of individual platforms are adjusted. Floor mats are brought out. Though the students tire, they never stop smiling. We are being pushed to the limit, but Jacqueline keeps us in good spirits. The muscles shout and the brow sweats, but I find I’m still having a good time. Jacqueline explains that a step class requires one to work harder than in a normal run. A step routine raises the heartbeat higher and quicker than a run.

She says that we often find older people avoiding the stairs, complaining of knee pain. Slowly, their movements get further restricted. From avoiding the stairs, they limit their movements and rarely go out.

Step exercises prevent the muscles from atrophying and help to maintain one’s mobility. Besides being a cardiovascular workout, it also works excellently for the calf and posterior muscles. This expert instructor came to fitness herself, rather late. She started going to a gym only at the age of 27. And soon found that she’d become a “gym junkie”, going to the gym five times a day. Then, one day she decided to make the break. “I suddenly realised that I could be paid for what I loved doing. What could be better?”

(Call Fitness First at — 0124 4325900)

( nandini@thehindu.co.in)

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