The Telegraph :: Fitting in more

The Telegraph :: Fitting in more
(My Original Blog Post: http://vickykapoor.com/kolkata/fitting-in-more/)

Keeping in Shape

At Solace, a 20,000-sq-ft gym in Calcutta, members can choose from yoga, body balancing, Krav Maga and salsa.

Is it a gym? Or a dance studio? Or is it a spa? Or salon? Well, it’s all these and more. Welcome to the exciting world of new-age gyms that are springing up across India.

Fitness centres, once upon a time, were places where you worked out and walked out. Now they are turning into holistic wellness centres, where members are totally spoilt for choice.

Leading the change are international chains like Fitness First, True Fitness and Celebrity Fitness, which have set up shop here, hoping to turn India into a fitness zone. Others like F. Chisel, a gym-plus-spa set up by fashion channel FTV, too are redefining the concept of gyms.

These new temples of fitness have more high-tech exercise machines than ever before — for every imaginable body part. There are private exercise rooms for celebrity guests, and group exercise studios too. And you can chart your way through an exhaustive menu of workouts ranging from famed yoga guru Bikram Choudhary’s Hot Yoga — yes, he of the Madonna and Sharon Stone following — to Les Mills workouts like BodyPump and BodyJam.

There’s more. Wet areas or saunas now look more like spas than utilitarian gyms. And some gyms even have full-fledged spas as an integral part of their services. They’re also revving up service standards by bringing in internationally certified trainers and offering personalised training. They want to offer a complete lifestyle — that means swank interiors with juice bars, cafeterias and recreation lounges.

“We offer the best in yoga, fitness, spa and beauty treatments,” says Nicholas Kraal, assistant business development manager, True Fitness. The Singapore chain’s first centre in India, launched in Mumbai recently, includes a gym, the first Hot Yoga centre in India and its True Spa. By March, it will take a snip at a new business and open Hakim’s Aalim Hair Lounge.

Or take F. Chisel, a partnership between FTV and fitness consultant Satya Sinha, which is spreading the fitness gospel in Bangalore and Delhi. “Ours is a lifestyle product. We want to combine everything under one roof,” says managing director Sinha.

Adds Sanjay Mani, head, licensing and merchandising, FTV Channel: “As a lifestyle channel, F. Chisel was a natural transition for us. Our approach is pretty holistic. We want to cater to the hard-working urban youngster, who also loves to take care of his or her body.”

Indeed, actor Milind Soman, who just opened his gym, Breathe, in South Delhi feels, “The way we work-out has changed. People are constantly looking for new ways of working out.”

Fit to lead

The push in the new direction is being led by a clutch of international chains that have set up shop in India, bringing with them, the latest in international gym trends.

So, you have Fitness First India which exists in 17 countries and which has already opened four centres and plans to add three more over the next eight months. “The indicators were right to start our chain here,” says Vikram Aditya Bhatia, managing director, Fitness First India.

Putting in a range of facilities can be expensive, so you have gyms like True Fitness planning to spend Rs 40 crore in India and which is looking at moving to Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. And Celebrity Fitness’ managing director Steve Franklin says he wants to take international-standard gyms to small-town India.

And yes, size matters. True Fitness’ Mumbai centre is spread over two floors — or 60,000sq ft — of an Andheri mall. Celebrity First’s Gurgaon centre too occupies a huge 38,000sq ft.

So what are the five things to look out for in these new age gyms? Read on.

An exhaustive menu

Walk into True Fitness’ Mumbai centre and you’ll see two large expanses on either side of the reception packed with exercise equipment. There are over 250 machines including 140 cardio machines like cross-trainers and cardio-wave machines (which simulate the skiing motion) and 110 Signature Series resistance machines for different body parts. On one side is a beginner’s station where 10 machines are laid out in a circuit for the chest, back, abs, arms, shoulders and legs. At the far end is a spinning studio and just outside it True Fitness even has 22 cardio-wave machines set in a circle for a high-intensity group workout.

That’s not all. Further down are two private training rooms for celebrity clients. Each has a treadmill, cardio wave and Power Plate machine. Plus, there’s a new cable-based machine, Kinesis, for pulley-based workouts of the upper and lower body and legs.

Then, there’s a 2,500-sq-ft group exercise studio. A floor below is a 2,800-sq-ft women’s workout room, and a Bikram Yoga centre, which has a 2,800-sq-ft heated room for group classes and a smaller one for private lessons.

Move over to Celebrity First in Delhi and Gurgaon and here the activity chart reads like a menu card. With over 150 group classes a week from yoga to spinning, you can literally hop from one class to another all day. Again, there are separate yoga and personal training studios. “The idea is to make workouts fun,” says Franklin.

It’s the same at Fitness First, which first introduced Les Mills formats like RPM (spinning) and BodyPump (a group weights class) in India.

Now, others like True Fitness are offering these too. Its members too can choose from over 100 group classes a week including Bikram Yoga. “The response to our Bikram Yoga classes has been fantastic,” says Rowena Ooi, who has moved here from Choudhary’s Australia centre.

A 90-minute Bikram Yoga class entails 26 asanas done at 43°C. “There are a lot of benefits of exercising under heated conditions. It improves the immune system, breaks down fat faster and releases more toxins too,” says Ooi.

At Solace, a 20,000-sq-ft gym in Calcutta, members can choose from yoga, body balancing, Krav Maga and salsa.

The new gyms are bringing in the latest machines too. Amatraa Spa has two Advanced Human Performance Studios with high-tech VibroGym machines. Unlike Power Plate, which has a single motor and so doesn’t vibrate the entire body, the VibroGym has two motors for whole body vibration. “The VibryoGym is used by ultra-busy people as you expend more energy in a shorter time,” says Shilpi Tandon, a trainer here.

Tailor-made and personal too

These facilities are backed by world-class service and personalised care. At Fitness First, it starts even before you join. Members undergo several tests and consultations first. The gym assesses their fitness on five parameters: resting heart rate, body composition, flexibility, lung capacity and blood pressure. It accordingly prescribes an exercise regimen.

On joining, there’s a structured assessment programme. At least 15 of the gym’s 25 instructors are always on call. And every member gets two free personal training sessions. “We’re raising the standard and delivering it with consistency,” says Jeremy Cheong, head of fitness, who has relocated from Fitness First’s Malaysia centre.

True Fitness too offers personalised training. Under its basic membership package (Rs 50,000 per annum excluding Bikram Yoga), members get 12 free personal training sessions. There are 48 free sessions under the Rs 5 lakh package (for a couple, for five years).

Celebrity Fitness’s Rapid Result Training personalised workout is based on five elements: aerobic exercise, resistance training, diet, professional assistance and correct protein and vitamin intake. “We follow these elements strictly to ensure maximum results in the shortest time,” says Franklin.

World-class trainers

The new gyms are ensuring they have the best qualified trainers too. For instance, 50 per cent of Fitness First’s instructors have undergone the Les Mills training programme.

“We fly in master trainers from Dubai and Philippines for training, and keep investing in such things to ensure quality,” says Cheong.

Celebrity Fitness puts its level one Rapid Results trainers alone through six weeks’intensive training. And it has got instructors from Malaysia like Kris Malhotra, who takes the spinning class.

True Fitness too brought a four-member team from Thailand to train its local trainers. Its current fitness manager is from Malaysia too.

And at Breathe, Soman and his partner Rahul Dev have handpicked instructors certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. “The more fit the instructors, the more enthusiastic they are,” says Soman.

Wet and cool

At Amatraa gym, you feel like a VVIP whenever you enter the wet room. For as you sit in the sauna or Jacuzzi, an attendant waits on you offering herbal tea, fresh lime sodas and fruits. The gym has one wet area for women and two for men, stocked with specially-made Amatraa body scrubs and oils.

Meanwhile, F. Chisel, True Fitness and Solace have full-fledged spas. F. Chisel offers varied treatments like Javanese, Balinese and hot stone massages, and hydro treatments too. It has eight luxurious treatment rooms manned by international therapists.

True Fitness’s True Spa has nine massage and two facial rooms. The two VIP massage rooms have Jacuzzis for hydrobath treatments in chocolate or milk. Again, there are various treatments like the Balinese deep tissue massage and Royal Sports massage.

F. Chisel’s Delhi centre even offers body sculpting and makeovers. It has an in-house team of nutritionists and beauty therapists. “We’re committed to transforming the total image of our clients,” says Sinha.

Even older players like Gold’s Gym are beefing up their offering. Its Calcutta outlet has two 900-sq-ft wet areas for men and women, where it offers spa treatments. It has a swanky juice bar too.

Lounge about

The 1,400-sq-ft lounge at Celebrity Fitness could well house your neighbourhood gym. But it’s not just a large space — it has all the features of a pub with its swank décor, psychedelic lights and pulsating music. Plus it has a fresh juice bar. “We’re creating a club atmosphere. You hear the music and immediately feel like dancing. We want people to feel energised here,” says Franklin.

The members’ lounge at Amatraa too resembles a plush bar with leather-and-wood interiors, and a juice bar. “We keep investing on the upkeep as we have high-profile members,” says Amatraa’s Vandana Uberoi.

Meanwhile, Fitness First too has a member’s lounge with coffee machines. It even plans to start a DVD library. True Fitness has a live DJ on the exercise floor and it will open a cafeteria soon. And Solace has a juice bar-cum-lounge.

Clearly, then, the new gyms are ensuring that their members get the best in fitness and that they have a good time exercising too.

Additional inputs by Aarti Dua and Tania Bhattacharya;
Photographs by Jagan Negi, Rupinder Sharma, Rashbehari Das, Gajanan Dudhalkar

Source: The Telegraph