From top: Ram Chatterjee shows some Taebo moves; a BodyPump session; people try rock-climbing for endurance training; boxing for fitness is gaining popularity as are women’s gyms like Contours; Preetom Mukherjee Roy on a Nautilus machine; a high-energy BodyCombat class Pix:Gajanan Dudhalkar; Rashbehari Das

Do you get mind-numbingly bored doing never-ending repetitions of chest presses and bicep curls? Are you desperately searching for new ways to pep up your exercise routine?

How about something refreshingly new like pumping up those weights in a group class, choreographed to music? Maybe you’d like to try out the Les Mills BodyPump workout. It’s on offer currently from the newest player in the gym game, UK-based Fitness First which has just opened clubs in Delhi and Mumbai.

Or if walking mindlessly on the treadmill to get your cardio-vascular system going is a chore, how about doing some laps in the pool or even playing a game of squash? Health clubs like Gold’s Gym and Amattra in Delhi are offering facilities for swimming and playing squash.

And if you’re a fitness and gizmo freak, you might check out the latest equipment like the HumanSport machine or Nautilus One strength equipment.

As the fitness game gathers strength, gyms across India are realising that it’s not enough to get people into their health clubs. They need to constantly throw in new offerings to keep interest levels at a peak. That could range from new exercise formats to value-added amenities to high-tech equipment to even new niches like women-specific gyms.

“Fitness is a great thing but unless you’re passionate about it, it can be very boring. So we need to offer something new constantly,” says Ram Chatterjee, fitness trainer at Hyatt Regency’s Club Prana.

The body too needs new challenges to achieve new fitness peaks, feels fitness buff and television actor Salil Acharya. “You have to stimulate the body,” he says.

Let’s take a peek, then, at some of these new offerings.

Routine change

The music is pulsing and Bobby Suguitan is guiding his group of 10 fitness buffs to a BodyPump session at Fitness First’s Oshiwara centre in Mumbai.

BodyPump is a 60-minute group strength training class, done with barbells and choreographed to music. The fitness-to-music exercise format has been developed and popularised globally by New Zealand’s Les Mills gym. Now, Fitness First has exclusive rights (till November) to offer Les Mills’ group exercise formats in India.

Bobby, who is on deputation from Fitness First’s Philippines branch, begins with a warm-up track — the class is choreographed to 10 tracks and every quarter, Les Mills introduces a new choreographed routine. As the music starts pounding, the muscles start heaving and straining and Bobby sets a punishing pace of squats, presses, lunges, lifts and curls. “If it’s a good music track, it must be a difficult set,” he jokes.

Each track focuses on one muscle group, starting from the legs to the chest, back, triceps, biceps, shoulders and abdominals. The students change weights according to their fitness level and exercise. The idea is to build strength in each muscle. “Doing weight training on your own can be quite boring. But this is great fun,” says Rakhi Singh, one of Bobby’s students.

Globally, BodyPump’s combination of light weights with more repetitions draws women since this helps to tone up, while men prefer to pump heavier weights to build muscle. “BodyPump is perfect for women because it helps them to tone up. Also, women are prone to osteoporosis, and strength training helps in preventing that,” says Bobby.

At the Oshiwara centre too, several women are doing BodyPump. One enthusiast is garment exporter Anamika Sadh, who must exercise daily to keep health problems at bay. Says Sadh: “I love BodyPump, especially with Bobby since the trainer can make all the difference in a group class.” Gyms are serving up other new exercise formats too. Switch gears from strength to cardio training and you can try out BodyCombat, another Les Mills format offered at Fitness First.

Again, Bobby takes this high-energy class, which is a non-combat fitness routine. Its moves are drawn from martial arts like karate, taekwondo, tai chi and Muay Thai. “BodyCombat develops stamina and promotes cardio-vascular health,” says Bobby. The class calls for some nimble footwork as the students jab, kick and punch. BodyCombat is also set to 10 choreographed tracks. Already, students like Acharya are sold on it. “I don’t like cardio-vascular exercises. So BodyCombat is just right for me. The amount of cardio fitness and energy required for this class is second to none,” he says.

Back in Calcutta, meanwhile, fitness buffs are learning Taebo, another group cardio exercise format, which Ram Chatterjee introduced at Club Prana recently.

Taebo combines aerobics with martial arts. A seven-time black belt karate champ, Chatterjee says, “I’d been experimenting with karate and aerobics for years but only realised later that what I was unconsciously doing was called Taebo in the US.” He adds: “Taebo is a harder version of aerobics and a softer version of martial arts.”

Sharmin Mukerjea, who helps her husband and former Indian Davis Cup captain Jaideep Mukerjea run his tennis academy, is a convert to this high-energy workout set to music, which can entail 250-300 kicks and a 700-800 calorie loss per class. “Taebo was a turning point for me. I didn’t know you could uplift your stamina so much. I think anyone who does Taebo and plays a sport will find their performance on the court improve dramatically,” she says.

“Taebo gives you a lot of confidence,” says Chatterjee. He now plans to introduce it at Club Prana in Mumbai, where he has just moved.

It might come as a surprise but boxing too is gaining popularity at some gyms. National level boxer Bhupesh Kamble, who is head trainer at Gold’s Gym’s new Kandivli branch in Mumbai, says: “Interest in boxing has increased after Vijender Singh’s bronze medal win at Beijing.” Kamble even has middle-aged students who’re boxing to stay fit. “Boxing improves strength, cardio, stamina and flexibility,” he says.

Meanwhile, at the homegrown Talwalkar’s healthclub chain, managing director Prashant Talwalkar is kicking off a four-month marathon training programme this month prior to the Mumbai Marathon. “This will combine indoor training at our gyms and outdoor training at public grounds and beaches,” he says.

Machine-made fit

New fitness routines aren’t enough, gyms are also bringing in hi-tech exercise machines that help you stay fit.

Take Gold’s Gym’s new franchise at Alipore in Calcutta. Says Preetom Mukherjee Roy, its fitness and nutrition advisor: “We want to bring the latest exercise equipment to Calcutta.” So the Gold’s Gym has brought in the Nautilus One series of strength machines. “It’s Nautilus’ first shipment of this series to Asia,” says Roy. These use a new weight stack technology whereby instead of the regular pins and plates, there’s a simple dial for users to change weights. The gym has also brought in StarTrac’s new E Series treadmills and cross-trainers, which have personalised viewing screens with iPod connectivity and cellphone chargers.

“Working on a treadmill can be boring. So we wanted to give people entertainment and still get them to exercise,” adds the Alipore gym’s fitness manager Neeraj Surana.

Meanwhile in Mumbai, Gold’s Gym is installing a set of four HumanSport machines from Star Trac at three centres. Users of these multi-station strength machines can do an entire workout for, say, the upper body on a single machine instead of using three-four machines. “We had put up a demo piece earlier and everyone was queuing up to use it,” says Althea Shah, general manager, operations, Gold’s Gym India. Actor Ranbir Kapoor, in fact, is an avid user of the machine.

Meanwhile Fitness First has introduced Technogym’s Cardio Wave machine, which is a stepper which allows three different planes of movement — extension, abduction and external rotation — at the same time.

A women’s thing

How about doing a 29-minute circuit training workout that’s devised just for women? Yes, fitness centres in India are also going niche. Take Chandra Gopalan, who has zeroed in on this segment with her Contours International Women’s Health & Fitness Studios.

Contours is the second-largest women’s only gym franchise in the US. Gopalan has the franchise for it in South and West India, and is now looking at taking it to the East. She already has four Contours gyms in Bangalore and one in Chennai. She has just opened one in Thane, and is planning another in Calcutta.

What’s Contours all about? Well, the gym has devised a 29-minute cardio plus strength circuit training workout. There are eight strength machines targeting every muscle group and eight aerobic rebounder boards — placed in a circuit.

The workout entails 45-second bursts of aerobic activity followed by 45 seconds on a strength machine. Each class covers two 13-minute circuits plus a three-minute initial warm-up. “It’s a very well-rehearsed programme based on the zigzag theory, where you change activity every 45 seconds from strength to cardio. So the calorie burn is greater,” she says.

The Contours concept is gaining popularity. Says Gopalan: “I thought initially I’d only get the orthodox crowd. But I find even modern women want to have a women’s only gym.”

Talwalkar’s too is looking at this segment. “We plan to open women’s only gyms. There’s a demand for this category both from working women and the conservative set,” says Prashant Talwalkar. He plans to have 20 women’s gyms across India over the next year.

Bells and whistles

Variety in exercise comes not only from machines and workouts but it can also come from add-on amenities like swimming pools, jogging tracks and even rock-climbing walls. Space is the constraint but health club chains are looking at offering such facilities. For instance, Sykz gym in Mumbai recently added a swimming pool and squash court at its new Malad branch. The Amattra gym in Delhi too has a pool, where members can do aqua aerobics instead of cardio work-outs.

Gold’s Gym too has a squash court and boxing ring at its Andheri centre in Mumbai and it has indoor rock-climbing walls at some centres. Now, it’s adding indoor jogging tracks at its upcoming gyms in South Delhi and Nasik. “People get fed up with the same exercise routine. So these amenities give variation,” says Gold’s Gym’s Shah. For instance, a person could substitute an upper body strength workout with some rock-climbing.

One thing’s sure then: the innovations won’t stop coming and fitness centres will keep looking at ways to spice up those exercise routines.