The new gym at CRC

It’s not everyday that you find a gym with a swimming pool next door! Enter, Endorphins, the swanky new gym at Calcutta Rowing Club.

Spread across 1,500sq ft, the fitness zone has vital breathing space that’s hard to come by today. “We were looking for a large space, something that wasn’t closed in and cramped so that people could spread and work out. This was just right because the ceiling is high and there’s a pool right outside where you can cool off,” says strength and conditioning coach and t2 columnist Ranadeep Moitra, who has opened the gym with partner Ricky Chandra.

This is also the first time that the 1929-established club at 15 Rabindra Sarobar has a fully-equipped gym on its premises. “We used to have a small gym earlier but it was nothing like this. Members are very excited! The gym is also open to non-members, so it is sure to draw young people to the club and perhaps to rowing, too,” says Chandan Roy Chowdhury, secretary of CRC and the president of West Bengal Rowing Association.

Like Ranadeep’s gym at 4 Alipore Avenue that opened in February, here too, the walls wear a hipster look with graffiti and pictures motivating gym rats to run home! Think a packet of yellow chips with ‘Sleazy Chips’ written across, or words like ‘Lunge’, ‘Squat’ and ‘Attitude’ giving you that extra push just when you need it.

There’s more. Yoga classes on the lawns overlooking the serene Lakes and starting December, a physiotherapist will also be available to advise senior citizens.

Endorphins is open from 7am to noon and 4pm to 9pm. Fees for non-members is Rs 8,000 (plus taxes) for a quarter. For members, the rates are “subsidised”.

5 exercises AT ENDORPHINS

Chop and Lift: Pull the rope diagonally across your chest as though chopping a piece of wood lying on the side. It is a corrective exercise that brings the body’s dysfunctions to the surface because it clearly shows your body movement and exposes any weak links and imbalances. It breaks up the body into four different quadrants and tests the function/strength of each.

INDIAN CLUB: These mace-type dumbbells, also used by wrestlers, are better known as dangri or mudgar. In fact, they don’t look very different from something that Mowgli would swing over his head in The Jungle Book! “With the mudgar, there is a lot of internal and external rotation of the shoulder. It trains the shoulder girdle in totality and not just in isolation like traditional gym or body-building exercises,” explains Ranadeep.

CLIMBING ROPE: This is one of our natural primal patterns. Just like climbing a tree, it has certain movement patterns that are great for your joints. It helps flex the hips and knees and builds hand, eye and leg coordination.

Monkey bar: Remember how you would climb the monkey bar in school? Well, it’s back to school at Endorphins with more “natural and functional” ways of working out. Climbing the monkey bar exercise reinforces strength in the upper body, particularly the shoulders, chest and back. “It’s better than picking up weights and getting buffed. I meet many people with buffed-up bodies but when it comes to actually applying that strength, like carrying a suitcase, they can’t do it,” says Ranadeep.

Roman Rings: Named so because it is believed the rings originated in Italy, more than 200 years ago. These are basically pendant rings used by acrobats and combine gymnastic aspects of strength. Help build the muscles of the anterior shoulder girdle like the chest, front deltoids and triceps while challenging your sense of shoulder stability.

Karo Christine Kumar

Pictures by Bhubaneswarananda Halder