Student E-zine of the ACJ
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| Fri, April 11, 2008 Student E-zine of the ACJ |
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The business of fitness
Last updated at 4.00 pm, Feb 29, 2008 Chennai: The last four years in Chennai have seen gymnasiums showing much brain and brawn getting customers to indulge in the concept of “wellness.” According to Ajit Shetty, an instructor at Fitness One on TTK Road, most of the city’s 400 to 500 gyms came up in that period. “A majority of gym goers are in the age group of 25-40,” said Shetty. “These people earn well, but have a sedentary lifestyle, and sit before computers all day long. Most of them are obese and low self esteem makes them resort to gyms.” He added that students have begun joining gyms too, especially girls of marriageable age, because their parents are concerned about the way they look. Are people who join gyms serious about fitness? Or does this merely reflect their fancy lifestyles? Certain gyms offer valet parking, personal fitness instructors, massage and steam parlours and diet juice centres, making work outs in gyms attractive. Gyms today fit most wallets too. In smaller gyms, customers pay up to Rs 2000 annually at the most, while more expensive gyms charge anywhere between Rs 4000 and Rs 30,000 annually. Surprisingly many children in the 10 to 15 age group have joined gyms. Some of them may seem a tad over weight, but can’t that to be solved by playing games a few hours everyday and eating healthy? Large sums are doled out to correct a problem that people can fix on their own. Shetty says that people have poor eating habits and hardly any exercise. “They use elevators rather than the stairs; they’d rather drive than walk short distances. People today eat more to satisfy their taste buds than quell hunger,” he said. Because gymnasiums today attract people of all age groups, their advertising tempts people into believing that this is the only way they can lose weight and stay fit. Posters and hoardings speak of obese individuals, who have lost oodles of weight after joining a certain gym. It’s this kind of advertising that attracts people towards this lifestyle. A middle aged woman who refused to say what her name was, said that she had joined a gym simply because she wanted to fit into certain kind of clothes and be accepted into a society that looks down upon obese people. G.R Ingulab, fitness manager at Gold’s gym in Alwarpet, said the gym was set up four years ago and has received a tremendous response. While he believes that some clients join gyms for fun, others are serious and at times go overboard with training because they are too conscious of how they look. The image of the ‘ideal body’ projected in the mass media also contribute to people’s insecurity about their bodies. What they probably don’t realise, as Shetty admitted without mentioning names, is that most movie stars suffer from serious eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia and lead extemely unhealthy lives to look the way they do. “This is where we come in,” said Shetty. “We instruct our clients to eat right and motivate them when they feel like giving up.” However, there are some people who still prescribe to old school views and believe brisk walking and healthy eating are enough and gymming isn’t really necessary. Dr. Krishnakumar, a physican aged 56, and a regular walker at the Nageshwara Rao park in Mylapore, explained: “I’ve been doing this consistently for 15 years and it has worked marvelously. My wife joined a gym sometime back, pulled a muscle once, and hasn’t gone back since.” On being asked what he thought of the gymming culture, he said, “I think this gymming business is highly overrated and terribly commercialised. I think anyone who can shell out close to Rs 10,000 to stay fit can very well make it a point to walk everyday for half an hour and make sure they eat right.” email: amrutasabnis22@gmail.com
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Editor : Karthik Krishnaswamy
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