Nature over gym

Grunting with either immense pain or pleasure while sweating through every pore and staring at their muscular symmetry in the mirrors lining up the entire gymnasium, these archetypal gym-goers seem to have taken over the streets of Pali Hill.

Surprisingly, some of them are now seen doing squats and push-ups in places like Carter Road and Joggers’ Park in the evenings as a testament of their love for a good physique without the cost of an arm and a leg of a gym membership.

Donning a strategically sweat-stained t-shirt, while constantly flexing his forearm muscles like a bicep-curl is in order every minute, Sandeep Singh is one of those gym-lovers, who takes it to be an ecosystem he has always been able to find a niche in. He would be hard to miss at the free weight area at the Leena Mogre gym on Linking Road.

Yet today, the 31-year old admits that he has recently been enjoying ripping workouts at Joggers’ Park in Bandra. Now looking to discontinue his gym membership, it seems that his degree of Salman-Khan-ism will remain just as rewarding with his outdoor-friendly flex-happy workout routine. He swears by his latest ‘discovery’--bench presses and morning runs with his Labrador on Carter Road.

Vishal Sharma* is a gym trainer in Bandra, who refuses to mention the company he works for, as he slowly delves into the matter of new-age corporate India and its merchant mogul slave shops that he says are commercial gyms. “Let us get real. Nothing quite beats the complex outdoor terrain that we have around Bandra,” he shares.

Yet gym trainers such as myself are made to brainwash clients into believing that only gyms will help them overcome the bulge. Working out outdoors not only feels like it is less of a routine but given that the weather and surroundings change every day, it also remains unpredictable and exciting all the time,” he explains. He also adds that more calories tend to be burned outdoors.

“Equipments such as the treadmill or the elliptical do not make it easy for the user to lose track of time; instead the person ends up checking how much time is left every minute of the workout.”

Vanessa Fernandes*, a yoga instructor in a gym in Juhu, echoes Sharma’s sentiments. While making a living through her daily unimaginably flexible bodily movements at a gym frequented by A-list celebrities, she prefers “going back to nature” when it comes to working out and keeping one’s body healthy. “Not only does working out outdoors help people get higher vitamin D levels but connecting with nature is the best way to cut out technology and step away from the virtual world we are all engulfed in,” explains Fernandes.

She also vouches for the “feel good” factor that comes with working out outdoors as opposed to huffing and puffing on machines rattling off their hinges.

Sharma and Fernandes, both admit that many clients are now opting for the ‘natural’ route by refusing to renew their membership and going for daily runs on outdoor tracks. One quick stop at Carter Road on a Saturday evening and we bite their bait: the elderly and the young with their biceps glistening all coalesce in a Montessori-esque manner of working out. 

Battling the bulge, getting healthier without having to grotesquely stare at the gym equipment like it were an interesting piece of fungus one might happen upon in a forest is clearly not such a far-fetched concept anymore.

*Name changed on request.