International Fitness Clubs

An International health club is a chain of five or more health and fitness clubs, all carrying international brand and standards continuously throughout the clubs. These clubs usually have a single head office, from where operations are directed and brand standards are maintained. There aren’t many of international health clubs in the Indian fitness industry today.

In fact , these international health clubs have launched themselves in the India very recently, targeting Indians living in urban areas who are interested in improving their health and wellness -- and those who have money to burn.

These fitness clubs are usually well provisioned in terms of equipment and services and operate usually very smoothly. Facilities are clean and smart and working for an upcoming international health clubs, there is often good opportunity to learn and progress.

Leisure Centre

A leisure centre is a multi facility, multi sports activity centre owned by a local authority or sometimes as part of an education facility (university, school or college). Leisure centres or sports centres usually have deep community roots, servicing a health and fitness population as well as local sports clubs and community groups. While health and fitness facilities may be somewhat diluted relative to the size of the centre, the facilities are usually of excellent quality all round.

Working for a leisure centre does not offer a wide range of opportunities for progression and prestige that an International health club group offers.

Independent Fitness Clubs

An independent health club is a health and fitness facility which is owned by one individual or a small group of individuals.

There are lot of independent health clubs in the Indian fitness industry today, ranging from single gyms to multipurpose wellness and weight loss centres and each one has a unique feel and style

Independent health clubs traditionally don't feature the same brand continuity as a international health club chain and don't often have the same extent of facilities. Independent health clubs don't have the same purchasing power as a international health club group or a leisure centre , that's just a matter of economies of scale, but these types of clubs usually enjoy a very strong reputation in the local community and tend to have established deeper community links.

You Are Here

Today the Indian fitness industry is growing as a dynamic, energetic and hugely diverse industry, covering a wide range of different products, venues and services.

The core of the industry is the principle and engagement of exercise as a means of preventative healthcare. Products and services are coming in a huge variety, ready to serve an equally wide range of consumer needs from aerobics to body building, performance training to weight management.

There are opportunities for a wide range of different businesses within the fitness industry, from personal trainers through to mammoth international fitness centres and upcoming homemade fitness clubs. "Diversity" will be one of the many appealing things about this industry, along with the corresponding diversity in skills sets and characters of the people working within the industry.

Further, we will endeavor to detail the main types of fitness business, their characteristics and traits and a little bit more about what they are and who they serve.

The Influencer

Salman Khan was the first Indian actor to walk onto the silver screen and display athleticism and fitness to film crazy Indians around the world. He is dominating Indian cinema from 15 years with body language and charisma.Salman Khan influenced all of today’s actors since 1995, to exercise, appear athletic, and be body conscious.

Salman deserves credit for how the young actors and actress look dress and carry themselves now. His early fitness trainees included Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan.Every time he takes his shirt off to let his muscles do the talking, a thousand Khan wannabes in India get drunk on dreams of sculpted bodies and star power.

The hot property of Bollywood is known for his muscular body and considered one of the hottest men of the world. Needless to say, the actor never misses any opportunity to flaunt his assets in films as well as, reality.

According to him fitness is a sync of heart, mind and body. Thus, gyming plays an important role in everyone’s life.

Back Down Memory Lane

Remember the days when, at about 5.30 a.m. the first member to arrive picks up the gym’s key from guru jee’s home just across the road from the gali entrance. A sign above the gym door announced the name of the gym in English or Hindi

The gym was a small room, six meters square, crowded with dumbbells, weightlifting bars, weights of all sizes and shapes, a set of parallel bars, and a chin-up bar. In one corner was a broken pulley and bicycle-chain contraption used to lift a stack of iron-plate weights. Next to the parallel bars was an improvised bench-press board, and in front of that, set into the hard-packed earth floor, a set of wooden stumps on which to do push-ups. Pegs were set into the lime-washed bricks on each wall. Members hold on to these and stand on polished wooden boards while doing squats and deep knee bends. The boards keep the floor dry, for otherwise sweat would quickly turn the earth to slippery mud.

The central column, decorated with mirrors, supports a ceiling sagged under the weight of three upper floors. Other mirrors decorate three of the walls. Between the mirrors and the iron-barred windows which look out narrowly onto a small dusty garden, old black and white portraits of local champions palely reflect the technicolor aura of pin-ups from American bodybuilding magazines.

Exercises were done with mechanical efficiency. A person doing push-ups makes way for a person doing squats who was just beyond the arch of another person swinging on the parallel bars; the movement must be choreographed for efficiency and safety.

Our gyms did'not have any orientation courses for instructors. We were trained on the job. Gym owners were scared that we might quit if we learnt too much. Most instructors were not well educated. A good physique was must be a instructor. It opens doors because people like to see a good body, be it a man or woman.

Our bodybuilding clubs are a fairly recent phenomenon in India, dating perhaps to the early part of the twentieth century. These gyms are modeled on a Western aesthetic and on Western notions of strength and fitness.

Tribute

Born in 1928 in Amritsar, Punjab, Dara Singh studied Pehlwani, the Indian style of wrestling, in the milked sand wrestling pits of Indian akhara. Dara Singh was a favourite in wrestling tournaments in India.

Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Hollywood, he is credited to be the first hero in Bollywood to bring the machismo appeal on-screen with his well-built body.His screen image of manliness and strength promoted the need of physical appearance among lot of individual gym enthusiasts in India.

Commenting upon which, he had said: “It’s true that gyms are taking the place of akharas in urban India. The emphasis in akhara is on physical strength, while gyms focus more on physical appearance, looks and beauty. It’s sad that people approaching akharas are poor. The main reason behind this is the lax attitude of the government in promoting and marketing this age-old physical training centres.”

Royal Patronage

During the Mughal period physical fitness was given prime importance, especially by the kings and the higher class warriors. The Mughal emperors were patrons of hunting and wrestling. References are found which indicate that wrestlers were part of a ruler’s estate. Indications are that wrestlers were paid a regular stipend and were also given provisions for maintaining themselves (Beveridge 1921: 656, 660, 683; Blochmann 1873–1948: 253; Mujumdar 1950: 16; T. N. Roy 1939). In turn they were called upon to entertain the royal court. Bouts were organized with wrestlers from other courts. The Agra fort and the Red Fort were the popular venues of many wrestling bouts in the times of Emperor Shahjahan.

During the Maratha period, Chattrapati Shivaji`s guru, Samarth Ramdas, built several Hanuman temples all over Maharashtra, for the promotion of physical culture among the youth. The best account of a royal akhara for this period is that of Nanasaheb Peshwa. According to Mujumdar his akhara was equipped with twenty-four different pieces of exercise equipment (ibid: 21). Bajirao II also built and maintained a fully equipped akhara and established Balambhaat Dada Deodhar as the guru of this facility. Later Deodhar and his disciples moved to Banaras where they established an akhara now known as Kon Bhatt Akhara in the Bibihatia neighborhood. Although the evidence is scant it would be a fair to say that court wrestlers during the Mogul and Maratha periods were kept as entertainers and as symbols of royal power. The same was true for princely states of the more modern period of British Rule.

According to contemporary wrestlers, the art of wrestling would have died out completely had it not been for royal patronage.

Credit(UC Press E-Books Collection, University of California Press.)

The Indian Connection

The word kalari is said to have been derived from the Sanskrit words "kala", which means art, and "ari", which means enemy. Literally, thus it means art of defeating an enemy. Legends has it that around 525 AD, an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharama travelled to China and trained the monks in kung-fu at the Shaolin temple. Kalari practitioners claim that Bodhidharama taught them the eighteen hands of Buddha - a special set of exercises and from this evolved the Chinese art of Shaolin Boxing. These eighteen hands of Buddha are said to be derived from the eighteen 'adavukals' (adavu = technique), which form the substratum of the 'Vadakkan' or northern style of Kalarippayattu. Slowly this fighting style traced its route to Japan and blended with the fighting skills of those regions, resulting in today's martial arts.

Martial arts was often referred to as fighting systems, but apart from self-defence and sport, people now study martial arts for fitness ,meditation, mental discipline and self-confidence.

Origin of fitness in ancient India

To understand where the fitness training profession is headed, we need to know its origins and identify how the fitness training industry is evolving in India.

In ancient India, individual pursuit of fitness was discouraged as the religious beliefs of Buddhism and Hinduism emphasized spirituality and tended to neglect development of the body. Consequently, the importance of fitness within society in general was relatively low. However, an exercise program developed, while still conforming to religious beliefs, known as Yoga. Though it’s exact origin has yet to be identified, Yoga has existed for at least the past 5000 years. Translated, Yoga means union, and refers to one of the classic systems of Hindu philosophy that strives to bring together and personally develop the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga was originally developed by Hindu priests who lived frugal lifestyles characterized by discipline and meditation. Through observing and mimicking the movement and patterns of animals, priests hoped to achieve the same balance with nature that animals seemed to possess. This aspect of Yoga, known as Hatha Yoga, is the form with which we are most familiar and is defined by a series of exercises in physical posture and breathing patterns. Bedsides balance with nature, ancient Indian philosophers recognized health benefits of Yoga including proper organ functioning and whole well-being. These health benefits have also been acknowledged in the modern-day United States, with an estimated 12 million individuals regularly participating in Yoga.

Credit (The History of Fitness,Lance C. Dalleck, M.S. and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.) from “www.unm.edu”

Intro

Everybody could use a hand sometimes...........whether you're first starting out in your blogger's life , or you're ready to move in a new direction,, or you're feeling burned out doing what you most love to do-at some point in your life , you'll find scratching your head and wondering ,"what do i do now?".

I hope this blog would help me and ( you ) to find the answers.

I wanted to write this blog that would help me and all the other fitness trainers out there , at any stage of there professional development.