The Fit List

A brief history of people in fitness

AT A party in Delhi recently, I met a 24-year-old British guy who was telling me how fate brought him to Delhi. He was a fitness trainer in a gym in London. One day, a fellow trainer was sick and he filled in for his personal training session with a client. The said client turned out to be an Indian industrialist who went on to hire him and moved him to India. He now trains this industrialist only, and his family members, supervising his diet and exercise regimen according to his hectic schedule. He travels with him to ensure his fanatically driven client stays optimally fit regardless of what his work pressures might be.

It’s not just the superrich who are flaunting fitness experts on their staff as the season’s must-have accessories. Personal trainers are the new GP’S in urban India. Everyone needs one. They’re no longer the sole preserve of the fashionable or Bollywood superstars who use them before prepping for a film. A personal trainer has moved from the zone of luxury to acceptable self-indulgence. In fact, they’re well on their way to becoming a legitimate necessity, like car insurance. Whoever I meet either has a yoga teacher, a pilates instructor, a parkour professional, without whom it is universally agreed, your target fitness level will always remain a distant dream. And pretty soon, they’ll be moving into super speciality. I know of a fitness pro who works specifically with people with back issues.

A good trainer is like a psychiatrist who sets you on the path of self actualisation though you have to put in the hard work yourself. Exercise is such a chore, a knowledgeable trainer makes it slightly more bearable. Once you find that magic someone who motivates you to stay in shape, they’re immediately indispensable. Over the years, for two decades perhaps, I, too, have belonged to this enthusiastic set of gym goers with trainers at a multitude of gyms across Delhi. Now I sometimes seek the advise of a friend who works out at the same gym. There’s actually a term for that: gusband (gym guru plus male friend equals to gusband). This frees my time to observe the trials and tribulations perpetually in motion on the floor.

Anyone familiar with a gym can’t help but notice that women are grossly underrepresented in the personal training space. At the gym I go to, which has over 3000 members of which a little under half are female, there are 40 male personal trainers to choose from. And shockingly, just two female ones. There are market forces at play. It turns out, absolutely nobody wants a female trainer. The men won’t be caught dead using one and the women clients seem to think the male trainers know more. One of the trainers told me that the only women using female trainers were those who’s husbands objected to them working out with males.

A 27-year-old female trainer told me how frustrating her job is. The dropout rate for women is thrice that of men. The fitness culture is not as deeply embedded in them as their male counterparts. She said women tend to focus solely on weight loss, the word fitness doesn't usually figure in their vocabulary.

Most of them staunchly believe lifting a dumbbell for ten reps will turn them into Schwarzenegger and so insist on wasting time on the treadmill and cross trainer. The biggest plus of a personal trainer is the fitness education you receive by default and of course, the pressure it puts to work out. When you sign up for 25 sessions (non-refundable) not exercising ceases to be an option. Sometimes, a personal trainer is the only way to make sure you stop resisting the resistance band.