Bengaluru is the fitness capital of India, says Shwetambari Shetty

If you’ve watched the Bangalore Times #FlirtWithYourCity rap video (you’re really missing out if you haven’t yet!), then you’ve watched namma fitness expert Shwetambari Shetty kick some serious butt. Bengalureans aren’t the ones to follow the has-beens; we are, in fact, always looking out for the next best thing. And Shwetambari validates this, when she says, “In the last four years, I have observed that the trend in fitness is changing. In Bengaluru, especially, I have seen that fitness is very trendy. This is a good thing — I am not saying that people should take to fitness because it’s trendy; people should take to it because it’s important. At this point, Bengaluru is the fitness capital of the country, because a lot of people here, compared to other cities, are taking to new forms of fitness. This is why a lot of formats from other countries are making a presence in Bengaluru before any other city in India.” Intrigued? Want to try out a new form of workout, like, say, boxing? Shwetambari gives us a glimpse into the different options available in the city, with the trend being group fitness activities…

Strength and conditioning
This is a perfect combination of a lot of strength and conditioning workouts. Strength focuses on muscle development and growth, which we need to age gracefully. Conditioning is all about building cardiovascular endurance and stamina. So, this kind of workout has a lot of weight training, dumbbell, kettle bell, barbell, burpees, mountain climbers, and a lot of core conditioning with planks and the likes.

Combat, dance and fitness
Prowl, a workout designed by Tiger Shroff, is a combination of combat, dance and fitness, which is done to fun, peppy music. It consists of skill teaching, followed by a 15-minute, non-stop workout. It’s a high-intensity training format that burns a lot of calories and increases your metabolism.

Boost muscle growth
HRX, a workout conceived by Hrithik Roshan, focuses on strength and muscle growth, with some conditioning. One of the core parts of this workout is the ZMR philosophy — zero momentum rep, which includes a lot of isolation and isometric movements (slow 5-10 counts). There are also animal flow movements, like beast hold and crab reach. It’s a brilliant workout to build strength.

Yoga for flexibility
Yoga is not new, of course, but it is very important to include it in your workout schedule. One of the most important components of fitness is flexibility and mobility, and one workout that contributes heavily to these is yoga. If your flexibility deteriorates over a period of times, your muscle length reduces and you are prone to injuries. If you keep doing all the other formats, but don't focus on the flexibility and mobility of the body, the chances of you injuring yourself in other workouts is very high. But if you incorporate about two hours of yoga a week, and complement that with other fitness forms, you will be safe, as you will keep your muscle length intact.

Pack some punches
Boxing is a brilliant cardio-vascular activity, because you are constantly using the punching bag, and there is a lot of foot work and different variations. It really pushes your threshold and you can test how high your heart rate can go. But apart from the heavy conditioning and endurance, it also gives you a certain amount of muscle tone due to the multiple reps. This results in toned arms, shoulders, chest and back.

Benefits of floor or group workouts
Several Bengalureans now prefer floor exercises, where one works out with a group of people, in gyms/other spaces, where there are no traditional machines, such as the treadmill or elliptical. This means that workouts are designed using your body weight and with minimal equipment, such as dumbbells, kettle bells, barbells and gym balls. Shwetambari says that using machines (those in traditional gyms) are absolutely fine, but the question is, do we need them? “Can you do a cardio activity without depending on a machine? Yes, you can. Can you get enough cardio with burpees or high-knees instead of a treadmill? Yes. The focus on floor workouts is on body weight and a lot of core fitness activities. Another important aspect is that it breaks monotony, since every day you are going for a different kind of group class — each day is different. When you do the same workout over and over again, your body hits stagnation, so you have to mix your workouts to challenge your body and target different muscles. Also, when you work out with a group, it becomes your family and your source of motivation. You’re constantly pushing yourself because you want to prove that you are better than the others,” she says.