With yet another celeb death in the gym while exercising the focus is back on the importance of having an active medical help available at gyms. Actor Siddhaanth V Surryanshi recently died of heart attack while at a gym session, earlier comic artiste Raju Srivastava collapsed during a workout. We talk to a few city-based, gym trainers, owners and fitness enthusiasts to know their take.
Partner at Fusion Fitness Gym, Vikas Singh says, “All blame cannot be put on the gym or exercising.
There could be several reasons for this, including Covid after-effects, unmeasured steroid intake, stress levels, and more. See road accidents are frequent but that doesn’t mean we will stop walking on the road. It’s a similar situation here, you cannot blame gyms or workouts.” Talking about the efforts being made, he adds, “For example, our gym came up with an interactive programme with Prof Aditya Kapoor who guided us about CPR being a simple and essential life-saving skill, that can be easily learned and used in time of emergency. We will come up with more such sessions for our patrons.”
Educator Raj who has been a fitness freak for over 12 years, blames increasing peer pressure and keeping up with Insta trends to cope with the rat race. “Sadly, it’s more about looks than fitness. There’s a newly coined term we use in our gym ego-lifting, which is working out erratically just to prove it to others, compete and chase social media views. It’s time to slow down and give your body adequate rest. As many gym-goers use steroids, it’s essentially required to bring in medical assistance in gyms. Also, first aid should be in place.”
{{/usCountry}}Educator Raj who has been a fitness freak for over 12 years, blames increasing peer pressure and keeping up with Insta trends to cope with the rat race. “Sadly, it’s more about looks than fitness. There’s a newly coined term we use in our gym ego-lifting, which is working out erratically just to prove it to others, compete and chase social media views. It’s time to slow down and give your body adequate rest. As many gym-goers use steroids, it’s essentially required to bring in medical assistance in gyms. Also, first aid should be in place.”
{{/usCountry}}Medicos and trainers across the globe agree that a fit mind leads to a fit body.
Sashwat Kesarwani of Fitness Habit gym says such fatal incidents are alarming and adds what is being done at his centre. “We have trained our instructors in providing first aid and made it mandatory to record medical history and guide people to go slow and focus on body weight exercise.”
Warming up before hard-core gyms, opening up to friends and not taking fitness as a burden; instead, enjoy your sessions or else skip it for the day.
Combining gym with meditation or yoga can be a healthy option. All these factors are the key, agrees yoga guru Vineet Saxena of Dreamfitness Poweryoga who urges gyms to bring in a medical desk at their centres.