Overstretched

It may look like just another day in the gym with trainers getting their equipment in place, double-checking the number of floor mats and doing a sound check for the music. It’s when the six-month-olds start trooping in that your jaw drops, reports Lina Choudhury Mahajan.

It may look like just another day in the gym with trainers getting their equipment in place, double-checking the number of floor mats and doing a sound check for the music. It’s when the six-month-olds start trooping in that your jaw drops.

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Even if Banoo Jasubhoy, founder of the ‘Diaper Gym’ section of the Fit Tot gym in Walkeshwar, rushes to clarify: “We don’t have a regimented exercise programme for the kids. It’s basically clapping and moving to music. The idea is for kids to have a good time and be active,” she says.

Don’t make the mistake of passing this off as a South Mumbai fad – you’ll find such gyms for children across the city— and beyond. Jasmine Suria, director of the Yoodley Doodley Kids Gym in Navi Mumbai’s Koparkhairane, doesn’t believe it’s too early to start children off at six months, the age at which tots can be enrolled in her gym. A trained fitness expert, she says her gym has “healthy, fun-based activities for kids”.

Meanwhile, batches of youngsters work out a couple of times a week at Parulekar’s, a gym chain with branches at Goregaon, Mira Road, Thane and Kandivili. “We have them do yoga, free-hand exercises, skipping and stretching,” says Prashant Poyrekar, trainer and manager of the gym, adding that all the children admitted to their Fit Kids fitness programme are 10 years or above.

Getting into the act

The primary reason for this start ’em early trend, say gym owners, is a double whammy — children have few open spaces to play in and precious little time for unscheduled free play. “Kids today have no place to run, jump or climb,” points out Jasubhoy.

Suria, who trained abroad, remarks, “There, kids have access to swimming pools, playgrounds and lots of open spaces. Not here in Mumbai.”

With public gardens and parks, for the most part, taken over by walkers, fitness enthusiasts, couples looking for a quiet corner, and the ubiquitous hawkers, children are being squeezed out from the very few open spaces in the city. As Jeslin Shah, a Powai resident and father of a toddler, asks, “Where do kids play? Public parks and roads are too dangerous. And most building compounds have no space since they are largely occupied by parked cars.”

Suria says she also has parents bring their kids to her gym for a variety of other reasons – hyperactivity, tantrum-throwing, laziness and yes, obesity too. “It’s the kind of lifestyle we lead today; it is bound to affect kids too,” she says. Her gym has imported equipment that has children crawling, playing in a pool, squeezing through play tunnels and being put through structured play activities.

Jasubhoy’s Diaper Gym has different activities chalked out for different age groups. Children aged one-and-a-half to three use specialised equipment that helps develop balance and coordination, while those three and older have a structured play group, where they warm up with songs and have physical play programmes.

GET SPORTY

True, the youngsters are not exactly burning rubber on the treadmill, but is it cause for concern that they are being sent to a gym for structured activity? Hemal Shah, fitness instructor and personal trainer, believes it could be. “Going to a gym can become stressful for a child. It’s too much pressure for a kid to work out at a gym for an hour,” he says. “Group activity and free play is better,” he adds.

However, Shah points out that using the gym to pump up fitness if the child has taken up another sport can be beneficial. “There are kids who play football, hockey or squash, who swim or take up martial arts and such children can increase their stamina with a programme in a gym. It is a good add-on activity,” he says.

That is precisely the kind of training that fitness diva Leena Mogre imparts at the Leena Mogre Gym at Bandra. The gym’s roster is peppered with names like Tanvi Shah, Yash Gandhi, Aditi Dhumatkar, Sahil Shelar, Pratik Manjrekar, Sachika Balwani and Shahid Sheikh — young champions from tennis, cricket, swimming, badminton, table tennis, squash and athletics.

Mogre’s junior clients range from 14 to 19 years old. One of them is tennis player Tanvi Shah, who believes her regimen at the gym has helped; it “has contributed to my success as a tennis player,” she says.

“The aim is to be ‘sports fit’. Each game has different fitness requirements and the player has to be fit by way of strength, stamina, agility and alertness. Along with being physically fit, it is also imperative to reduce stress levels for the child’s overall well being,” says Mogre, who has specially trained instructors to guide the players through their workouts.

Agrees Suria, “It’s important that their minds grow as well, so, as part of our training, we have readings, story-telling sessions and mental play activity like jigsaws, puzzles and block exercises.”

Suria recalls how it helped a particularly hyperactive child: “Playing in a group and relating to other children helped make him less hyper and conquered the others’ fears.”

The price for this growth? Parents shell out anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 a month — not exactly small change — for their kids to sweat it out in a gym. At Parulekar’s, where the fees range between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 for three months, the manager explains that it is because each child receives personal attention. “We don’t have too many kids in one class; just six or seven,” says Poyrekar.

Clearly, Mumbai’s parents ready to pay the price for their children’s fitness.