Custom Fit

Fitness enthusiasts in India are done with staid gym workouts. Today, they opt for global fitness trends, a mix of high- and low intensity fitness forms, to make working out more fun.

- Pooja Biraia Jaiswal

On a bright weekday morning inside a leafy neighbourhood in suburban Lucknow, a man in a bright yellow tee, cobalt shorts and striking red sports shoes goes down on all fours and demonstrates animal movements to a bunch of young enthusiasts. Morning walkers stop by to watch Arun Mishra, 38, crawl like an alligator, with his torso suspended a foot above the ground balanced only by his palms and the tip of his feet, and rotate. Barely a few minutes into the 'alligator crawl', he squat-walks like a duck for another seven minutes and lunges with the intensity and force of a gorilla, before finally crashing to the ground and exclaiming, “Time to work out like a beast”. Every morning, the telecom professional and marathoner replicates the movements of at least seven animals, including that of a frog and a scorpion, as part of the Animal Flow Workout. “I attended the first introduction-cum-training programme on Animal Flow, in Delhi, in January. And, I was so struck by it that I had to imbibe it in my daily regimen,” he says.