It is a muggy Sunday afternoon; the sort of day you want to spend curled up in bed with a nice book or a good movie, with the air-conditioning on full blast. Exercise is the last thing on your mind, certainly— the veritable Sunday lunch which almost always includes plenty of starch and grease is sitting heavy on your tummy and your Sunday siesta becomes sacrosanct.
Not everyone feels that way, however. The Montfort School stadium at Santhome, where The Quad’s third anniversary celebration was conducted, is buzzing with energy by 2.45 p.m. Intimidating-looking kettle bells line the floor, spandex-clad people are stretching their hamstrings, and tough-looking coaches carrying clipboards stride across the floor. It feels a bit like a school sports day except that Raj Ganpath, who founded The Quad along with Arvind Ashok, holds a microphone instead of a whistle.
“Yes, it is like a school sports day. But unlike that one, which a lot of us dreaded, this is going to be fun. It is a celebration of fitness and we wanted to celebrate it The Quad way. When you normally think of celebration — you mostly think food and alcohol. Here we wanted to bring together people who had fitness in common,” he says.
And going by the sheer number of people (nearly 200) in the stadium there seems to be plenty of them in the city. Perhaps it helps that The Quad ensures a democratisation of fitness, “We customise exercise based on the person. Our youngest member is 10 years, the oldest 62. We have someone who weighs 30 kilos and another who weighs 220. There are elite athletes who want to perform better, people who want to lose a few vanity pounds and look good, older people who are suffering from aches and pains who want to just get fit. Our mix is crazy — it’s a huge spectrum.”
The event begins. Participants are divided into eight groups. Like a sports day you can opt to participate in any one of four contests — except that the 100 and 200 meter sprint, relays and shot put flings are replaced with basic hops, squats, burpees and kettlebell swings.
“These movements are the foundations to fitness — the squat, pull, push and the hinge. You have to get the form of these movements right before progressing,” he says.
Contestants perform their movements in turn, cheered on by onlookers while the number of repetitions they perform are noted. Sweat streams down their faces, adrenalin kick into their systems, the positive energy is intense.
“Most people join to lose weight but after a bit they stop talking about weight loss. You start revelling in what you can do — like being able to do a perfect squat or swing a kettlebell. Weight is a symptom not a problem. What we try to do is solve the problem at the source — by making changes in your life.”
The contest progresses and the three teams with the most points qualify for the finals, while the ones who didn’t make it, cheer them on. Winners are declared, coaches are felicitated, and there is more laugher and good-natured ribbing. But the contest according to Raj, isn’t really the point of the exercise, “Everyone here who is constantly challenging themselves and trying to get better, is a winner. It isn’t fit people we are celebrating but fitness.”
