Spinning the fitness wheel

One can easily confuse the basement studio of Mumbai's Gold's Gym for a discotheque. Complete with laser lights, a DJ console, customised re-mixed music.

The difference is that instead of a dance floor, the mirrored room is chocabloc with stationary cycles. Standing in the middle of the room, spin master Baqar Nasser urges his students in the tiny studio to cycle faster and go with the rhythm.

He's teaching them to spin or spin cycle, an indoor group cycling workout that he has introduced in India.

Nasser, a national cycling champion, trained in the US to become a master trainer and returned to set up spinning studios in the capital, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh.

His company, Topspin has tied up with Proline, the sports accessories company as well as gyms across cities like Ozone in Delhi and Chandigarh and Gold's Gym in Mumbai.

"It's a new kind of workout and I concentrate on heart rate training so that people can optimise their workout for maximum benefit," says the 23-year-old trainer.

An hour-long session of spinning can burn an average of 800 calories compared to 350 calories in an hour of aerobics.

That's why item girl Ishaa Koppikar, cricketers Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar, real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani and theatre personality Dolly Thakore are favouring it.

"It helps me work on the lower body muscles and burn more than any other exercise," says Koppikar, who tried out spinning two weeks back.

The initial two days were painful, but now she's hooked onto it. "The music and lights encourage you to enjoy the workout," she says.

So, what's spinning all about? Essentially, you have to cycle on stationary bikes set to certain positions and resistances, at varying speeds to maintain a certain level of heart rate.

You go through a warm up, fast-paced cycling, regimes that replicate up and down hill situations and the main workout lasts 40 minutes ending with cool offs and stretches.

It's a group activity accompanied by pulsating music. Though it's fairly rigorous and athletic, spinning, says Nasser, can be done by anyone.

"It doesn't matter how unfit or old you are. There's a system for different levels of fitness and age groups."

Dolly Thakore has been spinning for three years now and appreciates the signs of good health. "I'm more energetic and people have been commenting on how young and trim I look. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I haven't lost fat around the one place I wanted to "" my midriff," she laughs.

Nasser has big plans to expand to other centres and cities. But at Rs 30,000 annual membership in Delhi and Rs 10,000 in Mumbai spinning may be for everyone, the price tag may not be.