Live body sculpture

Chennai's gymming bug keeps getting bigger.

In March 2006, Peak Performance Academy will open what it refers to as a "niche" gym, a fitness centre exclusively for sportspeople in Chennai. Promoted by Fitness One, it will have cricketer Lakshmipathy Balaji, Formula One racer Arman Ibrahim, and squash player Joshna Chinappa, as members.

But then, sports enthusiasts in Chennai make an interesting claim. They believe that the number of gyms in the city exceeds those in Mumbai and Delhi, cities with larger populations.

As is the case with many facets of Chennai life, the economic boom over the last few years has begun to impact gyms, and it's fast on it way to becoming big business. Fitness One's managing director, Vivek Anand, seconds that.

He says there are a large number of gyms that cater to the men's body building category. And with the growing importance of IT jobs in the city, a number of gyms are designed for the well-heeled.

At Rs 2-3 crore investment, it takes 3-5 years to break-even. At the top of the heap is Aiwo, a gym promoted by C Sivasankaran with a minimum membership fee of Rs 1 lakh a year. Still, Chennai's gym users could end up paying just a third of the money paid by Delhites for using similar facilities.

Ironically, while this seems to be the case for standalone gyms, the in-house gym facilities at software companies remain largely unutilised. A case of all brain and no brawn?