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Go for the buzz!

Bharat Savur

Imagine ... an open-air gym, moist grass sponging under your feet, balmy breezes fondly ruffling your hair, sun smiling warmly on your shoulders as you workout like Grasshopper Green. It's a concept fast catching on in the US. Parks and universities are laying out `exercise trails' like welcoming red carpets, offering `parcourse training' -- outdoor circuit training -- for those who want to `go for the buzz'.

Set along a running track, the trail has exercise-stations spaced every few metres -- parallel bars, weights, etc. You run from station to station, pausing at each to perform bracing chin-ups, loosening thigh-extensions. Beginners are expected to maintai n a steady, intense level of pace and effort that raises and keeps their pulse purring at 120-130 beats per minute (bpm). As they get fitter, they aim for 140-150; and the big-leaguers go for the buzz -- a sustained 160-165 bpm.

The not-so-good news: it's not yet formally available in India. But, hold it! With a bit of imagination and enthusiasm, you can create your own fun-in-the-sun backyard or an indoor exercise-trail. Suggests bodybuilder-writer James Wright, ``Group all the weight-training equipment -- barbells, dumbbells -- at one end of the field or gym, then simply run to the other end and back between lifting exercises''.

My wife is so captivated by the concept that even as I write this piece, she and neighbour Archie are in a huddle -- planning a trail from our little home-gym, across the long corridor, past the elevators, to Archie's spacious hall. As Archie, mother of two hyperactive kids says rapturously, ``It also takes care of babysitting during my exercise-hour!''

Must admit, the idea appeals even to my conservative mind. I mean, look at the outlay -- a typical parcourse routine is a nine-athlon: after a brisk warm-up at the basketball net, get down to half squats, to mobile skipping, to bicep curls, to zigzag run ning, to abdominal crunches, to backward running, to bent rows, to long hopping, to back extensions, to sideward running, to leg curls, to knee high sprinting, to sidebends, to simulated ski strides, to leg lifts and to sprint home! Exhilarating!

Exhausting too, unless and until you develop the lugs of a grasshopper. Consider this simple comparison: Toral, who breezed through 20 minutes of spot-marching in class, confidently ran on the sands of Juhu only to find herself out of breath within five minutes. ``Why?'' she asked bewildered. The wind and sand factors apart, I explained, with spot-marching, you resist gravity -- i.e. only on a vertical plane. While with running, you resist gravity and atmospheric pressure -- vertical and horizontal. And here, in parcourse training, we are talking about complex combinations, a non-stop -- on-the-move leg-pumpers with `pauses' to perform more exercises -- breathtaking spree!

When overexerted, the body goes into the catabolic negative nitrogen balance, adrenal hormones flood the neuro-receptors and you regress, not progress. So, as in any exercise regime, so too in parcourse training, I suggest the golfer's leisurely walk-don 't-run pace for beginners, the marathoner's steady endurance march for intermediates, and the sprinter's explosive leap-and-run as you get seasoned.

Some of my seasoned students who want to protect their skin from sunlight-aggravated pigmentation may not agree with me, but I find the outdoor circuit-training concept charming -- fitness as a delightful playground-cum-playschool for grown-ups who want to grow better. I had this unusual experience with my student Anu. Having taught for 24 years, Anu found it tough to adjust to being instructed where she'd always been the instructor. Initially offhanded, unresponsive, despite herself however, she was dr awn into the fascination of physical training as a means to becoming physically educated.

When our suggested corrections of posture gave new ease to her movements, her sullenness gradually gave way to thoughtfulness. And she thawed to finally confess endearingly, ``I'm sorry. Not being in charge of a class is a new experience to me. It hurt m y ego. Now, I realise how much more I have to learn!'' After that, Anu dropped her adult teacher-mask and loads of stress with it to become her natural carefree child-self, hopping playfully between exercises. Her back-to-the-nursery liveliness, she feel s, will make her an even better teacher -- it's about carrying that unveiled piece of sunshine into class.

Fittingly, parcourse training is an offshoot of the East European technique for nurturing strength in youngsters. Circuit training provides variety for teenaged bodies that are not strong enough to stand the stress of one specialised workout-routine. So too with unexercised adult bodies.

Multiple exercises also incur fewer muscle injuries since you do not go for the specific burn as much as concentrate on the buzz of varied activities. Plus, by constantly switching action-zones, you raise your level of reflexes, flexibility, co-ordinatio n and gain a superior symmetry because of the continual crossovers in the nervous system. Not to mention the D factor -- your body absorbs vitamin D, your mind dances in the laugh-lines of the sun. That's why, probably, Grasshopper Green is such a comica l chap!

The writer is the co-author of the book `Fitness for Life'.