Giving Exercise A New Spin

The roughly 30x15 room has about a dozen fitness freaks. One can spot the seasoned folks, given their familiarity with the exercise gear.

As a fresher to the workout, I feel all eyes are riveted on me as I mount the Italian cycle and check out its gear system. After a few anxious moments, I get a hang of the new-age workout.

During the first few minutes, we pedal through the warm-up. In the background, a faint music, some kind of a contemporary instrumental, grows louder. The curtains on the windows are drawn and a soft light flickers from the cyclorama above.

As the beats get louder, so does my pedalling with the cyclorama filling up the room with vibrant colours.

The feeling is akin to cycling uphill. A few minutes later the sound and light undergoes a rhythmic change, as if I am cycling downhill.

In the last phase, amid a different music (again difficult to decipher) I feel I am cycling on a flat surface. A serene feeling, as if I were pedalling through pastures and meadows, engulfs me. The mind traverses to a higher plane, completely independent of the physical being.

All through the workout, Sarah E. Killough-Dhar, owner of the Delhi-based fitness centre Tailspin, moves around the room keeping track of her