Kozhikode: Green Army leads city fitness trend

Kozhikode: Green Army, an informal collective of fitness savvy youngsters in the city which is imparting fitness workout in the cross-fit style, has become a new trend in fitness circles.  The reason is the novel approach of this group towards fitness workout sans any building, equipment, administrative framework and prescribed training fee.

 This is happening at a time when elite gymnasiums mushrooming across the city invest up to Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh as establishment cost. While such centres charge between Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 monthly fee, the Green Army is still clueless about its fee as its mentor Vipin Vishnudas does not care about the financial aspect.

 Vipin told DC that his prime dream was physical improvement of the team, not his financial gains.    “The fitness workout method I follow is one evolved through my own experiment though it has similarities with the popular elite High intensity workout”, said Vipin, a native of Kunduparamba here. An overweight youngster weighing 118 kilograms earlier, Vipin mastered his mind to transform his body, which brought him shame in many a public venue.

 “Wherever I went people teased me about my physique. So from this regular teasing started my experiments with various forms of workout”, Vipin said. “Subjecting myself to a strict diet and to intense cardio-vascular focused workout, gradually I managed to reduce my weight to 84 kilograms”, he said.  

Since the mid-1990s, scores of studies have shown the effectiveness of interval conditioning for fat loss. The traditional regimen burned twice as many calories as the interval regimen, but those who performed intervals lost more body fat. Squats, planks, different variations of push-ups, high knees, tuck jumps, sprinting, pull ups are all part of interval training.

 Vipin’s success gradually attracted many others to his style of fitness workout. And the team is now operating at the Sarovaram Bio Park everyday in the morning.

 “Burning maximum calories by increasing metabolism is my method with an ideal diet”, says Vipin.  A mix of Kalari, yoga and the Western model of fitness, the group’s aim is to popularize the high intensity fitness workout and to bring up a generation with healthy physique.