HIGH ON LIFE: Dancing to Bollywood songs is the zingy way to reduce inches

For a dank, sweaty place stacked randomly with treadmills, cross trainers and weights, the gym of the early 1990s was an unlikely hotspot for the emerging breed of the health-conscious yuppie. But with the craze showing scant signs of dying out, the health centres were forced into a facelift-sauna, massage and steam rooms. Even jacuzzis were crammed in to stretch the salubrious experience. It was an expansion that never stalled. In a transition that has edged out its predecessor much like an extinct species, today's gym is embellished with a flurry of accoutrements designed to lure the laziest of gym rats. So after the workout, one can have a shampoo, blow dry or a hair cut, sip a decaf with wholegrain muffins in the café, chill out in the spa, get an oxygen hit, even buy a few paintings while leaving. Gym rat? More like a pampered poodle.

Take Moksh in south Mumbai. A beauty salon, café, an exercise studio and a spa all rolled into one in 11,000 sq ft of space, it shies away from being the quintessential gym. It also offers pre-film screenings and displays affordable art by famous Indian painters for its members, besides ante-natal and post-natal exercise classes, salsa, Art of Living, yoga and jazz ballet. For those who want an energy boost, there is an oxygen bar.

The new recreation-cum-fitness urge is making gym owners across the metros sit up and herald changes. In cities where distances limit recreation, it is becoming a fad among entrepreneurs to throw in that extra something to attract the fitness-conscious and the uninitiated. Says Swati Bhargava, sales and marketing team, Jay Wellness Centre (JWC) in Kailash Colony, Delhi: "These are no longer just gyms. They are lifestyle centres that address your needs round the clock, operating on flexi-time." Which means you can walk in for a workout, a breakfast, even a visit to the doctor any time of the day.

DE-STRESS ZONE: Relaxing at Moksh in Mumbai can mean time spent at the oxygen bar as much as at yoga, salsa or jazz ballet classes

It's clearly an idea whose time has come. Darshana Gupta, 45, gets restless if she can't squeeze in her workout every three days, but till only eight months ago, the housewife, unlike most fitness buffs, had not set foot inside a gym. Today, she's dancing the salsa and shimmying to the latest Bollywood tracks in her Filmy Fit class in order to reduce. She is one of the 3,000 members at Exert, Mumbai, which houses a spa, a salon and a café, Injest, under the same roof.

Says Anuradha Yusuf, proprietor of Exert: "There is a lot of spillover. Members like to indulge themselves after a workout with a spa package. They also spend time buying sports accessories from the pro shop as much as they enjoy sipping coffee in the café." Gupta, who spends 10-15 hours a week at Exert, says, "I come to the gym to exercise to the Hindi film songs and practise my salsa moves." She chose from a variety of speciality classes like kickboxing, tae bo, taekwando, kung fu, spinning and power punch on offer in her gym.

In Delhi, 26-year-old businessman Ravish Kapoor spends a good part of his mornings at the JWC, "a gym five minutes from my workplace". So practically every weekday, Kapoor carries his work clothes and shaving kit to the gym for dressing up after the workout. "I have moved my bathroom in here," he jests. The centre is conveniently equipped with a salon, sauna, jacuzzi, health café, even an underwater gym. The routine also gives him time to catch up with his "buddies" who are also members.

HEALTH DRINK: Coffee after a workout is a cool way to unwind at Inch by Inch, Mumbai

To cater to surging desire to be fit more and more gyms and health centres are propping up. So, Inch by Inch-The Body Temple on Mumbai's Marine Drive has a low-cal café with several extra services thrown in, while Qi uses Dynamix, an exercise studio, to offer classes ranging from kickboxing to taekwando. A swimming pool on its multilevel gym for aqua aerobics is the latest lure offered by Zaf in Mumbai, and 02 in Chennai, which started with a gym and a dance floor last year, now has two exercise and dance studios, a health bar and a gallery for art shows.

The mushrooming of fitness centres has given rise to a new trend-gym hopping. For Mumbaikar Zarina Mittal, 31, who has changed three gyms in the past nine months, being seen at the latest fitness destination is also an ego massage. "The gym you go to is a style statement. So at Moksh, I am not just exercising but also gossiping, going on shopping sprees, partying at the in-house restaurant and going out with friends formed here."

Such luxury does not come cheap. The annual membership at Moksh varies from Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 depending on peak/non-peak hours, with free sessions at the oxygen bar and discounts thrown in. The rates are similar at the JWC, and membership includes yoga, aerobics, aqua aerobics classes and "recreational events". But as Kapoor says, it helps relieve stress and more important, it's fun. Which seems to be the latest credo fitness centres are living by.

-with Methil Renuka in Delhi and Arun Ram in Chennai