With an increasing number of fitness events and clubs popping up in the city, Hyderabadis are clearly embracing fitness as a part of their lifestyle. One of the popular centres that is creating a buzz is CrossFit Mend — a 1,400 sqft space in Jubilee Hills. Apart from the fact that popular fitness expert, Sandeep Gadde — touted to be Hyderabad’s only Level 3 certified CrossFit trainer — is the man behind this project, the CrossFit Mend offers equipment like SkiErg, rowers and medicine balls as well.
He has also worked with celebrities including Rana Daggubati, Tejaswi Madivada and Ram Charan Tej. We get chatting with him to know more about CrossFit Mend and his journey towards fitness. Excerpts:
For how long have you been practising CrossFit? What made you want to try it?
I never thought about getting myself into sports or any kind of fitness for a long time. Eventually, I gave into peer pressure and started to run. One day, I bumped into a group of people going through some CrossFit movements and it looked like something I would want to try. It had a bit of everything — running, jumping, climbing and lifting. That was six years ago, and my passion for CrossFit is still strong.
Tell us what makes CrossFit different from other fitness classes?
CrossFit borrows movements from a lot of sports and training methods. It’s your best bet if your goal is to improve yourself. It is also the best at activating both your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems, making sure both your endurance and strength grow.
Do you think people in Hyderabad are open to trying new fitness regimes?
Yes! People here are always looking to change things up and experiment, especially when it comes to fitness. Although it’s more or less the same with CrossFit, we have the added challenge of fending off the false notions people have about how ‘it isn’t something for everybody’.
Tell us about your stint at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The Olympics in Rio was my moment of catharsis. I was already coaching before this, but I decided to attend as an event volunteer since it’d mean close exposure to the best athletes on the planet. It was here when I realised that fitness is either your lifestyle or it simply isn’t. For the first time, I became attentive to diet, sleep pattern and even the time I spent sitting.
How important is it to follow a strict diet plan, when someone is practising CrossFit?
CrossFit is usually represented as a pyramid. The triangular peak is sport followed by increasingly larger segments of weightlifting, gymnastics and metabolic conditioning. The base is the nutrition segment. It is important to eat clean. However, this is only essential when you progress into the more advanced parts of it. For beginners, we don’t talk about the diet at all. We just focus on getting them to move better and build a sense of discipline.
Package starts at Rs.6,500 per month.