John V Bhaskar
My story with The Quad began because of my friend, Sundar who is an Assistant Coach at The Quad. I’ve always been into some form of fitness, and had been practicing Kalari payattu for a while. That said, I’m also that guy who lived a very hedonistic lifestyle. So over a few years, I reached a point where my body started complaining about my lifestyle. I had an old injury that was bothering me, which I used as an excuse to stop my Kalari, and I was putting on weight, feeling lethargic and overall, took much longer to recover from a weekend of excess.
When I first came into The Quad office for an assessment, Sundar ensured that I met with Magesh (whom I call “magic hands” – for all the right reasons!) and he set me up with some basic rehabilitation, followed by some basic instructions to the coaches and for me to ensure that I don’t aggravate my injury.
Therein started my journey with The Quad and today I’m one of their #1 fanboys!
The beauty of The Quad’s BootCamp doesn’t just lie in how the passion for fitness shines through every single person I interact with in there. It lies in how they are able to transfer that passion to every single person who walks through their doors – and embrace any newbies that become part of this family.
The key to the huge success of the Quad, lies fair and square on the coaches.
Straightforward, no-nonsense and with a deep abiding passion towards fitness, as a life-goal; you can see that they are in it for much more than just monetary reasons. The satisfaction in their voice, when a fix has been given and implemented, is very evident, and make you want to do that much more – just to hear that genuine (read, within quotes and in bold) encouragement.
Even a slacker (or ex-slacker, as I’d like to call myself now) like me is caught out quite regularly, especially by head honcho Raj, when he quietly sneaks up behind me and takes the weight that I’ve setup and thanks me for getting it for someone else and walks off, thus leaving me to: you guessed it – do the right thing and be a man!
This attention to individuals, adjusting to their quirks and more importantly, having a deep understanding of every single aspect of specific body types and making small adjustments for specific to individuals – even while keeping to a group training format – pretty much sums up their core value!
Added to this, is the incredible camaraderie I share with my fellow trainees (read enthu-cutlets) and coaches. You train together, curse together, die and then are reborn together – only to do it all again. Truly, misery does love company. The critical mass of people who are as committed to you as they are to fitness is what makes the difference. Especially that early in the morning.
And together, it all adds up in wonderful ways! While my lifestyle hasn’t changed too much (I do have a lovely daughter who put brakes on my lifestyle in a lot of ways), there has definitely been a major course correction that makes health and fitness, a core part of my everyday life.
Or as The Quad coaches would say – Viva la core!
Finally, I’ve been a major evangelist and have gotten my wife, my friends, my friends friends (I think barring my mother-in-law, pretty much everyone I know is in it) and which their journey has been stellar (my wife is in the advanced class and friend of mine was the latest Quad Ninja) – I take full credit, as I got them into it in the first place. And will continue to do so!
Okay. Will stop now. Need to stretch. My quads are burning!
