<p>A lot of times it is our personal experiences that help us solve an existing problem and get to the next step. <br /><br /></p>.<p>It was the same case with Amaresh Ojha, a fitness enthusiast and the founder of the Bengaluru-based startup – ‘Gympik’, that was launched in 2013. <br /><br />‘Gympik’ is an online fitness discovery platform that helps people make the right fitness choice from options like fitness centres, gyms, yoga entres and more. Currently available in 20 cities across India, it provides people with the best personal trainers and centres, post a counselling, to understand the requirements and needs of an individual. <br /><br />“When I joined the gym for the first time, I realised that when it comes to selecting a particular fitness centre — be it a gym, a yoga class or aerobics — there is a lot of confusion in our mind. Initially, I struggled to find a suitable place that would give me information online that is as crisp as walking into the fitness centre itself. That was when the idea came to my mind and our research into the market across the city started,” explains Amaresh.<br /><br />With the younger generation becoming a lot more health-conscious, there are many people who look towards platforms like these for easy accessibility of information. Though Amaresh admits there are other similar platforms, what makes ‘Gympik’ different is how they aggregate trainers along with the centres. <br /><br />“The idea behind this venture was to provide an expert platform and not a marketplace. We help people identify and understand what they want and which place is right for them. We don’t flood our users with options; we help them find the perfect choice,” he adds. <br /><br />With around 50 fitness options and 6000 professionals, there is a rigorous selection process that is followed for the trainers. A thorough check of their certification, their experience and motivational abilities takes place. Apart from these, there is also a police verification before anyone is selected.<br /><br />Though people mostly look forward to gym and yoga centres, Amaresh says that the trend is slowly moving towards functional trainers (non-equipment based workouts). Martial arts, aqua aerobics and zumba are among the activities that have seen an increase in demand lately.<br /><br />“Our users are very happy with our services and I would say we are fairly successful in what we wanted to achieve. The kind of responses we are getting and the leads for personal trainers are great. On a daily basis, we have about 50 to 60 users who ask for personal trainers,” he says.<br /><br />“We have divided our target group into two. First, it is the people who are fitness enthusiasts and who have knowledge about different kinds of fitness activities. And the second is those people who are novices. We target the working population and people between the age group of 20 to 60 years,” says Amaresh.<br /><br />He believes that everyone should have access to the right kind of fitness. Since fitness has been his passion for a long time, curating a space along this line was not a difficult task.<br /><br />As for his future plans, he and his partner Karan Malik plan to go pan India. “We will be launching different verticals. We want to reach out to every individual of this country. We are slowly moving towards corporate fitness and plan on helping them with different fitness activities,” he says.</p>
<p>A lot of times it is our personal experiences that help us solve an existing problem and get to the next step. <br /><br /></p>.<p>It was the same case with Amaresh Ojha, a fitness enthusiast and the founder of the Bengaluru-based startup – ‘Gympik’, that was launched in 2013. <br /><br />‘Gympik’ is an online fitness discovery platform that helps people make the right fitness choice from options like fitness centres, gyms, yoga entres and more. Currently available in 20 cities across India, it provides people with the best personal trainers and centres, post a counselling, to understand the requirements and needs of an individual. <br /><br />“When I joined the gym for the first time, I realised that when it comes to selecting a particular fitness centre — be it a gym, a yoga class or aerobics — there is a lot of confusion in our mind. Initially, I struggled to find a suitable place that would give me information online that is as crisp as walking into the fitness centre itself. That was when the idea came to my mind and our research into the market across the city started,” explains Amaresh.<br /><br />With the younger generation becoming a lot more health-conscious, there are many people who look towards platforms like these for easy accessibility of information. Though Amaresh admits there are other similar platforms, what makes ‘Gympik’ different is how they aggregate trainers along with the centres. <br /><br />“The idea behind this venture was to provide an expert platform and not a marketplace. We help people identify and understand what they want and which place is right for them. We don’t flood our users with options; we help them find the perfect choice,” he adds. <br /><br />With around 50 fitness options and 6000 professionals, there is a rigorous selection process that is followed for the trainers. A thorough check of their certification, their experience and motivational abilities takes place. Apart from these, there is also a police verification before anyone is selected.<br /><br />Though people mostly look forward to gym and yoga centres, Amaresh says that the trend is slowly moving towards functional trainers (non-equipment based workouts). Martial arts, aqua aerobics and zumba are among the activities that have seen an increase in demand lately.<br /><br />“Our users are very happy with our services and I would say we are fairly successful in what we wanted to achieve. The kind of responses we are getting and the leads for personal trainers are great. On a daily basis, we have about 50 to 60 users who ask for personal trainers,” he says.<br /><br />“We have divided our target group into two. First, it is the people who are fitness enthusiasts and who have knowledge about different kinds of fitness activities. And the second is those people who are novices. We target the working population and people between the age group of 20 to 60 years,” says Amaresh.<br /><br />He believes that everyone should have access to the right kind of fitness. Since fitness has been his passion for a long time, curating a space along this line was not a difficult task.<br /><br />As for his future plans, he and his partner Karan Malik plan to go pan India. “We will be launching different verticals. We want to reach out to every individual of this country. We are slowly moving towards corporate fitness and plan on helping them with different fitness activities,” he says.</p>
