“Huff-puff, huff-puff, huff-puff,” the sound was almost deafening. No, I wasn’t standing in the middle of a railway track with a death wish and a steam train bearing down on me. I was merely trying to climb up a hill, namely Tiger Hill in Ooty.

What was I doing climbing hills when I could have been comfortably watching the morning news on TV with my feet up, and having a leisurely breakfast with all the trimmings? It was all to do with fitness, a commodity I was clearly and sorely in need of.

VW Motorsport had organised a Driver Fitness Camp in Ooty immediately after the 3rd Round of the VW Polo Cup in Coimbatore. So everybody, save a few drivers, moved lock-stock-and-barrel to Ooty and the Savoy Hotel – the venue of the two-day camp – while some were lucky enough to stay at the picturesque and cosy Sullivan Court. So much for luxury because the drivers (and some members of the media) had no idea what was going to hit them at the camp.

It started with an evaluation by a team of fitness experts to gauge the current levels of fitness. The tests included the maximum number of push-ups one could do non-stop in one minute, followed by a run to exhaustion and checking the blood pressure immediately afterwards. Sirocco-R Cup driver, Aditya Patel, and the two driver coaches, Rayo and Ronny, also took part. Surprisingly, and this was an eye opener for some of the drivers as well, the coaches performed better than some of their young charges. Evaluation done, it was on to the first fitness session of the day – Power Yoga. Over 20 poses were performed in quick succession under the watchful eyes of the entire fitness team. At the end of the session, a few were rolling around, grimacing and slightly better understanding of the benefits of power yoga.

The second fitness session of the day was the Pilates class. The routines were centered around what are ideal exercises for racing drivers. What seemed to be an easy enough fitness routine became quite tough once the drivers found that achieving and maintaining the correct form through each exercise was a difficult task. The first day’s fitness sessions ended with a football match and everybody joined in, sore muscles from the earlier sessions notwithstanding, with penalties deciding the winning group.

It was an early morning wake-up call for the drivers the next morning, as it was time to head for a trek. The hill (hills, it turned out later) were within the Tiger Hill Reservoir, a little outside central Ooty. The group walked in full of energy and enthusiasm, which did not lessen in any way despite the official guide losing his way initially. Once that was sorted out, it was plain sailing all through, and very refreshing to be making one’s way between the trees and climbing up narrow paths. Some bits were treacherous and others challenging, but the sheer scenic beauty of the place overrode all the senses – including that of pain, when two members of the group, at different times, suddenly found themselves on their back after what first seemed to be a straight path through the jungle. City legs need a bit of practice and time to get used to trekking, and a modicum of fitness helps too as I found out. Despite all the huffing and puffing, as well as stopping to get my breath back and delaying the whole trek in the process, I was rather elated at having completed the full trek, my first after about 20 years. Treks are a fun way of getting fit and staying that way.

Back at the Savoy, everybody tucked into a hearty breakfast before heading off to get ready for the remaining two fitness sessions. The first, on weight training, was more of a talk with demos rather than a practical session that showed weight training could help drivers – emphasising the fact that after 18 laps of hard racing, a fitter driver always has a better chance of winning the race. A lot of questions were asked in this regard, showing the high level of interest amongst the drivers in improving themselves.

Kickboxing is known to be very beneficial to racing car drivers, Michael Schumacher probably being one of the most famous proponents of this form of exercise. So the last fitness session of the camp was the kickboxing class, and all the drivers went through the motions of kicking and throwing and blocking punches on the gardens of the Savoy.

The purpose of the VW fitness camp was not to dramatically increase the fitness of the drivers, indeed no two-day camp can ever achieve that. What it actually did was to show the drivers where they all stand in terms of their personal fitness levels and the various ways they could improve on it, thus helping them to become better drivers on the track. It certainly showed me I have a long way to go if I want to walk up a hill the next time sans the huffing and puffing.