S R Gym Adajan
3rd floor, above Way Wait Restaurant, near Deepa Complex, Krishna Nagar Society, Kalpana Society Part-2, Choksi Wadi,Adajan, Surat, Gujarat 395009
- Mon–Sat
- 06:00 am – 10:00 pm
- Sunday
- Closed
- Google rating
- 4.6 from 28 reviews
Yoga and gym training, in the same hour
The short answer
At S R Gym you do not choose between yoga and the gym, because every session here opens with yoga. Brijesh Joshi completed a foundation course in yoga science at Surat's district yoga wellness centre, and he teaches the twelve positions of Surya Namaskar to every new member in their first fortnight as part of an ordinary membership. There is no separate yoga class to book and no extra fee. Membership starts at ₹1,700 for one month, at Adajan and Katargam, and the Katargam floor opens at five in the morning.
Written by Brijesh Joshi
Founder of S R Gym, Surat, coaching since 1999. President of the Strength Bodybuilding Association South Gujarat and a registered IBBFF judge. See credentials.
- Published
- Last reviewed
- Reviewed
- Reading time
- 7 min read
People in Surat searching for one place that does both usually end up with a list of yoga studios or a list of gyms and no answer to the question they actually asked. This page is that answer, including the part where I tell you what we do not offer.
How the two fit together here
There is no separate yoga class at S R Gym, no timetable to check and no second fee. I want to say that first, because it is the thing most people are expecting when they search and it would be easy to let the expectation stand.
What happens instead is that every session opens with yoga. A member arrives, and before touching a weight, does the twelve positions of Surya Namaskar and a short mobility sequence. Four to six rounds, three or four minutes. Then the strength work begins. That has been the rule here since 1999 and it applies to everyone, from a nineteen-year-old wanting to put on size to a member in their sixties.
The reason is straightforward. A good share of the people who walk in here have spent nine or ten hours sitting. Hips folded, upper back rounded, shoulders that have not been overhead all day. Loading a body in that state can leave the lower back quietly taking work that was never meant for it. A few minutes of moving every joint through its range first changes the body that arrives at the first set.
What is actually included
- The twelve positions, taught. Learned properly in your first fortnight rather than copied from a video, with the breath pattern and the common errors corrected while you do them.
- Correction on the floor, ongoing. The positions people get wrong are predictable, and they stay wrong for years if nobody says anything.
- A mobility sequence suited to you. Somebody with a stiff upper back and somebody with tight hips get different additions to the same base.
- Modifications where they are needed. Bent knees in the forward fold, a lowered knee in the plank, a reduced range in the cobra. The position you can do today is the correct position.
- Then the actual training. Strength work programmed for what you came for, which is the other fifty minutes.
What an ordinary S R Gym membership includes where the yoga is concerned, set against the things this gym does not offer.
| What people ask about | Included in an ordinary membership | Not offered here |
|---|---|---|
| The yoga itself | The twelve positions of Surya Namaskar and a short mobility sequence at the start of every session, four to six rounds before the first set. | No separate yoga class, and nothing to book. |
| How it is taught | Taught to each new member during the first fortnight by Brijesh Joshi, who completed a foundation course in yoga science in 2014, then corrected on the floor for as long as you train here. | No group batch, and no instructor at the front of a room. |
| What it costs | Part of the membership, which starts at ₹1,700 for one month. The full fee page. | No cheaper rate for skipping the yoga, because it is not priced separately and cannot be dropped from a session. |
| When you can do it | Whenever you come in to train. Katargam opens at 5am and Adajan at 6am, both until 10pm, Monday to Saturday. | No fixed class hour, and nothing on Sunday, when both branches are closed. |
| What is sold alongside it | Coaching and the use of the floor. Personal training, where the whole session is programmed and supervised, is the one thing costed separately. | No supplements of any kind, and no coaching on anabolic steroid use. |
Who teaches it
Brijesh Joshi has coached in Surat since 1999 and dates his own fitness journey to 1991. In 2014 he completed the Foundation Course in Yoga Science for Wellness at Surat's district yoga wellness centre, which runs under the aegis of the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, an autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH — a one-month foundation course, which is where the yoga in these sessions comes from. Alongside it sit personal training certifications from GFFI and others, a special population training certificate for working with people who have additional medical considerations, and registration as a judge with the Indian Body Building and Fitness Federation. He is President of the Strength Bodybuilding Association South Gujarat.
The certificates are photographed and shown on the credentials page.
The relevant point for this page is narrower than the list. It is that the person teaching you the sequence is qualified in both things rather than a lifter working from a video he watched once, which is what I have often found sitting behind a gym that advertises yoga.
Which comes first, and why it matters
This is the question people actually want answered, and it has a clear answer.
Moving sequences before lifting. Surya Namaskar at a moderate pace is a warm-up. It raises body temperature and moves the joints, which is what you want in the ten minutes before a squat.
Long held stretches after lifting, or on a rest day. Holding a deep stretch for a minute or more immediately before heavy lifting can leave you feeling less stable under the bar. Afterwards, it is useful and pleasant.
A longer practice on one rest day. Twenty to thirty minutes once a week does more for your range of motion, as far as I have seen on this floor, than adding rounds to the warm-up ever will.
Keep lifting through a full range. Training through a complete range is itself mobility work. A deep squat done properly is both.
The longer version of this, with the twelve positions drawn out in order and the research set out honestly, is on the Surya Namaskar page.
Brijesh on yoga and the gym
Two recordings from his own channel: the short one on why these are not alternatives, and a complete twenty-five minute session you can follow at home before you ever visit.
Yoga or gym: the importance of both
Seven minutes, in Hindi, on why yoga and gym training belong together.
Twenty-five minutes of yoga
A full follow-along session recorded for World Yoga Day in 2020.
Who this suits, and who it does not
Some people get a great deal out of this arrangement, in my experience of running it since 1999, and some people are genuinely better served somewhere else. I would rather set out both halves than only the flattering one.
This is for you if
- You sit for nine or ten hours a day and arrive stiff, which describes a good share of the people I coach and the group I have seen the mobility work change the most. Training around a working day covers the scheduling side of it.
- You are past forty and want to hold on to your range and your balance while you build strength. The clearest flexibility and balance evidence for yoga was gathered in older adults, so it holds more surely at seventy than at forty-five, and I would rather say so than let you assume otherwise. More on training after forty.
- You have had a long-standing ache in the back or the neck looked at by a doctor where the symptoms warranted it, and you now want mobility work that somebody watches you do. The back page sets out how that is trained.
- You are a woman who wants the reasoning explained as you go, in a place where somebody is on the floor with you while you train. What training here is like.
- You would rather have the yoga and the lifting handled by one person in the same hour than pay two places and hope the two halves agree with each other.
Look elsewhere if
- What you want is a timetabled group yoga class at a fixed hour, with a place booked and an instructor at the front of the room. That is a yoga studio, and there is no such class here.
- You want to go further into the practice itself, into pranayama and longer held asana, which a dedicated studio will teach you far better than a warm-up sequence ever can.
- Your back pain travels down a leg, or arrives with numbness or weakness. A doctor comes before any gym floor, mine included.
- You already know the twelve positions, you warm yourself up without being told, and what you actually need is equipment and a quiet hour. An ordinary membership at whichever gym is nearest your home will serve you for that.
- Sunday is the only day you could come, because both branches are closed on Sunday and that is not going to change.
What the evidence does and does not support
I would rather you arrive with accurate expectations than impressive ones, so here is the honest position.
For long-standing, non-specific back pain, reviews comparing yoga against other back-focused exercise find little or no difference between them, and clinical guidelines including the American College of Physicians list yoga among the first non-drug options to consider. That is a real endorsement, and it is an endorsement of yoga as one reasonable option among several rather than as a superior treatment. Against doing no exercise at all, the measured improvements were smaller than the change a patient would notice as clearly different.
For flexibility, the clearest evidence is in older adults and shows improvement against not exercising, with a much smaller advantage over other active exercise. And starting yoga carries a small increase in temporary flare-ups of existing back pain, roughly four people in a hundred against one, which is no worse than other exercise but is not nothing.
None of that says yoga cures anything, and I will not say it either. What it supports is offering both, teaching the sequence properly, and letting you keep doing the thing you will actually keep doing. The full set of sources is listed here.
Where, when and what it costs
Membership starts at ₹1,700 for one month, with yoga included rather than charged separately. Personal training, where the whole session is programmed and supervised, starts at ₹7,000 for one month. The full fee page.
Adajan, Surat, Gujarat 395009
S R Gym Katargam
Vihar Society-2, Wadinath Chowk, Plot 169, Ved Road, near Singanpor Char Rasta, Ishwar Nagar Society,Katargam, Surat, Gujarat 395004
- Mon–Sat
- 05:00 am – 10:00 pm
- Sunday
- Closed
- Google rating
- 4.5 from 91 reviews
Yoga and gym: common questions
- Is there a gym in Surat with yoga classes?
- At S R Gym, yoga is part of every membership rather than a separate class you book. Every session opens with the twelve positions of Surya Namaskar, taught to each new member in their first fortnight by Brijesh Joshi, who completed the Foundation Course in Yoga Science for Wellness at Surat's district yoga wellness centre in 2014. If what you want is a timetabled group yoga class with a fixed hour, that is a yoga studio rather than this. If what you want is to train with weights at a place where the mobility work is taken seriously and taught, this is exactly that.
- Can you do yoga and gym together?
- Yes, and they suit each other well when each is put in the right place. A moving sequence such as Surya Namaskar belongs before the weights, where it raises body temperature and takes the joints through their range while nothing is loaded. Long held stretches belong after the session or on a rest day, because holding a deep stretch immediately before heavy lifting can leave you feeling less stable. Done that way, the strength work builds capacity through a range and the yoga keeps that range available.
- Do I pay extra for the yoga at S R Gym?
- No. It is part of an ordinary membership, which starts at ₹1,700 for one month. Nobody is sold a yoga add-on here, because it is not an add-on. It is how a session starts.
- Is yoga enough on its own, without weights?
- For general movement, flexibility and daily wellbeing it is a good practice, and somebody starting from nothing will feel real change from it. For building meaningful strength or muscle it is not a substitute for progressive resistance training. That is precisely why both happen in the same hour here rather than being treated as competing choices.
- I have back pain. Should I do yoga or strength training?
- The research suggests you can reasonably do either, and that neither is clearly better. Reviews comparing yoga against other back-focused exercise for long-standing, non-specific back pain find little or no difference between them, and clinical guidelines list yoga among the first non-drug options to try. The practical answer we give is to do both, since the mobility work restores range that sitting has taken and the strengthening builds tolerance. If your pain travels down a leg, or comes with numbness or weakness, see a doctor before starting anything.
- What time can I come?
- Katargam opens at 5am and Adajan at 6am, both until 10pm, Monday to Saturday. Both are closed on Sunday. The early Katargam opening exists for people who need to train before a working day starts. Call +91 98790 69960 to arrange a first visit.
This page is general information from a coach who completed a yoga foundation course rather than from a yoga teacher, and it is not medical advice. If you have back pain that travels down a leg, numbness, weakness, or any change in bladder or bowel control, see a doctor rather than beginning an exercise routine.
Come and do one session
Twenty minutes at the side of the floor will tell you more than this page can. Call +91 98790 69960, or message and say which branch suits you.
Work out your own numbers
Free, no sign-up, and the arithmetic is explained on each page.