From Workouts To Wellness

By Janice M. Horowitz

When health clubs became a rage in the 1980s, everybody loved to sweat. Squadrons of would-be Schwarzeneggers and Fondas pumped iron, tightened tummies, aerobicized -- and often found attractive new friends. But after years of pulling in clients almost effortlessly, clubs are facing new challenges. For one, the proliferation of health spas, which have doubled in number, to 20,000, since 1980, has created fierce competition. And as members grow older, they are becoming pickier, more prone to injury and, often, just plain bored.

The result is a new buzz word for health clubs: wellness. Many are evolving into comprehensive health centers, as concerned with emotional and medical well-being as with thighs and love handles. Nowadays, says Craig Pepin-Donat of the New York Health and Racquet Club in Manhattan, people "want more than sweat, metal and mirrors. They want places that are concerned with the whole person."

John McCarthy, executive director of the Association of Quality Clubs, reports that 25% of his 1,550 member clubs offer seminars in nutrition, stress management and smoking cessation; 25% have weight-loss programs; and 12% provide courses in self-esteem. Among the more adventurous is the Saw Mill River Club in Mount Kisco, N.Y., which conducts lectures on self-healing and hypnosis and occasionally brings in a sex therapist for a panel discussion.

To gauge health needs, clubs are learning more about their customers. During the New York Health and Racquet Club's "life-style assessment," clients may be asked what they eat for breakfast and how much alcohol they drink. At all 40 centers of the nationwide Club Corporation of America, new members are queried by a fitness specialist about their income level and, to assess their state of stress, whether they have witnessed a violent fight in the past year. Women are asked whether they have had a hysterectomy. "We ask questions that many clubs will not," says Club Corporation's Stephen Tharrett. "But we care, and there are all facets of life we try to help people with. If there are problems, we recommend that they see their physician."

Some medical people fear that clubs are going beyond their expertise. "I'm not sure if they should be asking intimate, medical questions," says Dr. Lyle Micheli, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard's medical school. He cautions clients to seek clubs whose staffers have degrees in nutrition or exercise physiology, or certification from groups like the American College of Sports Medicine.

Some fitness centers have begun to work cooperatively with physicians and hospitals. A cardiologist from the University of Minnesota is a consultant to the Marsh club in Minnetonka, Minn. Chicago's East Bank Club is affiliated with the University of Chicago Hospitals Physician Group and plans to set up a sports-medicine facility staffed by orthopedists from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Last month at Boston's Le Pli Enterprises, cosmetic surgeons began offering laser treatments for broken capillaries.

. Such extras are a long way from treadmills. But in the era of supermarkets and mega-malls, people seem to go for one-stop body care.

With reporting by Lynn Emmerman/Chicago