Owner Follows Wisdom of Greeks : This Gym Is Not for Dumbbells

“ . . . The due proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye.”

--The Dialogues of Plato

Last New Year’s Day, when David Esser opened his Gym for the Mind in Topanga, 100 people showed up. Some were taken with the hardware--large pro-style leg press, hack slide, cable crossover and weightlifting rowing machine. Some were dazzled by the library--full of history and literature, science and philosophy.

Many, frankly, were confused.

“The body builders said ‘no thanks’ to the books,” Esser said, laughing. “Intellectuals said ‘no way’ to the exercise.”

But Esser, 42, wanted to follow the wisdom of the Greeks. Believing mind and body to be inseparable, he decked his new gym with books, planted vegetables outside and made plans to add a chess club. His concept: Mental stimulation helps people stick with physical workouts.

Long Hours

Having worked eight years on his concept, Esser braced himself for skeptics by paraphrasing 19th-Century psychologist and philosopher William James: “If something is known to be impossible, we act as if it’s sheer foolishness to attempt it.”

Optimistic and, members say, inspired, Esser kept his doors open by working graveyard shifts at the Sherman Oaks Newsstand, his pre-gym employer. He and a former partner, Mark Andrews, embellished his rented storefront on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, adding purple and turquoise paint, a window display and bigger signs to draw in passers-by.

The current sign, which appeared once the chess sets arrived, reads: “A chess club with a gym for body and mind-building.”

Earlier this summer, Harry Deutsch, an Illinois State University philosophy professor summering in Topanga, was intrigued enough to stop. What did he find?

“Exactly what the sign said. It looked bizarre. All those chessboards in one room, the book-filled gym--very Crazy California.”

At first he joined because “it’s the only gym within 15 minutes of where I live.” Now he plays chess on alternate visits.

Valued Place

Esser said membership (now at 45) has picked up in the last couple of months. “Just in time. I was thinking I’d have to fold.” He attributes the growth to warmer weather, the finished chess club, new gym mirrors and two of the locals themselves, one a Barbarian, the other a chess master.

David Paul--pro body builder, Cannon Films star (“The Barbarians,” 1987), holder of the world record for the reverse grip bench-press (550 pounds), and the upcoming lead (with twin brother Peter) in a CBS Movie of the Week--has been dropping by the gym weekly since June. He lends support, works out a bit and talks Nietzsche and nutrition with the boss.

Evidence of Paul’s valued place among gym members hangs on one wall of Esser’s weight room--opposite a brick fireplace, above a patched-together carpet and an old-time water cooler. It is a photo collage featuring studio shots (“To Dave” from “The Barbarians”) and color candids of Paul’s workouts in Esser’s gym.

The impact of the real-life Barbarian on other members is equally clear. On one recent day, in stifling, fly-slapping heat, several boys crowded together to peek through a screen door as Paul, in stone-washed, low-cut overalls with attached woven suspenders and headband, calmly performed his leg lifts.

Massive in the style of an oak tree or an oil barrel, Paul is also, he said, “super into the mind.” He praised Esser’s mind-body emphasis, the equipment and atmosphere: “Positive, supportive. Good for people coming off accidents or just getting into training.”

Another Perspective

Just as enthusiastic but from a different vantage point is the serious, bespectacled Ben Nethercot, a U.S. Chess Federation Life Master who gives free lessons to Esser and club members and will soon help run regular chess tournaments there.

Physical conditioning, Nethercot said, is critical for chess players who “burn as much energy in tournaments as ball players do in nine innings. The competitive desire in any sport takes mental toughness.”

In their praise for the value of mind workouts, Paul and Nethercot do not reflect the views of many L.A. fitness professionals. To Jeff Everson, editor-in-chief of the Woodland Hills-based magazine Muscle and Fitness, “the mind component is badly overrated. For the average person to stay with a workout, it should be enough to look in the mirror. If you need much more motivation, find something else to do.”

None Like It

Chris Duffy, 1987 Mr. Los Angeles and manager of Gold’s Gym in Northridge, estimates that of about 20 serious body building gyms in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, none offer any mental stimulation. “Most competitive body builders have such short attention spans they can’t even watch a whole TV show,” he said. “Playing chess makes no sense for them.”

Torrie Dorrell, associate editor of Marina del Rey’s City Sports magazine, which tracks national sports trends among baby boomers, adds that most members of the 260 full-service health clubs from the Valley to San Diego “aren’t looking for mind workouts. They’re still learning what physical health means.”

For those who do want to work their minds, the old-fashioned approach of Gym for the Mind is not to be confused with the high-tech MindGym at West Hollywood’s Altered States Float Center. There, for mental exercise and stress relief, clients plug into a biofeedback machine and the Synchro-Energizer--super goggles with flashing lights that induce a meditative state.

Informal Survey

An informal survey of Esser’s members indicates that, thus far, his gym is a bigger draw than his books.

“It’s convenient,” says Greg Martinez, a Topanga landscaper who says he’s “not a big book freak” and has no interest in chess.

Another member joined to exercise a bad back; a third to make himself “bigger for football.” And as yet, in Topanga parlance, Esser is known as “Ironman Dave,” not “Intellectual Dave.”

Still, the concept is young, and several members expressed curiosity about book titles they look at while lifting weights. To further the interest, Esser hopes to start a “Basebook Team” soon, a sort of Great Books debate group in which players represent titles from various “bases” of knowledge--among them, politics, art, science and religion.

Library Card

Esser, a self-taught, widely read man (“very intelligent,” Deutsch said), loves to press his favorite books on strangers. A library card comes with the $150 annual gym membership.

“Dave’s made common ground for the big guy with the small brain and the chess guy with the small body,” as one chess player put it.

Meanwhile, the organic vegetable garden, tended by many, is yielding bat-size zucchini, and the gym, despite the heat and flies, has a family style feeling. Any member strolling by might answer the phone, or help another find a dumbbell, or offer advice about form.

“Everyone’s welcome,” says Rozanne Brammer, a Topanga nurse. “In some gyms, you feel like you’re on the freeway in rush hour. Here, it’s like home.”