Taking the Routine Out of Exercise

Running hurts your knees, walking is boring and the music at aerobics class hurts your eardrums. But you still hope to find an exercise routine that will hook you, once and for all?

Alternative workouts abound: Some improve cardiovascular conditioning; others boost muscular strength. Some do both.

Here is a sampling of off-the-beaten track workouts:

Stair Climbing

Let the gym rats sweat it out on the computerized stair-climbing machines. Some people, including Tom Elwood, prefer the real thing. The 89-year-old Van Nuys resident walks up to his 11th-floor abode every day.

“Sometimes I start at the second floor, or the fourth,” he confesses. “But I walk down all of them once a day.” He supplements the stair climbing with a mile of walking, a bit of jogging and some living room calisthenics.

But it’s the stair climbing, he’s sure, that gives him the endurance to sing in the Sherman Oaks Presbyterian Church choir.

For competitive types, there’s the Stair Climb to the Top, a run up the First Interstate World Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The event was sponsored for the first time last year by the Stuart M. Ketchum YMCA. Competitors climbed to the 68th floor of the 73-floor building, says Linda Cassidy, associate executive director of the Y and director of the climb.

For this year’s climb, scheduled for Oct. 9, there will be awards not just in male and female divisions but in several age categories. Last year’s winners were swift--the men’s division winner made it to the top in 8 minutes, 23 seconds; the women’s division climber took 12 minutes and 36 seconds, Cassidy says.

Information on 1993 Stair Climb: (213) 624-2348. Rowing

Every morning at 5:30 (6 on weekends) Los Angeles Rowing Club members slide into their boats at the Tahiti Marina in Marina del Rey and get in a total body workout before some people brew their first cup of coffee.

“It’s particularly good for the back, arms and legs,” says Michael Fischer, the club president and a 20-year veteran of the sport. He says rowing can be mastered by almost anyone at any age. “We offer learn-to-row programs,” he says, “and we have two gentlemen who are around age 70.”

Information: (310) 578-0324. Pilates

For years, dancers have used the Pilates system of physical conditioning to achieve and maintain balance and litheness. Developed at the turn of the century by Joseph Pilates, a German bodybuilder and gymnast, the method relies on equipment like the Universal Reformer, an eight-foot wooden frame with a cushioned platform and series of springs. Exercisers push or pull to stretch and strengthen. The feeling, proponents say, is of dance movement rather than weight training.

Pilates has had its coming of age in only the last few years, says Nancy Coleman, a Pilates instructor at the ShapeShift Studio in Mar Vista. “This works. It changes your body. It’s the ultimate youthing process.” Two one-hour sessions weekly are recommended.

“It’s not considered aerobic, but resistance training,” says Coleman. “It offers physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits. One of the most important things is you strengthen your abdominal muscles,” she says, which can affect other body parts.

In 1977, California had just three Pilates studios, says Ken Endelman of Current Concepts, an equipment manufacturer that also refers exercisers to teachers and studios. Now there are more than 60, he says.

Information: ShapeShift Studio, (310) 390-3031; Institute for the Pilates Method, (505) 988-1990; Current Concepts (for teacher referrals), (916) 454-2838. Astroyoga

Siri Dharma Galliano, a Beverly Hills yoga master, matches exercise to your astrological sign’s strengths, weaknesses and preferences in her Astroyoga approach. Since 1988, she has been designing individual exercise plans based on one’s “astrologically defined” personality, with an emphasis on the body part ruled by the particular sign.

For instance?

Capricorns have great knee strength and prefer an unchanging routine. For them, she suggests stair-climbing or stationary bicycling. Because they tend to focus on exercise using their knees, they should strengthen the quadriceps muscle to keep knees strong, she says. Sagittarius exercisers have strong thighs and are goal-oriented. For them, Galliano suggests yoga, karate, running and ballet. Virgos have strong intestines and adapt well to taking exercise lessons. They are drawn to yoga, walking and horseback riding, Galliano says.

Information: (310) 278-5483. Fast Track Yoga

Although it might sound like yoga for ambitious types, it’s actually a blend of traditional yoga and traditional exercise, says Baron Baptiste, who teaches the course at Voight Fitness and Dance Center, West Hollywood.

“I try to take the mystique out of yoga without losing the meditative qualities,” he says. “Fast Track offers the benefits of traditional yoga with the body sculpting benefits of traditional exercise.”

Information: (310) 854-0741 Adult Gymnastics

Taking up gymnastics in adulthood can daunt the less-than-coordinated. But it shouldn’t, says Bob Carreiro, who teaches gymnastics to adults in their “20s to 80s” at his La Cienega Boulevard studio. Once people get over this fear, they can expect improved flexibility from regular gymnastics classes, among other benefits.

“You gain tremendous strength because you are lifting your body,” he says. Most of his regular students fit in two or three one-hour sessions a week.

Another studio specializing in adult gymnastics, Energy Unlimited in West Los Angeles, draws “people who are bored with the trends and people with injuries from other exercise like running,” says Laura Brooks, owner and former competitive gymnast. “We’re not out to make competitive gymnasts,” she says. But devotees can expect increased muscular strength along with improved balance--and maybe heightened self-esteem, Brooks finds.

Class sizes are limited to six at Energy Unlimited and to five at Carreiro’s.

Information: Carreiro’s Physical Fitness Studio, (310) 652-3060; Energy Unlimited, (310) 204-2550. Doheny cannot answer mail personally but will attempt to respond in this column to questions of general interest. Do not telephone. Write to Fitness, View section, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053.