CITY SMART / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California : The Stress Solution : For a growing number of movers and shakers, keeping fit has become an essential ingredient for keeping sane.

Once upon a less liberated time, when a councilwoman pulled on a pair of red leather gloves, she might have been likely to follow it up with a search for the matching bag.

Perish the sexist thought. When Councilwoman Laura Chick dons her red leather gloves, her next step is toward the boxing “speed bag” hanging in her Tarzana condominium, where she engages in a pugilistic purging of her civic frustrations.

Chick is one of a growing number of local officials for whom keeping physically fit has become a non-negotiable part of public life, a stress-management system for mind and body.

To wit, Nate Holden brags about how he used to bang the heavy bag (“You don’t punch the heavy bag; you bang the heavy bag.”), and can run past men 20 years his junior.

Then there’s Police Commissioner Art Mattox, who probably could bench-press Holden.

There are two species of movers and shakers in this world, according to exercise gurus such as Jerry Robinson, president of Health for Life in Marina del Rey: those so overwhelmed by civic duties they can’t imagine exercise, and those so overwhelmed they can’t imagine not exercising.

The former shall remain nameless. The latter are all the same. Type A-plus at work, type A-plus at play.

“The group that we’re talking about--the [fit] movers and shakers--they know they have to work to be fit,” said Robinson, whose company researches and publishes books and videos preaching the gospel of fitness. “They want to work. In fact, they love to work. They want to work more.”

Sharon Delugach, chief of staff for Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, is surprised to field questions about herself. But if you have to know, it’s running she likes. She puts in 55 or more hours a week at everything from ribbon-cuttings to rubber-chicken luncheons, attends night courses at UCLA and belongs to a few community groups on the side.

Still, if you’re fast enough, you can catch Delugach running in Elysian Park at 7:30 a.m., with her shepherd-husky-coyote mix, Smokey. Sometimes (and this is a secret) she sneaks off when Goldberg isn’t looking and lifts weights, too.

On weekends, Delugach switches to Griffith Park, and boosts the distance to five or six miles.

Mattox has lifted weights for a decade, and looks it. His 5-foot, 10-inch frame is a solid 220 pounds.

“It’s very stressful mentally,” Mattox said of his Police Commission job. “There’s nothing better than going and banging weights for an hour.”

Mattox puts in about 25 hours a week on commission work, in addition to at least 40 hours as a global accounts manager for Xerox. For a week of every month, he travels.

“I have almost no personal life,” Mattox admitted. Three days a week, that life revolves around Body Builders Gym in Silver Lake.

“I tend to tune out the people around me and focus in on the exercise,” Mattox said. “It’s a very important time for me to clear my head.”

Like his boss, Mayor Richard Riordan, Michael Keeley is a fanatic bicyclist. But lately he doesn’t use his titanium-frame Merlin more than “a handful of times a year.”

Keeley bought the sleek and pricey bike in his previous life as an attorney, before he earned a more modest civil servant’s salary as the city’s chief operating officer. In his new life, Keeley sometimes starts the workday before sunrise.

“If I need to write or think, I do it at home from 5:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. I get to the office by 8 a.m. Three times a week I leave as early as 6 p.m.”

On those lucky days, Keeley heads to Gold’s Gym in Hollywood to work with a personal trainer. On days he gets home at 7:30 p.m., Keeley takes to his StairMaster for a half-hour or so: something he can do while reading reports or catching up on the news.

When he does ride, Keeley prefers a loop from Griffith Park, through Glendale and Burbank, up La Tuna Canyon and around the Verdugo Mountains back to the park.

“It’s beautiful, it’s mostly in the city of Los Angeles, it’s challenging, it has some hills and you can get away from the traffic,” Keeley said.

Such routines boost productivity and help restore self-esteem, Robinson said. Not to mention bragging rights.

“I’m 66 years old,” boasted Nate Holden. “I run by guys who are 50. I run by guys who are 45, and guys who are 40. Some of these guys are like old men.”

Most mornings, Holden runs three or four miles in the Crenshaw district. And while he runs, he ponders.

Holden has run the Los Angeles Marathon twice (5 hours, 15 minutes on average) and London once. He plans a return trip to London, with marathon President Bill Burke in tow.

Not all of these fit fast-laners really work hard at it.

“I don’t do a lot,” confessed Chick. “I’m blessed with the right metabolism.” It also helps to have a council office at the opposite corner from chambers. Chick logs a few city blocks just getting to and from the meetings.

What Chick really likes to do lately, though, is yoga. She meets every Saturday with four other women and an instructor in her home and practices the exercises several times a week.

Sitting cross-legged is nice after a 12-hour day of civic aggravation, but Chick admitted: “Sometimes those red gloves and bag are the perfect solution.”