Returning to Gym for Body, Soul

Angelenos, notorious for almost single-mindedly pursuing the hottest fitness trends, largely gave up that pursuit in the days immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Plunged into anxiety and uncertainty, many regulars took a break from their usual haunts. Some were seeking comfort elsewhere; others were simply too shocked to keep up routines. Now, fitness experts say, they are venturing back to gyms and health clubs, familiar settings where they can release stress and connect with others.

“The whole nation tended to inhale for two days without exhaling,” said Meg Jordan, editor of American Fitness magazine, a trade journal for exercise professionals.

Managers say overall gym usage is rebounding and, in some cases, increasing. Although many people are coming in for classes in the more relaxing exercise disciplines, such as yoga and Pilates, others are sticking to aerobic activities such as kick boxing, weight training and stairstepping.

The first gymgoers to venture back were the hard-core exercisers for whom the adrenaline rush was more helpful than staying home glued to their couches, downing pizzas and comfort foods. Such diehards depend upon the psychological and physical hardiness that a strenuous workout confers.

Justin Brown, 31, a corporate entertainment attorney, said his Century City office tower was closed the day of the attacks, so he went to the nearby Bodies in Motion gym, as he does every day. It was nearly empty. Only three people, for example, turned up for a kickboxing class in what had become a ghost town. “It was kind of scary,” he said. “I was kind of numb.”

Most people waited at least a few days. Michael J. Ashby, 47, a FedEx service agent in Century City who works out four times a week, said that when he returned to the gym three days after the attacks, everyone was riveted to news channels even as they exercised. “People were void of any emotion. Everybody was just watching the TVs.”

Then came the gym regulars, as well as the more occasional and infrequent exercisers. The reasons for returning varied. Some said normally stressful jobs had begun to sap even more of their energy. For others, workloads were down, and they had more time. Still others simply needed to feel normal--they were tired of their worlds being turned upside down.

Sometimes a gym visit meant camaraderie and comfort. It was something to do besides sit at home, contemplating the last moments of those killed or obsessing about the possibility of additional attacks. But even in the relative safety of a gym, nerves were still frazzled.

“The day after, I was in a spin class, and the light kind of went out. Everyone freaked,” said Sarita Sheth, 24, a financial consultant with Standard & Poor’s downtown who works out at the Century City Bodies in Motion. Now she says, “I do realize I’m more stressed, and I try to get that out here.”

She met up on a recent night with some other gym regulars who said they’d moved their workouts outdoors for a while, choosing to run to escape the claustrophobia of being cooped up indoors.

“I had to breathe. I had to see the sun,” said Pia Altavilla, 25, a fourth-year UCLA medical student who is back at her spinning classes. In part, she said, she doesn’t want her exercise routine or other parts of her life controlled by terrorists: “I feel if I let anybody change the way I live out of fear, they’re getting the best of me and my country.” But even those going back to old workouts said they don’t feel quite the same.

Ashby, who works out at gyms in Hollywood and Culver City, said the attacks “did give me an increased level of anxiety and fear, and that has affected the way I work out. On the step machine, I push harder, harder, harder,” and he often finds his mind drifting.

Although many inveterate exercisers took off some time as they sought to regain their bearings, gyms report some variations in how well they’ve rebounded.

“We don’t have any empirical data, but the word we have from clubs is that usage is very strong and that usage has been up smartly since” the attacks, said John McCarthy, executive director of the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Assn. in Boston. “Even in New York City--obviously not at the downtown clubs--but at the midtown clubs. People started to come to clubs for different reasons. They were coming to connect, to feel comforted and supported. It gave those of us in the club business another reason to be in business.”

Crunch Fitness, a New York-based trendsetter with an outpost on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, reports that local membership sales increased 12% and usage by existing L.A. members rose 13% in the two weeks after the attacks, compared with the same period in 2000.

For the first two weeks after the attacks, crunch extended its yoga classes by half an hour and focused those sessions on healing aspects, said spokesman Matthew Walters. Rigorous fitness and self-defense classes are filled, and he attributed that to their providing “a way to get out stress and anger.”

At the Sports Club L.A. in West Los Angeles, the Rolls-Royce of athletic clubs, membership and use are up, said spokeswoman Amy Rawi.

Although most people could benefit from giving their anxiety and depression a healthy physical outlet, Jordan of American Fitness cautioned against pushing too hard. “There are certain exercises that are more adrenaline-pumping, and that is not what your body is asking for right now. You don’t need to redline your engine,” said Jordan, also a cardiovascular nurse.

Those who are still hitting gyms and health clubs for their usual hits of adrenaline at a time when their bodies are in overdrive should think about incorporating exercises that soothe and release tension, Jordan advised.

That means prolonging the warmup and cool-down periods, adding a stretch class, or a 20-minute block of stretching to workout routines, and maybe signing up for a yoga class.