The social club

Most people’s gym routines go something like this: Get there, do some weights, some cardio, then leave.

Gene Call’s workout routine is more like this: Check out the locker room and walk the floor to see who’s there, do some stretching, go to the weight room for strength training and snappy patter, talk to the staff a little, do 30 to 40 minutes of cardio, then cap it off in the steam room with a round of male bonding.

Today’s gyms function as more than just a place to get fit. For people like Call, health clubs are also mini-communities, a “Cheers” bar for the physically fit, where regulars are greeted by name, where people chat about the Lakers, the war or that new restaurant down the street. It’s a place where they can feel, for a few hours, that maybe Los Angeles isn’t such a scattered, aloof city after all.

Almost every gym has its small population of hangers-around, those who spend as much time -- or more -- shooting the breeze as actually exercising. Flexible work schedules -- or sometimes no job at all -- allow them to spend two, three, sometimes five hours a day among sweaty bodies.

Many clubs encourage longer stays by offering juice bars, snack counters, massages and salon treatments; the Boston-based International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Assn. reports that 40% of U.S. clubs surveyed in 2002 offered social programs, such as mixers and holiday parties, and 44% had a snack or juice bar. But some gyms attract the faithful with little more than a stack of weights, some cardio machines -- and people.

“Everything old is new again,” says USC psychology professor Jerald Jellison. Decades ago, communities were formed at country clubs and social clubs, and today many people find comfortable niches through their churches and temples, schools and hobbies. “Gyms are fulfilling some of that function, and it talks about how strong that need is. You see people who spend a long time at the gym and you may want to say, ‘Get a life,’ but we had those venues in the past and we still need them, so we’re creating them.”

Call, a gregarious 67-year-old director of mentor programs for a marketing firm, creates his own social club because he needs it after working “pretty much alone” all day in his Santa Monica office. “I’m cuckoo by 4 o’clock in the afternoon,” he says.

That’s when he heads to the nearby Spectrum Club. He’s made business contacts and friends, but mostly he enjoys “just bopping with people.” His girlfriend is also a member but works out at a different time.

Call operates at the gym in much the same way he did throughout his childhood in New York City: “I was a guy who met friends at the candy store, on the street corner, on the playground, and I’ve always had that mentality. The gym is a playground for me.”

Members like Call “lend something to the personality of the club,” says Michael Neitzke, the Spectrum Club’s general manager. “There are a lot of really friendly, outgoing people on the floor, and for those who enjoy that conversation and a little camaraderie, it’s a de-stresser. They enjoy engaging with each other and sharing different views.”

For Arash Majlessi, going to the Mid Valley Athletic Club in Reseda and being greeted by pals is as welcoming as walking into his favorite restaurant. “It’s like when the owner knows you, or the chef knows you, and you feel like they’re going to take good care of you,” explains the 33-year-old artist. “It’s good to have a place you feel comfortable going to, where you feel important. I run into friends, and that settles me.”

Not everyone who forms friendships at the gym takes those relationships beyond the aerobics room, but even these superficial rapports have their place. “It’s kind of a way of reading the newspaper,” says USC’s Jellison. “It’s what activities people are actually doing -- I went to this movie, how was that restaurant -- and these relationships tell us about the immediate reality. It’s what used to happen in extended families and in neighborhoods, and now we make neighborhoods where and how we can.”

For enterprising types, these bonds can also provide good networking opportunities, says Thomas H. Sander, executive director of the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. They may not develop into strong personal relationships, he adds, “but they absolutely have value in an economic sense.”

Case in point: Meet Joe Blase (pronounced “blaze”), who joined the Sports Club/LA about seven years ago knowing the elite Westside club was the premier place for honchos in the world of entertainment, finance and real estate. Hoping to be a player in showbiz himself, the 32-year-old started working the room -- and hasn’t stopped. He’s pulled together business deals, hooked up with a producing partner and shopped around his own daytime talk show. And he’s made some good friends too.

“When I came to L.A. from Atlanta about nine years ago, I didn’t know anybody,” Blase says. “The city is not centralized, it’s very cliquey and it’s hard to meet people. When you’re playing basketball or taking yoga, you create a camaraderie. I’m just grateful for this place.”

He says he’s met almost everyone at the club, then goes about demonstrating: “This guy,” he says pointing to a young man, “his mother had a cleaning service. He’s just a great guy. That guy used to be in the military. That other guy is a former boxer. That guy is the next coming of Denzel Washington. That guy is a major screenwriter.” He even knows the kid who plops down at the next table with a bag of matzo crackers. “Hey buddy!” he says. “You’re 9 years old, right? This kid is great; he’s a genius.”

Some long-timers parlay their fondness for their gyms into something more. Lisa Sung, 26, joined Crunch almost a year ago and started spending most of her day at the L.A. gym, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., taking classes, reading, listening to music, talking to people. She had the time, having quit her job at Sony because of the long hours. The gym became “my vacation in a way, and how I released stress. I tend to be very shy, and I think this brought me out. People would approach me and start a conversation and we’d watch sports, and I got to know everyone’s background.”

The club finally offered her a job as an assistant manager a month ago. “Now that I’m working here, I’m here even way more,” she says, laughing. “I’m either working or working out.”

Tom Kiesche joined the Hollywood YMCA four years ago and formed friendships in his thrice-weekly swim class. The Y became the 35-year-old actor’s place to work out and hang out, sometimes lounging in the hot tub, the steam room, the veranda and the comfy sofas by the TV in the locker room. It soon became even more than that.

A couple of years ago, his swimming coach asked him to help with the Y’s annual fund-raising drive, which snowballed into other volunteer activities, including creating a newsletter and starting a theater program for kids. He sometimes spends five to eight hours a day at the Y, combining workouts, hang time and volunteer duties.

“What would I do if I wasn’t here? I’m not the type to sit around the pool and drink margaritas,” he says.

“I enjoy it, and I guess I get something out of it that I feel very positive about.”

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Jeannine Stein can be reached by e-mail at jeannine.stein @latimes.com.