Walk This Weight, Inventor Says

Fitness guru Debbie Rocker doesn’t have to do market research to know that baby boomers are still fanatical about fitness. All the 48-year-old needs to do is look in the mirror.

The inventor of the WalkVest -- a form-fitting, weighted vest that creates added resistance for runners and walkers alike -- Rocker markets herself as a sort of uber-coach for an aging generation of gym rats. An ex-runner herself, Rocker says her device provides just the kind of low-impact, weight-bearing exercise necessary to avoid knee and hip replacements.

On a recent morning, Rocker -- looking sinewy in bicycle shorts and a sleeveless top -- hiked swiftly up Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, easily outpacing a reporter two decades her junior as she mused on why her generation has become so fixated on working out.

“People now want to stay healthy into their 50s, 60s and 70s,” said Rocker, who sold her gym in Sherman Oaks two years ago to devote herself to putting WalkVest on the map. “They want real fitness at that age, but they also want to look like they are in their 30s.”

Rocker’s company, Beverly Hills-based Dare to Be Fit, wants to tap into that desire, held by many of the 78.2 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who make up the baby-boom generation. She has paired with Crystal Cruise Lines to found Walk on Water, a program to help vacationers change their habits by donning WalkVests and marching around their boats.

Next year, she will cross into mainstream retail by teaming with a large alternative fitness and lifestyles vendor that sells pilates balls, yoga mats and other holistic goods at mass market outlets such as Borders and Target. And, she’s got a book due out in the fall.

The research is on Rocker’s side. According to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Assn., a quarter of all gym members today are over the age of 55 -- an increase of 562% from 20 years ago.

“They actually are the fastest-growing health-club demographic,” said Brooke Correia, a spokeswoman for the association. “There are a lot of baby boomers, and they are incredibly savvy consumers. They get it. They are reaching middle age and are interested in staying independent and physically healthy.”

Colin Milner, the chief executive of the International Council on Active Aging, which bills itself as the world’s largest senior fitness association, agreed.

“There is a huge need out there. As we all know, the baby boomers are getting older and they are fighting the clock every step of the way,” he said. “The mantra of the baby boomers during the Vietnam era was ‘Hell no, we won’t go,’ and now the mantra for getting older is exactly the same.”

Rocker’s invention was a product of her own perspiration. In the late 1990s, she started to feel beat-up after her long runs. She began weight-resistant exercise but felt odd when she took her morning walks in Beverly Hills, saddled with weights strapped to her chest, ankles and back.

A trainer for two decades, Rocker had watched the rise and fall of fitness fads -- she was at the forefront of the popular stationary bike workout “Spinning.” But that had a drawback: It had to be done in a class, in a fitness center. She wanted to develop a workout as easy and natural for people as ... walking.

She thought of the unwieldy system that she’d cobbled together for her own walks and set out to improve on it.

By 2000, Rocker had worked with a host of physical therapists, athletes, surgeons and clients to get her invention just right.

After many prototypes, she came up with a garment made from thin cotton and mesh that had 16 compartments stitched around the midsection, each of which can hold two half-pound weights.

Depending on the walker’s ambition, the vest could be modified to carry as little as half a pound or as much as 16 pounds.

In the beginning, lacking an advertising budget, Rocker had to be creative to get people to pay attention to her fitness device. She contacted the cruise line and a spa. She worked with osteoporosis prevention programs in hospitals around the country, as well as gyms and college fitness centers. And she went to a lot of trade shows.

“You have to with a small business,” she said.

All that networking paid off: Rocker says the WalkVest now sells itself -- more than 10,000 were sold last year on her website, at www.walkvest.com. The vest comes with a 20-minute inspirational CD narrated by the inventor. And that, she says, is what sets her device apart from similar weighted vests: her coaching.

“Anyone can put together a system in a box, but if you have a person attached to it -- a coach or a mentor -- it makes it work,” Rocker said.

WalkVest enthusiasts agree, and many have signed up for her Walkout of the Month club, which sends out a new CD workout to be used with the vest for $14.90 each month.

“It is something about the way she speaks to you -- she trains you like you’re an athlete,” said WalkVest devotee Janet Orsi, 53, who has used the vest for the last two years and lost (and kept off) about 20 pounds.

Orsi, who runs a public-relations firm, said she now buys a WalkVest for each of her friends when they turn 50. She also bought her husband one. And her nanny.

Like a true baby boomer, Orsi says efficiency is what she likes most about the product.

“You feel like you’re maximizing your time and effort, and in our overly busy world, that is so important,” she said.