| Letters |

Labor of… Loved It!

I just read Mia Coen’s article, “Labors of Love,” in the November issue of CBI (see pg. 44) and I really enjoyed it—great stuff! I’ve always been a big fan of David Barton’s gyms. I visited his Miami location and just loved it! His gyms are amazing and I think that what he has done with his facilities is what more club owners should do. After visiting his Miami gym, it inspired me to come back to my facility to add some more decoration that was more flashy, but still within my comfort level. Thanks for the great article. —|

Mike Robinson | Owner/Personal Trainer | MZR Fitness and Mike Z. Robinson Enterprises | San Luis Obispo, CA

Exercise as an Elixir> I appreciated having the opportunity to share, on CBI’s blog, CBI Unbound (http://cbiunbound.ihrsa.org), my perspective about the problems with the predominant approach our society has taken to promoting physical activity and fitness to the general public. As a “translational” researcher, my main goal is to conduct research that has direct application to real life and work with others to translate its meaning to the general public. Patricia Glynn did a really good job of showcasing what I’ve come to believe after 17 years of interdisciplinary research and work with producing sustainable exercise motivation and behavior.

Anyone interested in promoting exercise to individuals should learn that our mainstream approach turns it into a chore instead of the gift it really is. As an industry, promoting exercise primarily for health and weight-loss has turned exercise into “medicine” and a “should”—maybe even into a punishment. That converts exercise into one big “yuck” for most people.

The solution is actually straightforward and simple: a shift must happen in how individuals perceive and approach exer-cising. The key is to help them learn new reasons for fitting in fitness, ones related to enhancing their daily life in some ways. Exercise needs to become something the person wants to do, rather than something they feel they should do. When the exerciser experiences discernable benefits on an ongoing basis, they will make the time.

So what’s the role of the fitness industry, government, health-care, and business? They need to start reframing and marketing exercise as a robust way to help individuals feel happier, more energetic, and more grounded. They need to stop “prescribing exercise” in doses that most people can’t attain starting out, and instead create an official “laddered” recommendation that lets people feel successful starting out. Why not learn how to become consistently active before targeting quantity or intensity?

It’s time to stop promoting exercise out of a medical and beauty paradigm and start socializing society that being physically active is

one of the most direct paths to achieving high levels of well-being, energy, and success. In other words, it’s time to start touting the most compelling benefits of physical activity: as an elixir of life. —|

Michelle Segar, Ph.D., MPH | Institute for Research on Women and Gender | University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI

Bally-hoo?> I read with great interest Patricia Amend’s cover article on Michael Sheehan and Bally Total Fitness in the November 2010 edition of Club Business International. The title, “A 21st Century Brand,” is interesting. Certain operational moves made at Bally Total Fitness speak volumes about an organization that, I have a hunch, has an understanding of where the fitness industry is headed. Although, as Michael Sheehan himself points out, “We’d prefer to be judged on the basis of our progress...”

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the new management team at Bally Total Fitness is made up of 1) a former CMO from United Airlines, 2) a former CFO of the Web travel giant Orbitz, and 3) the former head of HR from The Home Depot. Not one of their new “C” level executives has deep roots in fitness, with the exception of Michael Sheehan himself. I think there’s a reason for that. Growing a national fitness brand and designing and executing new consumer-centric models that leverage technology are but one, but a significant component of what I think the future is about. These skills are uncommon in the extant fitness industry, so one should be paying close attention to Bally given their personnel moves. We’ve seen bringing in industry outsiders fail before with other national brands, but time will tell.

Kudos to Patricia for her great article. —|

Bryan K. O’Rourke | CSO and Principal, Fitness Marketing Systems, LLC | Owner, The Health Club for Women | Covington, LA

Editor’s note: The preceding letter is excerpted from a Sys-Con Media blog post by industry consultant Bryan O’Rourke.

12 C l u b B u s i n e s s I n t e r n a t i o n a l | J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1 | w w w . i h r s a . o r g

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‘Labors of Love’

Coed sauna at DavidBartonGym in Chelsea

w w w . i h r s a . o r g | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 | C l u b B u s i n e s s I n t e r n a t i o n a l 45

‘Labors of Love’When it comes to design, David Barton is in a class by himself

None of them resemble one another, but all are alike in terms of their originality, explicitly expressing Barton’s own wild and fanatical vision.

When it comes to club design, Barton is definitely one-of-a-kind.“I’m a nonconformist,” he explains. “I don’t want to look

like everyone else… Personal style is an external expression of how one feels on the inside. Similarly, I want members’ gym experience to be emotional, to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. I believe in surrounding myself, and them, with beautiful things.”

Barton’s philosophy, artistic temperament, commitment to his vision, dogged persistence, and eclectic grab bag of skills have allowed him to consistently create striking, exciting, and, at the same time, practical and functional facilities. Each club, with its own unique look and ambience, respects and reflects the space in which it’s situated, the neighborhood in which it resides, and the market it serves.

“For instance,” Barton illustrates, “my Chicago gym is in a beautiful industrial building with monumental columns. It was built at a time when factories were created with love, so I felt it was important to emphasize the architecture with lighting, and also to warm it up with beautiful woods and mid-century furniture.

“In some cases, like this, I emphasize, or draw out, the space and character of a location,” he says. “But, in others, I might cover it up. I want each gym to feel like a neighborhood gym, and, if they were all the same, that feeling would get lost.”

A New York storyBarton, a born-and-bred New Yorker, studied human devel-opment at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, but, a passionate fitness enthusiast, decided to focus on the physical component of that subject. He visualized the kind of gym that he wanted to own, and, putting his ambition and ideas to work, played an integral role in developing every aspect of it, including design, marketing, membership sales, and hiring and training staff.

His first facility opened on 15th Street at 6th Avenue in 1992. Twelve years later, it moved to West 23rd Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

“When I launched my first gym, I weathered every storm, hurdle, and obstacle imaginable that one faces when opening a business in Manhattan,” Barton recalls. “That included sleeping three hours a night on the floor, hammer-in-hand, to protect my space from squatters and junkies during construction.

“During construction, I called everyone I knew and encouraged them to join. Each day, I’d open up and shut down the site, and, at night, go out and promote the gym… I signed up the first 3,000 members, myself.”

His initial effort, he acknowledges, “wasn’t palatial,” but, he adds, “it had just the right hint of glamour. People came from all over to work out there.”

When the club relocated to West 23rd Street, Barton had a chance to show what he could really do. The new site, originally

By Mia Coen

“Look better naked.”That’s the astounding phrase coined by club owner, operator, and designer

David Barton to market his equally unorthodox brand of health clubs.His company, DavidBartonGym, currently has six facilities—three in New York

City and one, each, in Miami, Chicago, and Seattle, Washington—and is developing two more, in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

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