In 1992 when I opened my first gym the exercise world was anything but inspiring. It was epitomized by a movie which showcased John Travolta in leg warmers. I saw that nightclubs were becoming less popular but the glitterati were not ready to trade in their place in line at a hot spot for a membership to a gym. I, being a refugee from the nightclub world understood why people I knew would not be caught dead in a gym. They called working out uncool, dull, naf, dorky, and they were right. It was for these people that I would reinvent the gym; the fashionistas, downtown celebutants uptown debutants, scenesters, miscreants of the night, and pretty much anyone who had elevated taste regardless of their economic position. In fact I noticed a growing number of people with more taste than money.
So I did. I made it okay for cool people to go to the gym I made it so okay that my first gym became a shrine to the in-ness of working out. It became “in” for anyone who shunned the traditional health club whether because of its bland surrender to middle class milk-toast stylessness or because the traditional health club lacked a motivating staff who had the expertise and desire to help deliver a new body in return for their membership dues – just didn’t deliver. Read full article.