By Howard Cohen, The Miami Herald Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Dec. 16--The dirtiest word at these workout palaces is gym.
Sure, there are the weights, the floor mats, the treadmills.
But, gym?
'Urban country club,' opines suit-and-tie attired Daniel Miller, manager of the Sports Club/LA, the new $25-million health club in the Four Seasons Miami on Brickell.
'Cardio Theater,' pronounces Sporting Club owner/trainer Marco Borges of what others would call a treadmill room.
Along with the Deepak Chopra Center at Doral, these two new spots represent the newest addition to the South Florida fitness scene: the health club as haute couture. Pineapple coconut body wash with mango shampoo. Personal plasma TVs. Massages by candlelight.
Think five-star hotel: Concierges. A lobby boasting a Botero sculpture (at Sports Club/LA). And the best views $5,000 a year in annual fees can buy: Biscayne Bay at Sports Club/LA, the Atlantic Ocean at South Beach's Sporting Club and the golf courses at the Chopra Center at Doral.
'Whatever you need, we get for you,' says the Sporting Club's Borges as he strolls the Continuum, the South Beach condo housing the club. 'You need reservations at Joe's? We'll get you into your favorite nightclub on the Beach. Tickets to something at Gleason?' High-fashion fitness is a growing trend, says Brooke MacInnis, a spokesperson for the Boston-based International Health, Raquet & Sportsclub Association.
'It would be difficult to go to any major city and not find an upscale club,' she said. 'This is a trend that caters to a specific clientele.' People like Miami trial lawyer Jay Solowsky, a recent convert to the Sports Club/LA.
'They have a far greater range of amenities than any other club in the area. The class schedule is varied with a wide range of good times for professionals.' Solowsky, 52, works out six days a week. 'We're very fortunate to have this in Miami. This is far and away the best club I've been a member of.' Here, then, is a peek inside:
--Sports Club/LA: I burned more calories saying 'Thank you' and 'That feels good' than I would normally do walking three times a week with my regular exercise group.
The silver clocks on the walls are Audemars Piguet. The lockers are oak. Here, sweating saline would be gauche; you sweat champagne.
The Precor cardio machines have personal plasma TVs attached. (No squabbling over the communal telly.) Blaring techno music, a turnoff at regular gyms, was absent.
The weight training room is 10,000 square feet, with wraparound windows overlooking Miami's banking towers to the north and luxury condos to the south.
I had an unfamiliar spring in my step in the yoga/aerobics room.
'The floor is spring-loaded so it absorbs shocks,' explained Miller, the club's manager.
The coolest feature proved to be the touch-screen computerized class schedule board. Touch any of the 14 different yoga offerings or, say, something called Sets & Reps, and a video of the class pops up.
(You can find out what a class looks like before revealing you have two left feet.) The Versa Climber -- in which you're basically climbing a mountain -- is where I should have found myself. But I had an appointment for a sports massage at Splash, the indoor spa. Suffer on the climber or get a 50-minute massage to the strains of Enya in a relaxing room?
Enya wins out.
--The Sporting Club: Arguably, the best views of the bunch. The club sits on the end of South Pointe, thus anyone lounging on the private sun deck gets the view of South Beach.
Sports Club/LA had us spoiled. At the Sporting Club, four flat-screen TVs, rather than individual plasma TVs, lined the 'Cardio Theater.' But they were facing Government Cut, so you could gaze over the waters while striding on the stepping machine.
Minor quibbles aside, the Sporting Club trumps other residential gyms. Sheer size is a big factor. Most gyms tucked into condos top out at around 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. The three-story fitness center and spa here is 20,000 square-feet. Flinging sweat on your neighbor is nearly impossible.
Borges has designed a jewel of a gym, with the programs one would expect such as yoga, spinning, Zumba, body sculpting and private training sessions augmented by free valet parking, a rooftop pool, beach club access, a spa and a limited membership capped at 500.
I took a private training session with Borges. I'm still recovering, graced with the knowledge that this is how the muckety-mucks fit into the fancy threads party season requires.
Given time, a run on the beach, followed by a stint in the Eucalyptus Steam Room may have been nice. I settled for an $85 Destresser massage.
What? Me, spoiled?
Getting there.
--The Chopra Center: The final stop on our tour was the Chopra Center at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. The center is named for, and follows the teachings of, California spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, the medical doctor whose followers have included Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Bill Clinton.
At first blush, this one doesn't exactly fit the theme. There are no Freemotion machines, Versa Climbers, Hoggan hand weights or good old-fashioned medicine balls. The smell of Nag Champa incense greets you at the center's door and the adjacent glass shelves are lined with books such as Grow Younger, Live Longer and Vital Energy: The 7 Keys to Invigorate Body, Mind & Soul.
Then you figure, we've worked the body at the other clubs, shouldn't the mind and soul get attention too? Is that not a part of fitness?
The center's program director, Drew Tabatchnick, uses a Star Wars analogy: 'May the force be with you? We give you the tools to engage the force.' The tools of this trade include classes in meditation, diet and nutrition, yoga and exercise routines. Four Ayurvedic treatments utilize massages with warm herbalized oils. Ayurvedic -- the 'science of life' -- combines ancient Eastern teachings with Western methodology.
Shirodhara, a $75 treatment, would strike most Western eyes as unusual. Patrons recline on a massage table in one of the center's eight treatment rooms. The room smells of soothing incense. Candles flicker. A stream of yellow sesame oil, falling from a suspended silver bucket, is poured over the forehead -- 'the third eye' -- for 25 minutes.
Tabatchnick picks up on the skepticism you are trying to hide.
'If you were to ask me 10 years ago would I be teaching it, I would have had no idea,' he says, smiling. 'This will take you to the bottom of the ocean, nothing feels like this.' Maybe next time.
TONY HEALTH CLUBS: PRICEY MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS PRIVILEGES
Working out in luxury doesn't come cheap. Here is what you can expect to pay at South Florida's three new health clubs.
SPORTS CLUB/LA
1441 Brickell Ave., Miami 305-533-1199.
There are four membership categories:
-- Executive ($1,500 initiation; $200 monthly dues) includes use of all club amenities, private locker room with personal locker, 24-hour laundry service, pool and sundeck privileges at The Four Seasons, charge privileges, seven private training sessions, three-hours free parking.
-- Bicoastal ($1,200 initiation; $210 monthly) includes privileges at the Sports Club/LAs in Miami, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beverly Hills.
-- Access East ($1,200 initiation; $188 monthly). Same as Bicoastal except no access to the California clubs.
-- Health ($250 initiation; $95 monthly) offers use of the Miami club's amenities.
Prices vary at Splash, the spa. A 60-minute evaluation and assessment with the club's nutritionist costs $225. Computerized nutritional analysis is $125. Hair services at Rik Rak, the club's salon, run $40 to $600 and up. (Call 305-381-3981).
THE SPORTING CLUB
100 South Pointe Dr., Miami Beach 305-938-4240, ext. 240.
Membership fees are $5,000 annually, limited to 500 members.
Membership includes access to the fitness center and its group classes, five training sessions, fitness evaluation, free valet parking, access to the beach club, pool and tennis courts.
Spa treatments generally run about $85 per massage. Prices vary for personal training sessions and food and drink.
THE CHOPRA CENTER
4400 NW 87th Ave., Doral 305-592-2000.
Primordial Sound Meditation, a mantra-based practice designed to alleviate stress, is taught as part of the center's Perfect Health program or as a stand-alone three-day course. The next session is Jan. 5-7 and runs $295. Call 305-392-4972.
The four Ayurvedic treatments run $75-$145.
--Howard Cohen
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(c) 2003, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
