Clubindustry

Club Industry East is in full swing. After a long day of travel, including flight delays, lightning, torrential downpour, a ride on the “Magical” Disney Express bus and an hour waiting to check into the Disney Coronado Springs Resort, I finally made it to Club Industry East. And, so far, I‘m happy to report that it‘s been well worth it. I recovered quickly from my travel fatigue by ingesting a Miami Vice (a tasty, tropical frozen drink that mixes strawberry daiquiri and pina colada) and a number of delicious appetizers (chicken quesadillas, fresh fruit and veggies, egg rolls, etc.) at the CI East opening night reception. After the frozen dessert (it really was that good), I met up with the rest of my staff (have no fear, they‘ll be blogging soon about their Florida adventures), the fabulous show group and many industry professionals including our columnists Michael Scott Scudder and Sandy Coffman. We all enjoyed the live music and good company. It was a great way to kick off the show.

We also took the chance to celebrate our show director Zari Stahl‘s birthday by embarrassing her with a delicious chocolate cake (my second dessert of the evening) and singing an out-of-tune “Happy Birthday.” We all know how hard she works, and we didn‘t want her birthday to get lost in the shuffle of the show. Happy birthday, Zari! –Jennipher

We just finished the June issue today, which means today is also the day we start on the July issue. Amy Fischbach, our former managing editor, did a bang-up job with two stories for the June issue. (It’s as if she never left.) Amy asked us to pass along this note about her upcoming story:

Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro magazine will be featuring a story on antimicrobial flooring in its July issue. Does your fitness facility have antimicrobial flooring? If so, please e-mail Amy Fischbach, contributing writer, at amyfischbach@gmail.com.

Thanks, Amy. I hope you get a lot of responses.

As for the rest of us, we’re heading to Orlando tomorrow for the Club Industry East show. The forecast calls for muggy weather with lots of rain, but we’ll likely be indoors most of the time, so it shouldn’t affect us too much. We could even have our own version of Splash Mountain. –Stuart

I didn’t watch “Dancing with the Stars” this last season (or the other seasons, either), but I did hear about the performance of the celebrities on the show through various entertainment programs and talk shows.

Seems like everyone thought that Laila Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, and a boxer in her own right, surprised everyone with her gracefulness on the program. I wish now I had watched the program because the Club Industry show group has informed me that Laila Ali will be the keynote speaker at our Club Industry show in Chicago Oct. 10-13 (she’ll speak on Oct. 11). She recently released a cardio fitness DVD with Sugar Ray Leonard. I’ll have to check it out.

More details on the topic of her presentation will be released later. No word on whether her famous father will join her, but somehow I think she’s making her own way in the world today so the chances are that he won’t be there. -Pam

No, this post is not in reference to Stuart‘s post (The Day the Lights Went Out, May 22). Thankfully, we haven‘t had a repeat power outage since that afternoon. (Although I do have to admit that leaving the office a few hours earlier than normal was pretty nice.) This post is about rising temperatures. Now that it‘s June, it‘s getting pretty toasty outside. While that‘s nice for the pool, it‘s not always so nice for fitness facilities–especially fitness facilities that don‘t have adequate cooling systems.

Hear comes the rant…

A health club I frequent (for their business‘ sake, the facility shall remain nameless) is not a place you want to be when it‘s warm outside, unless you‘re training for some sort of competition in a swamp. It‘s hot. It‘s muggy. It‘s dank. And this is just when you‘re standing there. It‘s a whole other sweaty ballpark when you‘re working out. It‘s so bad that the windows fog up. Gross, I know.

In my time working out at this facility, I‘ve come to know the coolest places in the joint. The rooms by the front desk aren‘t too bad, and the weight room has a nice breeze, but the true sanctuary from the sweltering heat is the group exercise room. It‘s always cool, crisp and refreshing. If there‘s one area this facility got right, it‘s the group ex room.

So, you‘ll see why I was so shocked when I attended a Latin-based dance class last week and almost died from heat exhaustion. Okay, maybe that‘s a bit over exaggerated, but I certainly feel as though someone could have died from heat exhaustion, especially if they shook their hips to full exertion, which I believe all 22 of us in that room didn‘t have the good sense to try. (If you think doing the salsa is hard on dry land, try it at 85-degrees with a sweat-spotted wood floor.)

I later learned that this scenario was not the club‘s fault. A new instructor subbing a mind/body class earlier that day had somehow figured out a way to increase the temperature in the studio for her class‘ needs. I had no idea the club offered Bikram yoga.

And, of course, no one could figure out how to get the temperature back down to normal, so we were left dancing and sweating with the heat blasting down on us in late May.

The one plus from this sweltering adventure though (besides the fact that the class was fun), is that the rest of the club, by comparison, seemed like an icebox…or a fridge with high humidity. Regardless, it felt better. And, I now remember to dress in layers when going to the gym, so that I can, take some clothes off, if it does get hot in here.

Note: Thankfully, the heating issue in the group ex studio was corrected the next day. The rest of the gym is another story. –Jennipher

Big news came out late yesterday from Bally. In a press release that at first looked so much like just a bunch of legalese and financial speak that I almost stopped reading, I spied the words “Chapter11″ and paused for a moment before devouring the rest of the release. Bally Total Fitness was announcing that it would restructure through a Chapter 11 filing of its parent company, Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. and some of its subsidiaries.

This announcement has been anticipated for a while now, but I didn’t think it would happen until later this summer. However, the fact that Barry Elson stepped down about a month ago might have been a hint that this was coming sooner.

The company says that it will continue operations as normal as it restructures. They just need consent from some of their other bondholders to make the filing.

Let’s hope this move is what management needs to turn around the company and make one of the best known names in our industry a better example of the industry. -Pam