Clubindustry

Some weeks in the fitness industry world, the news seems non-existent for a magazine/Web site whose focus is news. That’s when we start looking at stories about children taking tumbling classes as news possibilities.

But some weeks–like this week and last week–are so chock full of news that our three-member staff has a hard time keeping up. In the past two weeks, the industry has seen a tragedy at LA Fitness and its aftermath, movement in the re-emergence of Bally Total Fitness after its bankruptcy, approval on the sale of Crunch after its bankruptcy, more

A New York Times article about an L.A. dance class called “Sweaty Sundays” just caught my eye. Participants are getting their workouts on and looking good doing it! Ryan Heffington, a choreographer and performance artist, started the class for his friends last May and now says he has to turn away students. Be sure to check out the slide show.

It’s not often that the fitness clubs industry becomes the center of a media firestorm. But that’s what happened today.

The shootings at the LA Fitness in the Pittsburgh suburb of Collier, PA (also listed as Bridgeville, PA) led off the morning news shows on all the major networks today.

“It’s certainly getting a lot of publicity,” says Rick Caro, president of Management Vision. “We’ve had these kinds of terrible situations before, but this one is getting more publicity than normal. It doesn’t reflect well on the industry at all. Obviously, it makes us [seem] unsafe.”

In our September issue, we plan to address safety in clubs (we’ve already touched on safety in university rec centers) as well as get more reaction from the industry. For now, because we would not be able to do justice to the outstanding reporting done so far, check out accounts of the shootings at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Also, be sure to check out articles about the three vicitms, Heidi Overmier, Elizabeth “Betsy” Gannon and Jody Billingsley, as well as the amazing story of the surviving dance instructor, Mary Primis, who is 10 weeks pregnant, and a story on other survivors.

Celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak has a weight-loss reality competition TV show in the works, so says The Hollywood Reporter.

The show, which is being pitched to the major TV networks, will combine the adventures of international travel with a weight-loss competition. In other words, it will be “The Biggest Loser” meets “The Amazing Race.” Pasternak’s soon-to-be released book “The 5-Factor World Diet” provided the impetus for the show.

This gives me a chance to tell you about a proposed TV fitness show created by Derek Barton, who presented at the Club Industry show last year and will be featured as part of our August cover package on marketing and branding. Barton was the marketing director at Gold’s Gym International for 20 years and now runs his own production company in L.A.

Barton, interestingly enough, started his career as an actor. He says his TV show, “Lift,” is sort of like “Cheers” except that it’s set in a fitness club. Barton says VH1 bought the show, which is currently in its third re-write.

If “Lift” takes liftoff over the airwaves, you heard it here first.