FITNESS
Fitness
At Home
Motivation is the key,
convenience a reward
for Detroit-area stay-
at-home fitness buffs.
HOWARD ROSS
Special to The Jewish News
C
onvenience, soli-
tude and a no-
nonsense, no-frills
approach to work-
ing out.
Those, say Dr. Howard
Schwartz, are the simple
reasons why much of his base-
ment more closely resembles
a sweaty, inner-city gym than
the typical posh, chrome-
mauve-and-gray exercise spas
favored by his West Bloomfield
neighbors.
Schwartz is one of a growing
number of people in metro
Detroit and across the country
who are trading their health
club memberships for home
workouts.
But home gyms, or workout
rooms — becoming de rigeur
for '90s fitness aficionados
much the same way movie
buffs took to VCRs a few years
ago — have a downside as
well, say some physical fitness
experts.
Ibpping the list are concerns
about safety and users re-
maining sufficiently
motivated to derive the long-
term benefits from their often
costly equipment.
Though local health club
managers admit they've lost
some business to the stay-at-
home exercisers, they don't
seem worried. The social
aspect of working out in a
group setting will always be a
drawing card, they contend.
Schwartz, 43, and an inter-
nist, began setting up his
home gym four years ago. To-
day, one portion of his base-
ment is home to row after row
of free-weight-style workout
apparatuses.
A partial list of the nearly
$5,000 in equipment includes
a squat rack, leg-press
machine, bench press,
weighted pulley, incline
bench, Roman chair, rowing
machine, abdominal board
and shoulder-dip and chinning
bars. There is also a Stair-
CD
says. The weight equipment
and machines help him main-
tain interest — he works out
five days a week, about 1 1/2
hours at a time, alternating
the aerobics with the weights.
Schwartz
can work out
whenever he
wants.
master for aerobic exercise.
"The biggest advantage for
me is that I can work out any
time I want to:' Schwartz says.
"Because of my work and
family schedule, that's a
tremendous plus.
"I was always active in
athletics. Before weight train-
ing, I would jog or swim," he
says. "I see this (workout
room) as kind of a natural ex-
tension of that and an ex-
cellent way to keep in physical
and mental shape."
An occasional workout part-
ner of Schwartz's is Steve
Matz, 37, an attorney and
West Bloomfield neighbor
who's had a home gym about
41/2 years.
A swimmer in high school,
Matz found less time to swim
or play basketball as he got
older and wound up investing
about $7,500 in equipment. It
includes a Universal gym
machine, which provides exer-
cise stations for different parts
of the body; free weights, a
Stairmaster and a Versa-
Climber, an aerobics machine
that simulates climbing.
However, if merely getting
vigorous aerobic exercise is
the goal, "You can go out and
get a jump rope for $3 and ac-
complish the same thing," he
Schwartz, who says he is
goal-oriented and even
somewhat obsessive about
staying fit — wife Carla Jean
insists on limiting his daily
workouts to one hour — is the
ideal candidate for home
workouts, says Mark Wiley, a
personal fitness trainer and
owner of the One on One
health club in West
Bloomfield.
"There's the time factor,
with business people especial-
ly," says Wiley of the growth
in home workouts. "Also, peo-
ple who are extremely
motivated and serious about
working out don't care about
the social environment that a
club provides."
But Wiley says fitness buffs
with the dedication of
Schwartz are in the minority,
maybe only 10 percent of the
total exercising population.
"In 90 percent of the cases,
after I wake my clients up at
home, I have to talk them into
exercising," he says.
"In fact, I have to talk them
out of talking me out of doing
it."
Bruce Landgarten, assistant
executive director of the
Jewish Community Center
and overseer of its health club,
estimates 25 percent of the
home fitness practitioners use
their equipment as much as
they originally intended.
Steve Riddle, an exercise
physiologist at MedSport, the
sports medicine clinic af-
filiated with the University of
Michigan Hospitals in Ann
Arbor, agrees. He says
elaborate home workouts may
be fine for highly motivated,
exceptionally busy people, but
the majority of people can get
adequate exercise by "buying
a simple stationary bicycle at
their local discount store."
He warns, however, about
relying on sales people who
are more interested in earning
a commission than the
customer's health and safety.
Riddle cited a patient with ar-
thritis in his knees who —
after listening to a sales pitch
— bought a stair-climber type
of exercise machine. "That
(machine) was totally counter-
productive to what this person
needed in the way of exercise,"
he says.
Ken Levy, director of fitness
for CMI Health Club in
Southfield, was one of the few
club managers to speak
positively about setting up a
home gym.
"There's nothing wrong
with doing it at home,
especially for people who don't
have a lot of free time," Levy
says. However, he recommends
prospective do-it-yourselfers
tour several health clubs and
learn how to use equipment
before they go out and pur-
chase it.
"One of the major causes of
injury is people using equip-
ment improperly," he says. "If
it takes getting a two-week
trial membership (at an area
club) to check out the equip-
ment, then do it."
Landgarten says JCC guest
passes could be used to try out
equipment, but feels talking
to trained exercise physiolo-
gists and other experts would
be better.
Even West Bloomfield's
Schwartz, who in four years
has become something of an
authority on quality equip-
ment, says he relied on recom-
mendations of more experienc-
ed experts, particularly for his
initial purchases.
Safety also concerns
Schwartz, who buys equip-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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