Fitness centers, spas open the doors to relaxation
Investing in a health club has been found to be the fastest growing segment of market around the world today. It is little wonder then that hundreds of health clubs have mushroomed in cities both big and small, including Jakarta.
Typically, a top club can be spread over a 20,000-square-feet area even in a crying-for-space city like London. Designers need the sprawling area to let their imagination run wild, apart from providing a sense of space to the busy executive cramped in little cubicles at offices all day long.
The fitness center at the Hilton Hotel changed its name recently to LifeSpa, where the concept is to make clients not just look good, but to also feel good. Walls came tumbling down as the gym was expanded by three times its previous size to accommodate activities that promise to give new life to both the tired and the terrible looking. The more fancy clubs are even divided up into different theme zones.
Instead of the unimaginative reception area, an up-market, creatively designed club exclusively for you may include a cafe- bar at the entrance itself, where soft drinks and the all favorite cappuccinos are of course available all the time but so is beer. At one end is found the fitness center with the cardiovascular and weights machines.
The theme areas have names like Ironworks with free weights. The Power Zone is designed like a nightclub. Here the environment is pitch dark with a 12-foot video screen, blue neon lights and up to 30 or 40 pieces of cardiovascular equipment like bikes and treadmills. The music here is very loud and the idea is to completely switch off from the world outside.
Health experts feel it is important to create this special boutique atmosphere to prevent people from getting bored while they work out.
The chief executive of one such club said: "Many stop exercising due to boredom."
To keep the clients coming, clubs are being specially designed and segmented into different areas with different atmospheres and equipped with a variety of music according to the mood of the moment, giving members a plethora of choice under the same roof.
There are zones with names like Planet Spin where groups do fitness exercises on bikes but rather than put them in aerobics classes or on the squash court they are afforded a spinning room of their own to work out among painted stars and planets that are lit up with ultra violet light.
The traditional concept of keeping the lap-swimming pool continues along with the sauna and jacuzzi. However the changing rooms are made more luxurious for all those using the gym or undergoing beauty treatment like facials, massage or the traditional art of body scrub.
Here in Jakarta, Club Borobudur boasts the biggest premises. "It is the adjoining garden that makes my club one of the most attractive one in town," said Karinza Langitan, manager.
Fitness freaks use the garden for jogging in the early hours of the morning, when they are able to do so to the accompaniment of an entire orchestra made up of chirping birds.
Working out in the open air after office hours can mean that members may have a full moon to keep them company.
Karinza, who arrived to the Borobudur Hotel after a stint as recreation manager at a holiday resort in Phuket, Thailand, said that the ball game here is played to a completely different set of rules. In Phuket, all that the visitors wanted was constant entertainment and then they were gone.
Here, Karinza is striving to strike a long-term relationship with clients who come regularly to use the facilities at Club Borobudur like the swimming pool, squash and tennis courts and the extensive list of massage therapies from the Hawain to ancient treatments by indigenous Indonesians.
The premises are abuzz with a multitude of activities during the peak hours before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m. and now Karinza wonders how she can liven up the place with people in the afternoons as well.
"The problem with Indonesian women is that they prefer to attend various clubs for lunch, tea and talking. They are not very sporty or fitness conscious. They might go to a beauty parlor once in awhile but seldom do they venture out for a daily workout," felt Karinzan, who is in the midst of working out a way that will get all those women who do not work in offices to visit the club during the day.
More popular with women are beauty parlors like the one run by cosmetic queen Martha Tilaar. However for Martha, beauty is not just skin deep. She has always believed in cradling a healthy mind in an attractive body.
After having seduced the weary housewife, what Martha is also trying to do is to attract women executives for that special treatment that promises to rejuvenate not just their busy body but also the sagging spirit.
Earlier this year, members of the Forum for Executive Women (FEW) were invited to her beauty house for a top-to-toe indulgence based on her concept of total beauty, that believes in not only polishing up the body but also cleansing the soul.
At the executive styled Clark Hatch fitness centers, at Hotel Gran Melia Jakarta, South Jakarta, and other outlets nationwide, body and soul are catered for with the utmost forethought and professionalism.
Along with providing personalized workouts, under the supervision of qualified staff and with top-notch equipment, whirlpools, massage rooms and spas make up the complete compliment.
Many hotels have now added a resort to their facilities and made wives very happy by combining the husband's love for golf with a spa. Instead of having to spend lonely weekends at home, more and more wives are now soaking themselves into luxurious spas unmindful of the husband stranded at the links, enabling the family to have a day out or vacation that is enjoyed by all and not just by the lord and master of the house. (Mehru Jaffer)