Fitness centers, spas open the doors to relaxation

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)