Friday, March 29, 2024 Mar 29, 2024
58° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Publications

SALON SHOPPING

Finding a club that suits your personality
By Montgomery Ford |

PERHAPS YOU’VE noticed all these buildings that have full-length mirrors on their walls. They’re called exercise salons – not to be confused with saloons and sometimes not to be confused with exercise itself.

There are more than 200 salons, spas, gyms, training centers and weight-loss facilities in Dallas, and about 50 of them proudly claim that with their help, you can get into shape without messing up your hair or impaling yourself on an exercycle.

If Dallas is not the mecca of exercise salons (most of which are named after women you will never meet), it can at least offer you any form of exercise you want, from big-muscle body building at Doug’s Gym to a “Workout with Fran” at Aerobics To Go or the Fountain of Youth hot tub at the National Health Studio. Whether you prefer to wrap your body in tinfoil, mummylike bandages or a Danskin and then contort about on a carpet while Diana Ross sings for a man with muscles to “hold onto,” we’ve got it for you in the healthy city. Take it from us, dears. In chic Dallas, everyone who is anyone belongs to an exercise salon. Nowadays, it’s just so tacky to go out in the back yard and actually do push-ups.

Here, then, is a sampling of some of Dallas’ exercise salons – with just one word of advice: A study released recently by the University of Indiana indicates that a person’s level of physical fitness peaks at the age of 14. In other words, no matter how hard you work-out, it’s all downhill.

Salons for rich young mothers: Where can you pick up the latest gossip on Highland Park life, not to mention designer jogging clothes? The Junior League crowd heads to a few elite studios such as the Highland Park Athletic Club, 4616 Travis, where Jenny Ferguson runs 56 classes weekly. For $3.50 a class, you go through dozens of exhausting floor exercises. Ferguson also has a studio at 6959 Arapaho in far North Dallas and is opening another in Preston Center June 6. Another favorite of the Highland Park crowd is the B.J. Norris salon, 3020 Monticello. She offers five classes a day at $4 a session. Each class is limited to 12 women and involves some weight training. One of the most popular exercise programs for the chic is at The Workout (one studio at 12300 Inwood, another at 4420 Lovers Lane and a new one at 17390 Preston). The charge is $5 per class or $3.75 per class on a monthly rate. Like Ferguson’s program, The Workout offers floor exercises exclusively.

Pickup salons: Only during the last two or three years has Dallas embraced the idea that members of the opposite sex should exercise alongside one another. Now, of course, a new social code has been added to singles living. Eye contact is made across rows of Nautilus equipment; the first words are exchanged when one passes another on the jogging lanes. Those long, revealing conversations comparing astrological signs have been replaced by discussions on body-fat ratio. No longer does a man buy a woman a glass of Cha-blis; now it’s an orange juice-egg-banana milkshake. You can best see this at work at the President’s Health Club, 5919 Forest Lane, where former pro football quarterback Joe Namath created a sensation last spring by sitting in the whirlpool every afternoon and talking to women. To join President’s, which has several other locations, you pay a $500 initiation fee and $25 monthly dues. Another great singles spot is the downtown YMCA ($150 initiation fee, $27.50 a month dues), 601 N. Akard, where men go through the aerobic-dancing classes just to bump into women. Perhaps the one health club that is truly promoting singles mingling is The Exchange, 700 N. Harwood. In addition to the usual array of racquetball courts, indoor track and weight equipment, there is a restaurant/bar. The initiation fee for The Exchange is $1,000. Men pay $55 monthly dues; women pay $42 a month.

Incredible Hulk salons: “First of all, we’re not a salon,” says Doug Eidd, owner of Doug’s Gym. “We lift weights here. That’s all.” Doug’s Gym, 20101/2 Commerce, is your basic metal-clanking, arm-curling body gym. Doug says that “99.9 percent of the clientele is male.” He charges $225 a year. Polly Hildebrand, one of the better female body builders in the city, works out at the Austin Gym of Dallas, 24 Arapaho Village, Richardson.

The how-to-shape-up-while-sleeping salon: The Davisson Clinic, 600 S. Central Expressway, has an exercise room that consists of 100 big-cushioned reclining chairs. Davisson, a psychologist, puts 70 to 100 people in a big room, dims the lights, hypnotizes them and then tells them to stop eating, get in shape and develop a good figure. The first visit is free; each follow-up visit costs $15.

The worship-the-sun salon: Listed under “Physical Fitness” in the Dallas Yellow Pages is the American Sun Tanning Salon, 8363 Park Lane. Here, you lie on tanning beds for 30 minutes. The cost: $3 for 10 minutes. When asked why this should be considered physical fitness, an office worker said, “Well, tanning is part of being physically attractive.”

Best salon in which to injure yourself: Three floors above the Baylor Hospital Emergency Room is the Baylor Medical Center for Physical Conditioning, 3500 Gaston. This is one of the best-kept secrets of the Dallas health clubs. If you’re a member of the Baylor staff, the initiation fee is $50 and annual dues are $240; for anyone else, the initiation fee is $100 and the yearly fee is $300. The club has a variety of weight machines, a cushioned track, saunas and a “High-Stepping Fitness” exercise program that involves aerobic dancing. If you’re visiting a friend in the hospital or are just in the neighborhood, you can work out there for $5 a day.

Salon with the most spirit: The Piano First Baptist Church sponsors “Believer-cise,” a physical fitness routine that uses gospel music set to a rock beat. For 55 minutes-the length of a good church service – a group of fitness disciples is led through a series of exercises. The women also sing to the music (“I’m gonna keep on shouting till the world knows Jesus saves”). At the end, participants lie down and listen to a quiet gospel song, then head for home. If the program doesn’t get you ready for the annual marathon at White Rock Lake, it might help you walk across it.

Most shocking salon: The Merry Mark-um Skin Care & Bodyworks, 8226 Douglas, is typical of those establishments that promise exercise without sweat. Its attendants put moist rubber pads on the motor joints of your body. Then they flip the switch, and small electrical charges make the muscles contract and relax. Six weeks of this non-exercise costs $150. Merry Markum (also winner of the salon with the cutest name) uses a body wrap consisting of cellophane and an enzyme cream to break up fat. But another salon called the Body Wrap, 604 W. Randol Mill, uses Ace bandages dipped in an all-natural mineral solution and charges $25 for a one-hour-and-45-minute wrap. Sorry, but in the great cellulite debate, we don’t know which is better: sitting around in a bunch of cellophane or sitting around in Ace bandages. We’d rather be sitting around in Dior.

The salon for the new woman: You’ve heard about Cosmopolitan Lady, with its aerobic dance classes, and there’s a chance that you’ve seen the Spa Lady advertisements. But have you heard of Pat Walker? Or Gloria Marshall? They embrace the philosophy (a philosophy usually found in such publications as Future Shock or inthe lyrics of New Wave songs) that asks(in essence), “Why do anything at all whenwe have machines that will do it for us?”Pat Walker’s Figure Perfection Salon, 247W. Camp Wisdom, and the Gloria Marshall Figure Salons (six locations) offerwhat is called passive exercise – you hookyourself to a machine and let it do all thework for you. You simply stand therewhile the machine pushes you this way andthat. There is no flat rate at Gloria Marshall; each woman has an individualizedprogram. Pat Walker charges $5 per treatment, which lasts for 30 minutes. Thedifference between the two is the type ofmachines used, but neither of the salonsbelieves that you should have to strain atall.

Related Articles

Image
Arts & Entertainment

Here’s Who Is Coming to Dallas This Weekend: March 28-31

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend. Pencil in some live music in between those egg hunts and brunches.
Image
Arts & Entertainment

Arlington Museum of Art Debuts Two Must-See Nature-Inspired Additions

The chill of the Arctic Circle and a futuristic digital archive mark the grand opening of the Arlington Museum of Art’s new location.
By Brett Grega
Image
Arts & Entertainment

An Award-Winning SXSW Short Gave a Dallas Filmmaker an Outlet for Her Grief

Sara Nimeh balances humor and poignancy in a coming-of-age drama inspired by her childhood memories.
By Todd Jorgenson
Advertisement