Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, The Liberal, Copyright April 18, 1991

For the past two weeks I have been discussing an undercover operation I arranged in order to give my readers some insight into what they might expect if they joined a fitness club. I discussed the initial consultation, the exercise routine outline and what usually happens at each session.

Each club is different, however I chose Fitness Heaven in Richmond Hill because it is a local club and is hopefully fairly typical in most ways.

In the final column today I will outline the success our undercover agent had in her goal of losing 10 pounds and wanting to firm up a bit after having her third child.

Our agent lost one inch from her shoulders, her chest measurement stayed the same, she lost half an inch from her arms, three and a quarter inches from her waist, one and three quarter inches from her hips, half an inch from her thighs, one inch from her calves, and her weight dropped from 111 pounds to 100 pounds. Remarkably enough, her height remained at five feet, five inches.

The program was a success. She lost the weight she wanted. She toned her muscles, her stamina improved greatly and she felt more energetic.

DIDN’T STICK TO IT

My regular readers will remember that she didn’t stick to her program exactly as she was supposed to do. She didn’t attend for months at a time, then exercised regularly for a while, then again took a break. This is not the way it should be done, and I did discipline my undercover agent, but good agents are hard to find these days so I could not let her go in favor of another, more diligent agent.

The end result was still positive.

Regarding Fitness Heaven, the club that was kind enough to allow us to use their facilities in this operation. I must say that although there were some problems, they did pass most tests. Recommendations are that the club should be larger with more equipment which would cut down waiting time and I understand from the owner that this is in the works. Our agent did strain her pectoral muscle, her lower back and her knee all doing exercises at the club.

These may be been prevented if our subject had been exercising on a more regular basis and if she had been more diligent in her warm-up exercises. Other than these problems. Fitness Heaven passed all tests. I thank George from Fitness Heaven for all of his help.

 

If you are thinking of joining a fitness club but have concerns (inexperience, shyness, afraid of injuries, cleanliness etc.) I urge you to visit the club in your area, check it out for yourself, talk to the manager and go through the concerns that you have. Look at the whirlpools, sinks, toilets, showers, mats, machines and floors. Are they clean, or would you not let your pet lizard near them?

Ask some questions, and if you hear the right answers, go for it.

As someone by the name of Nike once said; just do it.