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NEWSWIRE
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The mouse that roared: Small gym gets its footing |
By John Craig, Editor - 05.01.2008
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ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Carol Kranitz pulls no punches when describing the old fitness center at the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community Center.
"It was a deep dark dungeon," she said of the 1,300-square-foot basement gym.
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Not anymore.
Last winter, beat-up free weights and benches were sent packing, never to return, and 1980s vintage Trotter treadmills, reliable as they were, rolled out the door for the final time. In their place came a completely new lineup of leased equipment.
In March, the JCC shut the fitness center down for a couple of weeks as workers installed new flooring and wall-length mirrors, and applied fresh paint and added a couple of big windows.
The upgrades cost $110,000 and cast the dungeon in a new light.
"It's probably the nicest little fitness center that I've seen," said Anthony Slayen, a fitness consultant for the JCC Association in New York. "It's a perfect example of how to turn a small space into something special."
Clarence Cook, fitness director at the Allentown JCC, said the gym has achieved the unusual - adding a lot more workout stations, 32 in total, without cramping members.
To maximize square footage, Cook went with Cybex's space-saving VR3 line of strength machines. The wall-length mirror, meanwhile, tricks the eye into thinking the room is larger than it actually is, and the windows create a feeling of openness, making it easier to nudge cardio machines closer together.
"The floor plan was a big challenge, but we made it work," said Cook, who estimated that 150 people a day visit the fitness center now - a lot more than in the dungeon days.
Besides the Cybex selectorized line, the facility has new weights, benches and dumbbells, four Precor treadmills, three Cybex Arc Trainers, a trio of bikes and a pair of ellipticals.
"There's a lot of competition in the area, from LA Fitness to Gold's to a 24-hour racquetball club," Cook noted. "We can't compete with them in terms of size, but definitely can compete on quality. We're right there with them."
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