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HEALTHY LIFESTYLES - March 2005 Getting Fit Fast
His is not like any other private gym in Lexington. Between a giant sandpit and a $100,000 array of metabolism and fat measuring machines, there are few places in Kentucky where so much science and sweat meet. Pounds is the director of the state’s only High Intensity Training Center – HIT, for short – and it is no place for fitness slackers. No one’s workout regime slips under the radar here. Pounds assigns a personal trainer to each of his clients – a non-negotiable part of the package. He’s confident of his concept’s appeal. “This is for the individual that wants the accountability of a trainer and the expertise of a trainer,” Pounds said. “We ask you what your goals are. Then we sit down and talk with you about what realistically it’s going to take to get you there.” About a year old, the center is a personal trainer’s dream: A high-tech laboratory with a plastic, NASA-like bubble machine for measuring body fat content, a video batting cage simulator and a scaled-down synthetic-turf football field. It’s fully staffed by certified trainers or graduate-school interns. And it’s part of a national chain that’s growing from West Virginia to Jacksonville, Fla. to Denver, Col. Pounds had the idea to open a rigorous fitness center in the Lexington area when he met a professor at Marshall University who told him about a similar gym that had just opened in Huntington, W.Va. A short time later, Pounds opened the second HIT Center in the country and became the first franchisee of the now Ohio-based company. Penny pinchers be warned: The center’s fitness improvement program, “HIT FIT,” rings up at $740 for a four-week intensive program. Other programs targeted at pro and aspiring athletes go for similar rates. And “Lighten Up,” a month-long weight-loss regimen that includes nutrition counseling, carries the largest price tag: $875. But for busy professionals who can afford the program – executives and engineers, for example – HIT Centers are becoming increasingly attractive. Dr. Terry Shepherd, who founded the first center in Huntington, W.Va., after stumbling on the concept while teaching exercise physiology at Marshall University, said the efficient, rigorous workout just makes sense for those who want results but don’t have the time to hang out at a Gold’s Gym. In his native Huntington, lawyers and surgeons round out the 6 a.m. crowd at the HIT Center. Pete Mendell was one of the founding members of the 6 a.m. crowd at the Lexington franchise. On a recent morning, the 50-year-old industrial designer bounced up and down on a treadmill as his trainer pushed a button to boost the machine’s resistance. Mendell has been trying for years to lose weight brought on by hours of work in the cubicle-laden tech sector. “It’s not easy getting up and leaving the house at 6:15 in the morning and working out for an hour,” he said. But “they push me.” Not all HIT workouts are cutting-edge and trendy – some are just unique. Most aerobic exercises done on the floor can also be done in a giant indoor sandbox (Pounds jokes that it keeps clients from getting cocky). Or for a new twist on squats, workouts can incorporate a keg walk that combines carrying a water-filled keg with forward lunges. But HIT Centers are not for the half-hearted, Shepherd warned. “If you are very serious about our training in terms of a goal, then you’re a good candidate,” he said. “If you’re giving lip service to that, you’ll find out very quickly it’s not for you.” So if your idea of a health club is part workout and part social scene, you’re better off sticking where you are. Meanwhile, HIT Center’s particular blend of trendy technology and high-accountability is spreading. Shepherd expects franchises to open soon across Texas, Ohio, St. Louis and Kansas City. When they do, Pound’s gym will become the nationwide training center for HIT directors-to-be. “We’d like for all our centers to look like his,” Shepherd said. “It’s a real good set-up.”
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Like the company he runs, there’s nothing laid-back about Rick Pounds. He logs more than 10 hours a day in his gym, talks briskly and frankly, wheeling his body and quipping in several directions at once as he juggles conversations between athletes, trainers and a visiting reporter.