Baby boomers create boomlet at health clubs around city

Alice Osborne, a fit 60-year-old real estate agent, works out six times a week.

She also shops at Whole Foods, drinks "tons of water" and believes in holistic health.

For personal fitness training and nutritional advice, she heads to the Lifestyle Center of Annapolis, an intimate fitness "boutique" on Old Solomons Island Road, just across from the Annapolis Harbour Center.

"I get my vitamins, my herbs from here," she said.

Ms. Osborne is part of the baby-boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964.

Her age group is generally wealthier, better-educated, and more inclined to seek out alternative health methods instead of popping pills.

To stay younger longer, Ms. Osborne and other boomers are heading to health clubs at a rapid rate, and fitness centers are tweaking business plans to pull them in.

Michael Sallustio, owner of the Lifestyle Center of Annapolis, was so confident in the baby-boomer market that in April 2006 he transformed his fitness center, formerly known as In Good Health, into a boutique focused on rehabilitative exercises in a spa-like atmosphere.

"With this age group, specifically, the shoulders start to go," said Mr. Sallustio, who expects boomers to help him double his annual revenue to $700,000 by April 2008. "So we really changed to focus on those conditions."

One of his first tasks was a name change. That was before he tossed out the name "Boomers."

"They didn't even want to be categorized like that," said Mr. Sallustio.

The boomer group is the fastest-growing demographic of health club members, said Rosemary Lavery, spokesman for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. National health club memberships among people 55 and older has jumped 16 percent, from 6.9 million in 2002 to 8 million in 2005, according to the association.

In response, clubs are incorporating services focused on a "sense of wellness" - from massage therapy and personal training to Pilates that put less stress on the joints, said Ms. Lavery.

Mike Myers, owner of the Annapolis Athletic Club, said baby boomers make up 46 percent of his membership, up from 41 percent in March 2004.

Baby boomers are filling up the club's "group power" fitness classes, he said. He said he expects the new "centargy" classes - a combination of yoga, strength training, and cardio - to be a hit when they start this summer.

"As a group they are a tremendous audience," Mr. Myers said of baby boomers. "They have the resources to be able to invest in their health."

Chris Poole, front desk manager at Merritt Athletic Club in Annapolis, said boomers are the club's "main demographic." Boomer favorites include racquetball, along with group classes such as "Body Pump," which incorporates the use of barbells with adjustable weights, he said.

At the Lifestyle Center of Annapolis, Mr. Sallustio made several changes, including replacing the "one-size-fits-all" exercise equipment with machines that provide a broader range of motion. He hired contractors to provide small group classes for tai chi, yoga, and Pilates, with no more than six participants.

Certified Pilates instructor Noelle Richmond who started at the Lifestyle Center in May, estimates that 75 percent of her clients are baby boomers looking to strengthen core muscles and stretch for longer, leaner muscles.

She said she enjoys working with the boomers, who are focused on improving their health, not "thinner thighs."

Yoga instructor Gretchen Serinis said the boomers who fill up her classes look at health from a holistic approach.

"It's really an awake group of people," she said.