It seems Bob Sinclar was onto something when he released fruity disco workout Gym Tonic in 1998. The track, co-authored by Daft Punk, illegally sampled a Jane Fonda fitness video and, briefly, brought the worlds of night and health-club colliding together. Now, over a decade later, New York is witnessing the fully-fledged rise of the ‘disco gym’ – gyms geared up as and promoted like serious nightclubs - and plans are afoot for expansion into London.
Sinclar’s Tonic triumph did, of course, trigger an active market for dance music-orientated fitness DVDs during the Noughties. Ministry Of Sound’s ongoing Pump It Up! series immediately springs to mind; as well as the infamous video for Eric Prydz' 'Call on Me', and for a short time, the club even hosted workout nights at its famous Gaunt Street premises. But it is in the States, today, that clubland is offering its closest, most tangible association with personal fitness yet.
Soul Cycle, just north of what used to be the World Trade Centre, is at the heart of the matter. The gym’s hugely popular ‘spinning’ classes (sessions built around stationary exercise bikes) take place under moody nightclub lighting to thumping house music.
Elizabeth Cutler, who founded Soul Cycle two years ago with business partner Julie Rice, suggests that people are bored of gyms offering restrictive, low quality classes; she adds that people are leading busier lives and therefore it is “so much the better” if they can bleed social function into their fitness mix. “[It’s a] cardio party, there are no Blackberries allowed” she explains. “You go in there to be free. Many of our members probably used to go clubbing a lot and now don’t, either because of kids or getting older, so this gives them a little reconnection to that.”
Should you really not have time to go full-on clubbing, Soul Cycle isn’t you’re only option. Crunch, a chain of slick Big Apple gyms offers several club-vibed classes, whilst Brooklyn Boulders, a cavernous climbing space in Brooklyn, utilises house and hip-hop DJs and graffiti artists. “Here you can improve your physical wellness and let us entertain you” says Roger delaCruz, one of the centre’s managers. “Even when the DJ isn’t here we like to think of ourselves as a nightclub.”
Meanwhile, based in New York as well as Miami, Seattle and Chicago, Dave Barton Gyms ensures that the décor in each of its venue more than reflects clubland. “I come from the nightclub world” Barton himself, 45, explains. “It’s meant to feel physical, sexy, raw, with a hint of glamour. When I created my first gym in 1992 it was at the time people were leaving nightclubs in New York, people were growing up. I wanted to create a similar vibe and energy to a nightclub.”
Barton’s flagship gym in New York’s East Village mixes plush velvet walkways, black walls, low-level lighting and opulent ornamentation to maximum effect. In the main workout space, a DJ booth cut from a 12ft mirrorball finds itself surrounded by row upon row of spot-lit weight and cardio-machines. DJs play four nights a week. “I knew we’d need a giant disco ball” Barton says, whose next step for the business is an energetic one across the ‘Pond’ to London.
When he does arrive, Barton won’t be offering an alien concept. Ministry experiments aside, London is well on its way to emulating the Big Apple’s exhilarating ‘disco gym’ trend. Capital gym chain Gym Box is offering regular rave classes - nightclubbing-style sessions with resident DJs every night of the week. Further afield, Swindon’s 1,400-member ‘24hr Gym’ has been using DJs in its exercise spaces for three years now.
It all makes sense to fashion photographer Thomas Knight, who launched the hugely over-subscribed Disco Health Club back in January. Here, super-agile instructors lead their willing charges through early evening sets of vigorous exercise and uplifting disco – complete with smoke machines and lasers – before a traditional club night kicks in. “I think many gym-goers have grumbles about heading to a class straight after work. More and more gyms, I think, are looking to use entertainment to heighten the appeal of their various programmes.”
For Knight, it was a magazine assignment on ‘extreme detox-ing’ late last year that actually inspired his ‘Club’. “I have a background in music” he says, “I used to be in disco bands and promote nights involving the likes of Horse Meat Disco. I suddenly thought why not combine the fun of those experiences with the whole concept of keeping fit and healthy. A lot of people want to detox or go to the gym but it’s not always the most appealing prospect; the Disco Health Club offers you the opportunity to socialise and get healthy at the same time. Things have gone extremely well so far.
Knight concludes: “People are over-busy these days. There’s a need to fuse extra-curricular activities; save time but maintain the positivity. That was definitely a major factor in setting up the night.”
Truly, the clubbing scene has never been so healthy...
Visit www.soul-cycle.com, www.brooklynboulders.com, www.davidbartongym.com, www.gymbox.co.uk and www.discohealthclub.com for more info and to get you in the disco-gym spirit, check out mix compilations like Work That Body.
