Tight times

When Jerrad Roberts lost his job, friends urged him to try some well-deserved sloth. Bad movies. Elastic-waist pants. Malt beverages.

But the 29-year-old former insurance consultant declined the traditional recession diet and headed to the gym, diving into a regimen of mixed martial arts and kickboxing. “The recession just doesn’t matter as much when you’re kicking someone’s ass,” he says. “And nothing works quite like a good shot of endorphins to help get that extra cover letter out the door.”

The gym industry may not be recession-proof (note Bally’s recent Chapter 11 filing), but NYC fitness experts are cautiously optimistic. “I’ve had an influx of people with more time on their hands,” observes Terri Walsh, a private personal trainer whose clients include former masters of the Wall Street universe. “Clients who have been fired and paid out” are ramping up their routines, using a renewed dedication to fitness to stave off postemployment blues. “A lot of them are burnt out from their jobs,” Walsh says. “Some are totally reevaluating their lives.”

J. Travis, brand manager for New York Health & Racquet Club, has observed a similar trend. Though he admits that some clients have temporarily frozen memberships, he’s seen peak weekday usage increase 10 to 20 percent as layoff victims take their angst to the treadmill. New clients for personal training, Travis notes, are up by 11 percent.

Motivated members of the city’s new leisure class may be keeping gyms filled for now, but it remains to be seen whether their patronage will continue once severance packages have dwindled. Lenny Heron, general manager at Synergy’s 22nd Street location, told us he’d have to wait till January to say. But boosts in membership inquiries shortly before the New Year have kept him optimistic. In the two weeks before Christmas alone, he’d signed up nearly 80 new members—evidence that despite the economy, in the gym world, he says, “You don’t see significant changes.”

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