Gymnsia

Part 5 - `This is why you work out'

by Michael Joseph Gross

Which brings us back to Adam.

A few years ago, David Barton became the king of New York's glamour-gym culture, thanks in large part to an ad campaign featuring slogans such as "No pecs, no sex." In the same vein, Adam Berke promoted his gym by running ads in Boston newspapers declaring "This is why you work out." The missing antecedent is provided by the ad's main visual: a Ritts-y glam-art photo of an ectomorphic man and woman, limbs entwined, heads cropped off.

More than a few of Berke's clients bear more than a passing resemblance to these models. On the night I visited the Adam Berke gym, about a dozen young people moved from station to station in the weight room, most of them wearing sleek, uniform-like workout gear emblazoned with Berke's name. I didn't recognize any famous people, but Adam's wife and business partner, Katherine, told me "Adam trains lots of celebs . . . like the Patriots cheerleaders."

Perhaps it's true that the Athens of America could do with a little bit of Dionysia to shake up our sometimes too-staid town. Adam himself hints at the Athenian connection when he describes his approach to fitness: "It's the overall Greek philosophy of combining art, athleticism, and wine in one. . . . They used to have a coliseum, but we have a gym."

Yet a splashy, glitzy party gym needs a splashy, glitzy party town to keep it going, and Boston simply may not be scene-y enough to sustain a business with the social ambitions of Berke's. Boston's gym culture thrives by honoring its citizens' social insularity; there's little room in this picture for a business whose goal is to supplant our social caste system by the sheer force of star power. Furthermore, one senses from Berke's historical slip that it's really Rome, not Athens, where this Dionysia belongs.

Back to part 4

Michael Joseph Gross is a freelance writer living in Boston. He can be reached at MJG25@aol.com.