Red Cassis suit, Eres

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TK; ILLUSTRATION BY TK
Red Cassis suit, Eres
($490). 303 Worth
Ave., Palm Beach,
561-655-1660;
eres.com. Glasses,
stylist’s own
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Pushed
to the
limit
Swinging from harnesses, flipping over tires, posing like a
crab, and a daily wardrobe of Lululemon—an inside look at
the current culture of fitness in Miami.
By Michael Kaplan
Photograhy by Billy Coleman
R
ight now, Anya Ellerbroek is probably mere hours
away from her next workout. Lean, blonde, attractive,
sporting the latest Lululemon, and quite possibly
sweating, she ranks among Miami’s top fitness devotees. Workouts are scheduled at a minimum of six days
per week, as she bounces between old-fashioned
weight training at Equinox, the defined muscle development of Purgatory Boot Camp, high-energy spin
classes, sweat sessions of Bikram yoga, and then back to Equinox for a
Metcon3 class: 10 different exercises in 10 minutes, repeated three times,
where muscle-fatigue is all but guaranteed. Rigorous workouts have given
her a fit body, a healthy heart, social cachet, and something to discuss at dinner parties. As hardcore and possibly excessive as that routine seems, it is the
new normal among a growing population of fitness fanatics in Miami.
Ellerbroek exemplifies the current breed of Miami’s body-conscious elite, a
cadre of folks who look their best in as little clothing as possible, which makes
perfect sense given our city’s climate. The “scene” in Miami has always been
hyper body-conscious, with its model-industry elements and nearby beach, but
today, there’s been an explosion of fitness methods. No wonder someone as
driven as Ellerbroek can fill up a weekly calendar.
For Ellerbroek, a student at Nova Southeastern University studying sports
and exercise science, the classes—which provide a kind of esprit de corps that
you can’t get sweating in solitude—go beyond merely improving health and
aesthetics. At Equinox, for example, housewives pile in for multiple classes per
day, building their afternoons around the calorie-burning sessions and showing up early to ensure prime spaces, and of course to gab and catch up since
yesterday’s class. Elsewhere around town, in-house juice bars serve as perfect
pickup spots or meeting points for friends. “Fitness is a major part of my life,”
Ellerbroek says. “I’ve met great people; going to the gym is part of my social
life.” Fitness fashion can also be a badge of honor, she notes: “It’s part of the
reason why you see people wearing workout clothes when they’re shopping for
groceries, even if they aren’t going to the gym that day. It’s a way of letting
everyone know that they have healthy, active lives.”
Joseph Anthony, CEO of Vital Sports Entertainment, has described the
Miami market as “endemic to fitness.” When SweatUSA, a fitness expo,
recently debuted at the Miami Beach Convention Center, 3,000 exercisers
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showed up to take part in classes such as Piloxing
(a Pilates-boxing hybrid), to hero-worship guys
like Tony Horton, creator of the P90X workout formula, and to score workout tips from super trainer
Jillian Michaels, who moved her company down
here. Miami, which was once deemed among the
fattest cities in America by Men’s Fitness magazine,
now boasts a booming fitness market and is luring
major get-in-shape firms. Fitness is as much a part
of the Miami DNA now as the beach and sun.
T
he newest arrival is Barry’s Bootcamp Miami in Sunset Harbour, a
program that already has a crazed
following in New York City and Los
Angeles. Derek DeGrazio, the company’s partner and lead instructor, who has
worked with everyone from Britney Spears to
Kim Kardashian, views the addition of Miami as
completing a fitness trifecta. Barry’s workout sessions take place in a mirrored room, with
atmospherically dim lighting and blasts of motivational music. It’s interval-based with 30
minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of strength
training, working individual muscles for no
more than one minute at a time. The pacing is so
intense that a 1,000-calorie burn is the goal,
negating that neighboring JugoFresh açai bowl
you’ll probably down after class.
“Exercise is very trendy right now, and when a
new workout comes to the city, it’s a big deal,”
says DeGrazio, not needing to mention that
Barry’s is at the forefront of a trend: boutique
classes. “Clients enjoy the energy of a group situation, but our instructors give individual
attention so that it also feels like a private class.
We walk around the room, show how it’s done,
and correct form. But at the same time, you see
yourself in the mirror and see the silhouettes of
the other people in the class. Everybody’s working hard. It’s very inspiring.”
Long before sledgehammers were swung (a boot
camp staple) and salsa steps toned the core, Miami
had already gotten into the fitness act. Back in
1969, the big players were Jack LaLanne, Vic
Tanny, and Gold’s Gym. Working out meant lifting
weights and using vibrating abdominal toning
belts; housewives, however, were nowhere near
the gyms, which were the domain of beefy
176
muscle-heads and in-the-know health enthusiasts.
Workouts became more efficient in the 1970s when
Nautilus machines hit the market and circuit training debuted. Things blew up big a decade later,
after Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda turned
women on to aerobics, setting off a fashion trend in
leg warmers and short-shorts, which somehow
evolved into the stylish tanks and skinny yoga
pants that have come to define Lululemon.
By the 1980s, industry veteran Peter Cicale
owned Olympia Gym and Fitness Center (which
he still has, in Aventura) and took notice of his cardio-craving women carefully checking out the
weights and aiming for lean musculature. Step
classes came into vogue during the early 1990s,
David Barton opened up Miami’s first gym-asdisco in ’95 at the Delano, and spinning became all
the rage as the decade ended. Then, in 2003,
Alberto “Beto” Perez showed up in Cicale’s gym
and they debuted the game-changing Zumba
there. It became the hottest thing in Miami, let
alone globally, with a Guinness World Record set
in Mexico, where 6,633 participants Zumbaed
simultaneously. Throw in boxing, body sculpting,
and private training, which were all big during the
early 2000s, and the fitness boom was clearly in full
swing. Fattest city? Hardly.
When the recession hit in 2008, boutique classes
suddenly came on strong. But that was more out of
necessity than desire. “A lot of people couldn’t
afford private trainers,” says Cicale. “The smallgroup classes provided a way to get personal
attention without needing to pay for a private
instructor.” From then until now, all manner of
small classes—Equinox offers 90 of them per
week—have blossomed. Currently, they are the preferred means for getting fit. It all makes private
training—even for those who can afford it—the
equivalent of having a personal chef for solitary
home dining while everyone else lives it up at
Prime One Twelve.
And Barry’s isn’t alone in this new boutique
arena. DeGrazio acknowledges nobody expects
monogamy when it comes to exercise classes, citing the fact that he is happy to be in close proximity
to Green Monkey, the entrenched yoga mecca of
South Beach. Miami provides plenty of fitness promiscuity options: There’s the no-holds-barred
warehouse aesthetic of Fight Club, where you can
running
is so... 2013
Miami’s favorite
alternative sweats.
Reebok Crossfit:
Qualifying as the It workout of the
moment, CrossFit combines cardio,
explosive movement, and
weightlifting. “It’s different every
day, and it is competitive,” says
Nathan Forster, owner of Reebok
CrossFit. “Our clients appreciate
spending one hour out of each day
to look better and to become
better people.” 930 Alton Road,
Miami Beach, 305-397-8655;
reebokcrossfitmiamibeach.net
Barry’s Bootcamp: A
newcomer on the Miami fitness
scene, Barry’s Bootcamp uses a
well-designed studio and
motivating trainers to pump up 30
minutes of cardio and 30 minutes
of weight training per session. “The
majority of people come here
looking for the lean and sexy tone,”
says partner and lead instructor
Derek DeGrazio. “By combining
strength and cardio, we offer
effective workouts that perfectly
suit an active-lifestyle city.” 1835
Purdy Ave., Miami Beach, no phone
yet; barrysbootcamp.com
F1RST Surf Shop:
Paddleboarding blends surfing with
kayaking, and it has emerged as a
cool, fun, effective, intuitive
workout of the moment. “It works
the whole body without you
needing to think about it,” says
Mark Gamez, owner of F1rst Surf
Shop, which offers paddleboarding
lessons. “It’s perfect for Miami, a
city where bodies of water are
more than plentiful.” 40 South
Pointe Dr., Miami Beach, 305-3978103; f1rstshop.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY TK; ILLUSTRATION BY TK
Dress, Herve Leger
($2,590). 744 Lincoln
Road, Miami Beach,
305-673-9997;
herveleger.com. Visor,
stylist’s own. Barbell
courtesy of Equinox.
520 Collins Ave., Miami
Beach, 305-673-1172;
equinox.com
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Blue Impulse suit, Eres ($420).
303 Worth Ave., Palm Beach,
561-655-1660; eres.com.
Titanium mirrored aviators,
Oliver Peoples ($450). Eyes on
Lincoln, 708 Lincoln Road, Miami
Beach, 305-532-0070;
designereyes.com. Fuel Band,
Nike ($149); nike.com. Williams
395 watch, Movado ($395).
Montica Jewelry, 75 Miracle Mile,
Coral Gables, 305-665-3966;
montica.com. Belt, Yigal Azrouel
(price on request). yigal-azrouel
.com. Sunset ankle-strap heels,
Louis Vuitton ($1,232.50).
Aventura Mall, 19501 Biscayne
Blvd., 305-936-8632;
louisvuitton.com. Custompainted Alex Mijares bike
courtesy of Flywheel
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Short cutaway dress,
Christopher Kane ($1,435).
bergdorfgoodman.com.
Visor, stylist’s own
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Purple knit bra, Dior ($1,050). 4040
NE Second Ave., Miami, 305-5734437; dior.com. One-piece peek
swim suit, Cushnie et Ochs ($375).
Intermix, Bal Harbour Shops, 9700
Collins Ave., 305-993-1232;
intermixonline.com. Clorofish watch,
Swatch ($70). 551 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach, 305-674-4888; swatch
.com. Heels, Michael Kors ($895). Bal
Harbour Shops, 9700 Collins Ave.,
305-864-144; michaelkors.com
Styling by Luiza Renuart
Hair and makeup by
Mark Williamson/Wilhelmina
Nails by Isis Antelo using
Formula X/abtp.com
Catering by SF Catering,
305-823-3322; sf-catering.com
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go to learn everything from technical boxing to a
military-style workout called Fight Camp.
Knockout Zone offers Muay Thai and Brazilian
jujitsu. Sobekick lives up to its name with a signature sweat-and-kick class—and a slogan that
encourages clients to “be fearless.” 5th St. Gym
provides an opportunity to box where Muhammad
Ali once did; sparring lessons there may not make
you GOAT (Ali’s favorite acronym: Greatest of All
Time) but they will get you in great shape with a
pedigree. CrossFit has you lifting giant truck tires
that seem best suited for an A-Rod preseason workout and whipping around weighted ropes. Ayama
Yoga Center now has slings for hanging from the
ceiling for its gravity-defying aerial yoga, Crunch
offers sessions of aerobics aboard springy attachments on the bottoms of sneakers in its Kangoo
classes, and Animal Flow at Equinox encourages
you to walk like a bear, crawl like a crab, and hop
like a frog, while the Vixen Workout, which takes
place all over Miami, involves twerking, burns up
to 1,000 calories a class, and usually includes an
afterparty. From paddleboard yoga to Surfset core
classes to inside-out barre to iron tabata to pole
dancing to Krav Maga to candlelit yoga, there
clearly is somewhere for everyone to bond and
tighten up.
B
ut it’s not all camaraderie. Some
classes cleverly use technology to
stoke your competitive nature. At
Flywheel group exercycle classes,
those who desire can have the intensity of their workouts tracked on a real-time
leaderboard, for all to see. “Three or four times
during a class, you see everyone’s total number,”
says cofounder Ruth Zukerman of the exercise
format that uses tech-packs on bikes to make
various speeds and resistances easy to maintain.
“The names jockey around, and you see who
ends up in first place. This brings it all back to
the spirit of running a race in gym class.”
How spirited is it? “Some people,” says master
instructor Aleah Stander, “are so competitive that
if they don’t hit a certain number”—or get to their
desired place in the rankings—“they stay and take a
second class in a row.” Inadvertently or not, these
might be cool Miami versions of the two-a-days
that football players endure during so-called Hell
Week—but we’re doing them year round and completely voluntarily.
As Cicale knows all too well, though, fitness fads
come and go. Remember Tae Bo? Or Step? At the
moment, according to Geoff Bagshaw, area group
fitness manager of Equinox, which has some 6,000
members paying around $150 per month in the
Miami area, high-intensity interval training ranks
as the reigning It workout. “It is very results driven,
and people like that,” says Bagshaw, whose gym
features rowing machines that are designed with
actual water in order to provide heavy resistance
and a sense of reality. “You can be in and out within
a very short period of time. More importantly, it
works. Just being on the elliptical machine will do
only so much for you, compared to high-intensity
interval training. It burns the most calories and
makes you the strongest.”
Some people are going beyond the gym and
into the lab. That has created a growing market
for physicians and chemists devising cuttingedge techniques for souping up bodies. Leading
in that arena is Dr. Ivan Rusilko, the 2008 and
2010 Mr. USA who operates out of Club Essentia
spa, atop the Delano. Amid the spa’s massage
tables and treatment rooms, he provides vitamin- and mineral-loaded IVs that offer nutrition
and hormone “balancing” and purport to burn
fat with feeds of chromium glutamine and B-12
plus about 10 other vitamins and minerals. “IV
nutrition allows you to optimize your efforts,
build muscle faster, recover faster, burn calories
faster; hormone balancing puts you back to
being 25 years old,” he says, ticking off Rihanna,
Emilio Estefan, and others as satisfied clients of
the treatments, which go for $150 to $600. “Your
body is your calling card. Looking great gets you
access.” Of course it’s also a killer quick fix for a
hangover from a late night of partying at LIV,
which is probably the only activity in Miami that
trumps fitness. Yes, it sounds a little obsessive,
but as all Miamians know, the payoff is immediately apparent. “When you’re in shape,” says
Peter Cicale, “you can wear a $4 T-shirt and look
better than someone wearing $300 Versace.
That’s just the way it is.”
And regardless of changes in exercise trends
and advances in equipment, that is what keeps
people sweating it up in the gym. OD
Stretch Zone: Way
beyond limbering up, Stretch
Zone offers techniques that
reconfigure your central nervous
system and allow muscles to
move with unimagined
flexibility. No wonder it’s been
embraced by the Los Angeles
Clippers and St. Louis Rams.
“You see instant results,” says
founder Jorden Gold—whether
it’s simply being able to touch
your toes or hitting a top-spin.
“You do things with less effort,
resulting in enhanced workouts
and a competitive edge.” 21408
W. Sixth St., Aventura, 786-3028039; stretchzone.com
Flywheel Sports:
Cycling in the gym gets you a
good cardio workout, but it
does nothing for your upper
body. Ruth Zukerman decided
to address that when she
cofounded Flywheel, an
exercise program that only
begins with cycling. “Threequarters of the way through the
class, we introduce weighted
body bars for upper-body
work,” Zukerman says. “You lift
weights while continuing to
pedal at a safe rate.” It’s all
accented by music and lighting
because, she says, “People in
Miami are into partying and
feeling great.” 1919 Purdy Ave.,
Miami Beach, 305-763-8227;
flywheelsports.com
Ayama Yoga: Yoga is
good. Doing yoga while flying
through the air is even better.
According to Mano Ardissone,
owner of Ayama, his studio’s
aerial version is “yoga meets
the circus.” You assume your
yoga poses while suspended in
a sling, which, he emphasizes,
has multiple benefits. “You
loosen up your spine, regulate
your metabolism, and stimulate
detoxification. It facilitates a
flying experience.” 2250 NE
163rd St., North Miami Beach,
305-932-7755; ayamayoga.com
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