New York Times Covers Island Fitness: In America’s Gyms, More Than a Touch of Gray

IT’S 8:30 on a Tuesday morning at Island Fitness in Coronado, Calif., and the gym’s ambience is about to be transformed almost as markedly as was the 98-pound-weakling-turned-muscle-man in the old comic book ads.

The last of the morning workout crowd that started arriving shortly after the club opened at 5:30 is hustling out the door to work, and a second shift— a half-dozen women — is arriving for an exercise class.

The club manager, Larry Indiviglia, has laid out a circuit of exercises on the 30-foot by 20-foot outdoor patio of the gym, which is across the street from the historic Hotel del Coronado. The elastic resistance tubing, three-pound dumbbells, and stability and medicine balls would not challenge Charles Atlas, but they are just right for these retired or semiretired women.

As they begin their 30-minute regimen, the atmosphere at the club shifts. The music changes to the Beatles and the Beach Boys from the Black Eyed Peas, and the attire gives way to loose, comfortable pants and blouses, from halter tops or skin-tight spandex. The conversation changes, too.

“It’s a lot of ‘do you remember driving this kind of car?’ or ‘did you used to watch that TV show?’ ” said Dolores Forsythe, 63, who is in the class. “Your typical 20- or 30-year-old wouldn’t know what we were talking about.”

The younger gym members “can do different things and want to do different things,” said Sharon Sherman, 58. “This is just a more familiar, comfortable, social group.”

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