This Studio Is a Dream, and That’s Not Stretching It

Beware. The Phantom Jim Rat is snooping around Southern California, looking at the best and worst in health clubs, from parking to juice bars to aerobics classes. And Jim isn’t just any rat. He’s been teaching for four years at various clubs in the area and is certified through the Aerobics and Fitness Assn. of America.

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My legs are fatigued, my butt is sore, and every time I take a breath, I can feel my abs, but what a workout. I may not look like a movie star, but I got quite a workout from the people who work out the stars.

Voight by the sea is in a Santa Monica building that stands out like a sore thumb (to go with the sore body you’re going to have later). But once you get inside one of the four exercise rooms, be prepared for a serious workout.

Owner Henry Siegel opened this studio in January 1995. Featured inside the 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility is a main exercise room--2,500 square feet with a 30-foot ceiling and fabulous indirect lighting. The studio also offers facials, massage, graphic design services, personal wellness, fitness products, and comedy and acting classes. Hey, this is L.A.

Oh, did I forget to mention the exercise instructors?

Let’s see, first and foremost, there is Karen Voight, whose picture is plastered just about everywhere. Voight has been the personal trainer for Tina Turner, Bette Midler and James Taylor, just to name a few. And while I’m name-dropping, she co-produced Elle Macpherson’s 1995 workout video, “Your Personal Best Workout.”

Keli Roberts is one of the most sought-after fitness presenters (she teaches instructors) in the industry. I should know. Her seminars at aerobics conventions are always packed. She helped Cher with her 1991 fitness video “CherFitness: A New Attitude” and you can see her on “Crunch” on ESPN2. It was Roberts’ Monday night body sculpt class that made me hurt so good.

Then there are Jessica Rosenberg, who’s on “Crunch”; Michelle LeMay who appears on “Gotta Sweat” (also on the Deuce); Scott Cole, who does the “Body by Jake” segment on FIT TV; Joey Luna; Rob Glick; Mark Eckhardt; and Clarence Ford. These are names that people in the aerobics industry clamor to watch and to participate in their classes.

One class you definitely don’t want to miss is Cynthia Harris’ power stretch. She teaches Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

I went to the Tuesday evening class thinking it would be a good way to get rid of the soreness Roberts had inflicted on me the night before. Was I wrong!

Harris has a way of making you stretch just a little bit farther than you thought you could. For example, while standing, we were asked to touch the left elbow to the right knee. (Yeah, well, maybe you are more flexible than I am.)

All of a sudden there was a pair of soft, yet strong hands on my sides gently maneuvering me exactly into that position. In the class I took, the music was mostly instrumental, but it sounded so good and so right for a stretch class. If you don’t want to sweat, don’t take this class.

“I just love this class,” said Ann, one of Cynthia’s regulars. “My range of motion and flexibility have improved so much. My friends say to me, ‘Ann, have you lost weight?’ but I haven’t. I’ve just been able to tighten and tone because of this class.”

Voight by the sea is a studio, not a club, and there is a difference. In a studio setting, you pay by the class ($10 for a group aerobics exercise; $12 for indoor cycling. In a club, like Bally’s or 24 Hour Fitness, you pay by the month, or by the year or longer, for a membership.

The nights I was there, the classes were small in relation to what you would see at a health club, and that means more attention can be spent on you, your form and your technique.

“I prefer the smaller class because you can individualize the exercises to fit each person,” Roberts said. “If someone has tight hamstrings, if someone is just getting back into fitness after an injury, I can show them modifications.”

Siegel, the owner, has been in the fitness industry more than 20 years. He has hired more than 2,500 instructors and has scheduled more than 140,000 classes, so he knows what he is doing.

“The fabric of what holds this place together is relationships,” he said. “It has been a lifelong dream to build a place like this. Students know they can talk to me about anything, and teachers know that too. I like to say that this studio is just a little body emporium in Santa Monica, that it is just a place where people come to feel safe and feel better about life.”

The Rat Trap

On a rating of one to four rats--four being best--here is how the Jim Rat rates Voight by the sea on some amenities:

* Parking: Room for 200 cars in the back (and it is lighted) and on the street. ***

* Locker rooms: Women’s is bigger than men’s, but it should be that way because more women than men take aerobics classes. There are lockers, but bring your lock. And it is clean. ***

* Juice bar: None; just a big cooler filled with water and sports drinks, but Siegel is in the market for someone to take over that concession and open a juice / coffee bar. **

Voight by the sea: 1919 Broadway, Santa Monica, (310) 453-4536.

* If you have a gym or health club you think the Phantom Jim Rat should scope out, fax to (213) 237-4712 or e-mail: [email protected].