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Up all night 24-hour fitness club accommodates Tuesday, February 22, 2000 By Brenden Sager, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It's 2 a.m. Do you know where the elliptical trainers are? Mike Savrese can help you find them. He runs Club Julian, a 24-hour fitness club in Ross, the only one in the Pittsburgh region.
His exercise bikes, circuit trainers and stair-steppers operate around the clock for 3,500-plus members. From 5 and 10 percent of the club's clientele can be found there between midnight and 6 a.m.
By day, Club Julian looks like any other fitness club, chock-full of members toting their duffels to aerobics classes and other activities. The club has a pool, studio and a second floor stocked with exercise and weight machines surrounded by a walking/running track.
By night the mood changes. The studio and pool are closed. Members trickle in and out to the club, which overlooks an eerily vacant McKnight Road.
The late crowd is made up of distinct groups. The first is the shift workers who come in between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.: The waitresses, bartenders, firefighters and police officers, Savrese said.
At 3 a.m., elderly members who have trouble sleeping start arriving. Older people who suffer from insomnia generally have no trouble falling asleep, but awaken in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.
At about 4 a.m., those motivated enough to work out before normal business hours begin to arrive.
Trainers begin their classes at about 6 a.m. -- and thus a new day of fitness begins.
On a recent Friday at 2 a.m., there were three people in the gym. One was Dan Buls, 48, a construction worker from Franklin Park, who was watching ESPN2's late-night programming while riding an exercise bike in a part of the club vacant of all other people. Buls works two jobs, and is completing an MBA at Duquesne University.
He comes four times a week, working out on the bikes, stair climbing machine and circuit weights.
Since he began the workouts three years ago, Buls said he's lost a few pounds, his blood pressure is down and his energy level is up. "I don't feel good if I don't work out," he said, despite the fact he averages only four to five hours of sleep each night.
On the other side of the fitness center was Nancy Bellizia, 26, of Edgewood who regularly pumps iron at 2 a.m.
She hesitated to describe her regular job. "I'm just a dreamer," she said.
Bellizia used to work out at the gym at Carnegie Mellon University -- until they found out she wasn't a student, she said. She then became a paying customer at Club Julian, and finds its hours better suit her schedule.
"Some people just don't have regular daytime schedules," she said.
Another advantage: No waiting to use the equipment and no gawking guys.
The middle-of-the-night crowd tends to thin toward the end of the week and when driving conditions are bad, Savrese said. The club is closed Saturday and Sunday nights.
The daytime crowd comes mostly from the North Hills, but the twilight hours draw folks from all over the region.
The club was founded in March 1991 by Joe Julian of McCandless. Although the club never advertises nor runs membership specials, the 24-hour format has been successful, Savrese said.
"For a long time I'd try to come here in the morning," Buls said," and I'm just not very good at being a morning person."
Club Julian is at 101 Corbett Court, off McKnight Road, in Ross. Membership costs include a $99 up-front fee and $38 monthly payment. On Saturday, the club closes at 6 p.m.; Sunday hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 412-366-1931.
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