Glenshaw residents Aleksandra "Aleks" Grudziak and her husband, Jan, both 53, enjoy working out and they particularly like exercise classes.
That's because, Aleks said, "you can exercise better if you change your routine, have variety."
But their schedules at work often preclude them from taking the classes they'd like. Both are physicians. He is an orthopedic surgeon, she is a pediatrician, and their hours on the job often conflict with the hours at which classes are offered.
Their health club, Vygor Fitness, in Indiana Township, has a solution: It's called Fitness on Request, an automated system that offers fitness classes on demand, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The club is staffed from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. But members can work out any time they want, because their membership card opens the door.
Vygor Fitness is one of just 30 health clubs in the world, and the first in Pennsylvania, to install the Fitness on Request system.
"I met the guy who created it at a trade show in Chicago last year," said Vygor club owner Paul Stugart.
"The guy" is Dave Kwaii, who owns six Anytime Fitness franchises in the Minneapolis area. Anytime Fitness offers around-the-clock access, but most franchises don't offer exercise classes.
"We had a real desire from our customers to have a fitness program," Mr. Kwaii said. "We looked into live instructors, but it was just too expensive for the hours our customers were using the facilities. So we tried taped classes. They were a hit."
So Mr. Kwaii recorded top-flight instructors from the Minneapolis area leading workouts, and devised a system for broadcasting them on a big screen.
"We didn't want it to be on TV because we didn't want it to be like working out at home," Mr. Kwaii said. "The big screen makes it feel like you are taking a live class from a live instructor."
When Vygor Fitness went to around-the-clock operation in March, Fitness on Request seemed a perfect fit for the new hours, Mr. Stugart said. The system was installed Sept. 9.
The Fitness on Request system begins at a kiosk, where a club member can make a selection from a variety of cardio, strength, toning, stretching and flexibility classes from spinning to kickboxing to yoga. The classes are of varying lengths, but most are for 30 minutes.
Once the member has selected the class he or she wants, it is broadcast onto a 133-inch projection screen in the exercise studio, in high definition video and studio grade audio.
"The instructors are entertaining," Jan said. "They try to get you to do what they tell you."
Currently, there are 25 different classes on the kiosk at Vygor Fitness. But, said Mr. Stugart, "every three months there is new programming. We get six to 10 more classes."
The kiosk holds up to 60 classes.
Aleks said it's a good option: "It's not going to replace regular classes, but we are busy in our lives and this is a good option when we can't make regular classes."
Other club members share the Grudziaks' enthusiasm for Fitness on Request.
"We've got some members who use it religiously, four to five times a week," said membership director David Strait.
"I've seen people using it at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night," Mr. Stugart said.
Vygor Fitness also offers its 750 members 15 fitness classes per week with live instructors, Mr. Strait said.
First Published: October 14, 2009, 8:00 a.m.
