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Every bartender knows the secret to a good tip: It is the perfect combination of dry gin, old vermouth, olive, warm smile and buff bod. Cocktail waitresses
have their version of this miracle mixture, too, but theirs is garnished
with a tiny tube top - perky breast implants are optional. Ask a doorman, whose
motive is more a perfectly behaved lineup than a good tip, and he will boil
the recipe down to its single, essential ingredient: It's all about lean
muscle mass, obviously displayed. "Every club owner knows
it. The better they look, the better the business," says Jason Gee, a fitness
consultant and personal trainer with a list of clients that includes party
promoters, waiters and waitresses, even a printer whose specialty is rave
flyers. But with the kind of
lifestyle these folks lead, it's tough to stay buff without burning out.
They must dodge bullets like killer hours, four-day weekends, too-easy access
to junk food, alcohol, cigarettes, and a wide variety of other tempting chemical
pursuits. "I work 18-hour days
in the summer," says party promoter and Guvernment nightclub employee Jennstar.
"I can't go to the gym; I just don't have the time," she says. She jokingly refers
to the tried-and-true short-term cure-all for many in the industry who want
to stay slim: "I absolutely get no sleep, I don't eat and I do lots of drugs."
She really is joking, she emphasizes, except for the sleep thing. In reality, she and
a few other employees at the Guvernment have hired Gee and his brother Arthur,
who run a company called Personal Fitness Consulting, to help them lean out
and pump up. At least twice a week since February, one of the brothers has
dragged them out from behind their desks in the nightclub's offices, and
put their bodies through the blender. They don't have to go
far - the waterfront nightclub is a perfect venue for exercise. The sound
system pumps out house and techno at high volume, the air conditioning system
is accustomed to cooling crowds much bigger and hotter than this, and water
is readily available behind the bar. On a recent Monday evening,
a gang of about five got funky in the Orange Room under Arthur's instruction,
doing an hour-long hai ko workout - the Gees' answer to tae bo, trainer-to-the-stars
Billy Blanks' patented form of exercise which combines martial arts with
aerobics. They warm up to the
sounds of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You," then Arthur leads them
through a series of grinding kicks, punches and low squats, sometimes holding
up a padded target to help them focus. Grunts and moans from the dance floor
punctuate the builds, breaks and scratches from the sound system. On nicer days, the gang
heads to the Skybar on the roof, where there's a stunning view of the city
to the north and the cool lake to the south. All Guvernment employees
are invited to the training sessions, for a small fee, provided they can
drag themselves out of bed by 6 p.m. After a late night, they may need to
psyche themselves up for it by having a quick drag on a fag in the corner,
but hey, at least they're getting there, platform sneakers, push-up bras
and all. "If we notice someone
lighting up before a workout, we push them a little harder to compensate,"
says Arthur, 25, who was junior champ in karate and kick boxing before he
took up personal training. "We certainly don't
promote smoking, but we're trying to manage a lifestyle that is sort of alternative.
We try to work with it, and we are always encouraging them to quit." Of course, minimizing
alcohol consumption is also the ideal, but the Gees recognize that it's probably
not feasible for their club kid clients to cut it out completely. "It's really hard for
people in the industry to stop drinking. Their job is to be social. People
buy them drinks all the time, and if they turn them down, it's kind of an
insult," says Jason. So he has a few tips,
which include drinking diet pop instead of the sugar-loaded kind, and knocking
back plenty of water. "Alcohol is a diuretic.
You should be drinking lots of water before, during and after drinking. And
if you drink more than five drinks in a night, more than four times a week,
you should have a multivitamin. Alcohol washes the vitamins right out of
your body," says Jason. As for the long hours
and whacked-out eating habits of industry types, the Gees recommend as much
normality as possible. "They may have an erratic
sleeping schedule, but the body will still benefit from aerobic exercise,"
he says. "Even if they're getting
up late in the afternoon, I still suggest that they eat breakfast. Your body
needs the energy and it doesn't matter if it's not (breakfast food) like
egg whites." For Jennstar, the goal
is to lean out, build stamina for those long days, and generally feel better. "Exercise clears your
mind, it empowers you. You stand up taller," she says. She's also lost a
few pounds and an inch here or there, she says. But for others, the
goal is more directly related to the buff bod element of the bartender's
secret: "Sometimes, someone will come up after class and say: 'What can I
do about my butt?' We tell them to do leg lifts and more cardiovascular exercise.
You have to burn fat first," says Arthur. "It's about goal setting,"
he explains. "For an exercise program to be successful, you really have to
tailor a workout around someone's goals and lifestyle." In this case, that means
providing music that really kicks. "House music is what
these people live," says Arthur. "Once I played a house tape that was a little
too mainstream, and Jennstar said 'What is this crap? I don't want to work
out to this!' Will Smith just doesn't cut it." As a result, he's had to spend long hours at Speed and Play De Record, two local underground music stores sophisticated enough to supply even the most finicky club DJ. |
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