Posted on: November 28, 2007
Shy Guys
Women aren’t the only ones uncomfortable exercising in the company of the opposite sex. So what are these tough guys doing? Getting in shape together with the help of men-focused clubs and workout programs
By Jeff Schnaufer
CTW Features
When bus driver Donte Mitchell finished shuttling schoolchildren around the Dallas area at the end of a workday, he began to notice that he was carrying around something else: extra body fat.
After a year on the job, the 22-year-old discovered that he had gained 10 pounds. He tried playing basketball but struggled to do it every day.
“Being a school-bus driver, you don’t feel like playing basketball after work,” Mitchell says. “I was just ready to go home. That’s why I started boot camp.”
Mitchell is one of a growing number of men who are seeking male-only alternatives to the coed gym. Many are uncomfortable exercising around women, some benefit from the male camaraderie and others feel that coed workouts lack enough intensity.
Some fitness companies are responding to this need with male-only programs, from international chains like Cuts Fitness For Men to local fitness programs, like Vitally Fit in Plano, Texas, where Mitchell discovered Men’s Fitness Camp.
Coach Allura Carraway, owner of Vitally Fit, started the male-only daily camp in January 2007 at the request of some of the men who were participating in her coed camp. She has had as many as 30 men in the six-week camp, which runs for an hour a day beginning at 5 a.m. Her clients range from executives to grooms-to-be, mostly in their 30s and usually a little overweight.
“They’ve created all these clubs for women,” says Carraway. “They forgot about the men. Men are just as shy.”
Mitchell was one of those who switched from Vitally Fit’s coed to male-only fitness boot camp. He says working out with other guys is “less of a distraction” than working out with women and that he doesn’t have to worry about “messing up” the exercises in front of the guys.
“I just like working out with other guys because it’s just easier when it’s all men,” Mitchell says.
That’s also the philosophy behind Cuts Fitness For Men, which opened in 2003 and has expanded to 60 independently licensed gyms in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Ireland. A large portion of Cuts members are between 38-54 years old.
“Our member is the ‘regular guy’ who doesn’t feel comfortable in a traditional health club,” says Steve Haase, vice president of strategy and alliances for Cuts. “He also doesn’t have an hour to spend on his workout. He works, has kids/grandkids and appreciates the ‘Cheers’-like environment of our clubs, where everyone knows your name and the workout lasts only 30 minutes.”
While male-only boot camps and fitness centers may both attract the same type of member, their workouts may be anything but the same.
Haase says Cuts offers a “brainless but very effective” workout, combining strength and cardio exercise similar to the circuit-training approach popularized by Curves, the women’s health club, although he says “the look and feel is very different, along with the quality of fitness equipment.”
Carraway incorporates kettle balls, burpees and Hindu squats, and push-ups into her male boot camp. This intense workout is usually the same as the coed camp, “but men think they’re different,” she says. Sometimes this male ego can even be used to encourage exercise.
“If someone is struggling with an exercise, I get down there and do it myself,” says Carraway. “Then they do it. It works every time.”
Overall, Haase notes, both men and women aren’t doing enough to keep fit. “Only 20 percent of the population is working out on a regular basis,” he says. And the other 80 percent could learn a thing or two from Donte Mitchell.
“I’ve lost the weight that I gained as a bus driver,” he says.
What does he have planned in the future? Simple, he says: “I’m hoping to sign up for the next boot camp.”
