時尚雙語:經濟不景氣 健身計劃不放棄

Adding classes in yoga, meditation and other so-called mind-body regimens is just one way fitness professionals in the financial district are responding to recent economic uncertainties roiling their corporate clientele. Some are also offering shorter, cheaper personal training sessions and, in at least one health club, quiet discounts for members who lose their jobs.

Amid layoffs, concerns about staying buff could seem trivial. (Imagine the headline “World Markets Near Collapse: Muscle Tone Under Threat.f221;) Yet, businesspeople themselves wonder how a perilous financial climate will affect their physical fitness — and if exercise could help them weather hard times.

Some struggle to squeeze in any workouts at all. But others, like Amy Sturtevant, an investment director for Oppenheimer & Company in Washington, find themselves doubling down on conditioning for relief. “Professionals are doing their best not to panic, but I know a lot of professionals who are panicking” about the markets, she said. “The only way to get away from it is to have some kind of outlet.”

Ms. Sturtevant, a mother of four, is training for her fourth marathon. With brokerage clients needing more hand-holding, she said, she stints on sleep rather than skip her 5 a.m. daily boot camp and 20-mile weekend runs.

But one of Ms. Sturtevant’s training partners, a portfolio manager, said in an e-mail message that she had not been as diligent as Ms. Sturtevant and had been “scarce” at their workouts. The portfolio manager said she had weathered some tough financial cycles, “but this one has been uniquely disabling.”

“Forget the 5 o’clock wake-up to run,” she wrote. “Who is sleeping?”

One business owner, Sheri David, is backsliding for business reasons. As chief executive of Impressions on Hold, a company based in New York that sells corporate voicemail systems, a tougher sales environment has meant Ms. David sees more of her customers and less of her personal trainer. Over the summer, she dropped from five sessions a week to three; by mid-September, she said, “it turned into one day for one hour.”

Her trainer, Chris Hall, chides Ms. David to make time and, when she does, to tune out her BlackBerry, she reported. “But I say, ‘You don’t understand — there’s 27,000 reasons I have to pay attention,’ ” referring to her accounts.

For his part, Mr. Hall — whose clients have included Catherine Zeta-Jones — is now offering 30-minute, “high-core, high-intensity” sessions and shared workouts, he said, “because people don’t necessarily have as much time as they used to, and they don’t want to spend as much money.”

According to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, there are 41.5 million health club members in the United States. To keep them on the roster, clubs may be willing to bargain. Most customers who quit the Telos Fitness Center in Dallas, for example, must pay to rejoin. But, for suddenly strapped longtime members, “I’ll put a note in their file and we’ll let them pick up their membership without any fees,” said Clarisa Duran, the center’s sales and marketing director.

For Plus One, which operates in-house fitness centers, corporate accounts are the issue; until recently, its major accounts included the investment banks Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Though still operating in all of those except Bear Stearns (which closed in March), the company now must look to its recent expansion in other regions and industries for growth, said Tom Maraday, the senior vice president. (Google is one new client.)

“We’re a little experienced with stress because we went through 9/11 down here,” said Grace DeSimone, Plus One’s national director of group fitness. When disaster strikes, she noted, demand for yoga goes up, and on-site gyms exert a special pull: “People come and they want someone to talk to — it’s like Cheers.”

And, as in a bar, the televisions stay on. “In the banks, we have to keep the news on,” Mr. Maraday said. But at Cadence Cycling and Multisport Centers, TV’s show training videos rather than CNBC, because “we want this to be an escape,” said Mikael Hanson, director of performance for Cadence in New York.

During the Bear Stearns collapse, as becalmed financiers sought their escape, midday classes at the in-house gym grew crowded, according to a former Bear Stearns trader who declined to be named. When the final ax fell, they lost not just jobs but access to a club offering “everything,” she recalled, a hint of longing in her voice.
“They even gave you the shirts and shorts so you didn’t have to worry about laundry.” Now she can no longer get in her daily 5:30 a.m. workout. Her new employer has no gym and, with the markets erupting, her workday starts even earlier. “I wish there was a gym that opened at 5 in midtown,” the trader said, “but there isn’t.”

Stephanie Shemin Feingold misses a cushy fitness center, too. Since leaving a Midtown law firm in June to work at a nonprofit in Harlem, she’s been using her apartment building’s spartan fitness room. “When there are only three treadmills, it can get crowded pretty quickly,” she said.

“I’m lucky if I get in 20 minutes instead of the hour I used to do,” Ms. Shemin Feingold said. “My pants are getting tight. I’m going to have to figure out a new routine, because I can’t afford a new wardrobe.”

Fitness matters more than ever if you’re laid off, career counselors advise, not just for health, but to network and stay positive. “The last thing you want is to gain 20 pounds during a job search, ” said Dr. Jan Cannon, author of “Finding a Job in a Slow Economy.” “That just compounds that sense of, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ ”

Exercise, she added, can also spur creativity. “You know how we always have those ‘aha’ moments in the shower?” Dr. Cannon said. In the same way, “a good brisk walk can be very helpful.”

Jenny Herring, a Des Moines financial writer, usually walks or bikes for respite from the fulltime job search she began in June, after being downsized as part of the subprime mortgage fallout. But one day last month, feeling frustrated when her phone refused to ring, she varied the routine: “I said, I’m going to get outside, and I mowed the front and back yards” for exercise.

For a motivated few, extra time for conditioning actually proves a rare upside of unemployment. “A lot of people who are between jobs are using this downtime to go after a goal,” like a triathlon, said Mr. Hanson of Cadence Cycling.

Dr. Cannon recalled a client whose workouts last spring “got more frequent as time went on” — to block out the disappointment, and to give her something to get up and do every day.

“She lost 40 pounds.”

金融海嘯讓華爾街人舉步維艱，他們的健身計劃會因此受到波及嗎？

最近，全球經濟的不確定性造成了金融業的動盪，針對這一情況，金融區內的專業健身機構增設了瑜伽、冥想等身心養生課。一些健身中心還爲會員提供短期、實惠的訓練課程，有的俱樂部甚至暗中給予失業會員會費折扣。

工作都沒了還談什麼保持身材？想象一下這樣的標題——《全球市場瀕臨崩潰：肌肉依然堅挺》——實在讓人有些啼笑皆非。但是，商務人士們想知道，嚴峻的經濟環境會否影響身體健康，鍛鍊是否有助於他們捱過苦日子。

有些人爲了獲得訓練名額費盡心思，完全不在意課程內容，但是另一些人，例如華盛頓歐本海默公司（Oppenheimer & Company）投資總監——艾米·斯德文特卻發現，原本爲了緩解壓力進行的鍛鍊最後卻讓人更加消沉。對於市場，“業內人士正在努力控制恐慌情緒，不過，我知道很多人正飽受煎熬。”她說，“消除恐懼的唯一方法就是尋找一些發泄的途徑。”

斯德文特太太有4個孩子，她正在爲自己的第4次馬拉松比賽進行賽前訓練。經濟不景氣，花在顧客身上的時間必然會增加，因此，爲了不錯過每天早上5點的訓練和週末的20英里長跑，她寧願犧牲睡眠時間。

她的訓練搭檔——一位投資經理表示自己沒有斯德文特太太勤奮，已經“極少”出席訓練了。她說，從業多年也算曆經風雨，“但是這一次的金融危機讓人感到特別無助。”

她在給筆者的郵件中寫道，“清晨5點起牀跑步？還是算了吧。現在還有誰能睡得着？”

施瑞·戴維是一名企業家，由於業務原因，她的鍛鍊計劃也開始縮減。她的公司專門向企業銷售語音郵件系統，作爲CEO，隨着銷售環境不斷惡化，她不得不在客戶身上花更多時間，與私人教練見面的時間自然相對減少。整個夏天，她將每週5節訓練課削減爲3節；9月，計劃“變成了每週只有1小時”。

戴維的教練霍爾要求她重新制訂計劃，並且訓練時要關閉手機。“但是我說，‘你無法理解——我有太多事情需要關心了。’”

霍爾也做出了適當調整，開始爲客戶提供30分鐘的“高強度精簡”訓練課程，他說，“因爲學員的時間少了，預算也少了。”

應對壓力

根據美國運動數據公司（American Sports Data）提供的信息，全美有4200萬人經常參加體育鍛煉，其中約1/3都是健身中心會員（這組數字多年保持穩定）。爲了挽留這些客戶，俱樂部可能會做一些妥協。達拉斯的Telos健身中心規定，顧客若想重新入會必須繳納一定費用。但是，突如其來的經濟危機讓許多長期會員變得一貧如洗，針對這種情況，中心的銷售和市場總監克拉麗莎·杜然表示，“我會在他們的檔案中備註，重新入會時可減免其費用。”

對於Plus One室內健身中心來說，如何保留企業賬戶纔是最關鍵的問題；它們的重要客戶包括多家投資銀行，貝爾斯登、雷曼兄弟、美林、高盛和摩根士丹利悉數其中。高級副總裁湯姆·麥拉戴錶示，除了今年3月宣佈倒閉的貝爾斯登外，其他賬戶仍處於運作中，近期公司的增長主要依靠將業務擴展到其他地區和行業（Google是他們的新客戶之一）。

Plus One健身中心總監格蕾斯·德西蒙說，“9·11事件讓我們積累了應對壓力的經驗。”每當災難來襲，瑜伽課程的需求就會增長，健身房也表現出特別的吸引力：“人們來到這裏，與人交談——就像在酒吧。”

這裏和酒吧一樣，電視總是開着的。“在銀行，我們必須打開電視，時刻關注新聞。” 麥拉戴說。但是，在Cadence 自行車和多功能運動中心，電視裏播出的都是訓練視頻而不是CNBC頻道，因爲“我們希望幫助客戶逃離緊張情緒”。

一位不願透露姓名的貝爾斯登前交易員說，貝爾斯登破產期間，失落的金融家們開始紛紛尋找心靈避風港，健身房的中午課程總是爆滿。當噩耗最終傳來，這些人失去的不僅是工作，還包括健身俱樂部提供的應有盡有的服務。她的回憶中流露出無限留戀。

“運動完總會擔心洗衣服的問題，可是健身中心考慮得很周到，他們甚至提供汗衫和短褲。”現在，她已經中止了每天早上5：30的訓練計劃。新公司不提供健身卡，由於經濟行情極不穩定，她的上班時間還有所提前。“我希望市中心能有5點開門的健身房，很可惜，這只是奢望。”

意想不到的效果

斯蒂芬尼也非常懷念原來那家氛圍輕鬆、面積寬暢的健身中心。自6月離開原來的律師事務所，來到一家非營利公司工作後，她已經很久沒享受過健身帶來的快感了。儘管公寓附設了健身房，但是“只有三臺跑步機，房間很快變得人滿爲患。”她說。

“原先我得鍛鍊1個小時，現在能有20分鐘都算走運了。”斯蒂芬尼說，“褲子已經瘦了。看來，我得找新的鍛鍊方式了，因爲我可沒錢置辦一櫃子合身的新衣服。”

職業顧問們也建議：失業後，健身變得更加重要，不僅有利於健康，而且能促進與外界的聯絡，保持積極的心態。 《逆市求職》（Finding a Job in a Slow Economy）的作者讓·坎農博士說，“恐怕沒人想在求職期間增加20磅肥肉吧，這隻會讓人產生自我懷疑，‘我怎麼了？’”

她還說，鍛鍊可以激發創造力。“爲什麼我們總在洗澡時靈光一現？”坎農博士說。同理，“一次輕鬆的散步也會大有裨益。”

珍妮·赫寧是一名金融領域的作家，由於次貸投資失敗，她的身家大幅縮水，自6月開始，她經常在找工作的間隙用散步或騎自行車的方式放鬆身心。有一天，由於始終沒有接到面試電話，她感到異常沮喪，於是她改變了運動方式：“我把前院後院的草坪都修剪了一番，就當作是鍛鍊身體。”

事實證明，失業人士花一些時間進行健身訓練往往會起到意想不到的效果。Cadence 自行車中心的漢森說，“人們可以利用停工期設定並追求一個從未嘗試過的新目標，例如三項全能。”

坎農博士回憶說，去年春天有一位女士爲了消除失業的困擾，加入了幾項訓練計劃，好讓自己每天有早起的動力和生活的目標。後來，她的訓練安排越來越頻密。
猜猜結果如何？她足足減了40磅。