Roberts Lucille Health Spa Inc history

Gymnase Triat – The First Membership-Driven Facility (1848)

The Boston YMCA – The Granddaddy of United States Fitness Facilities (1850)

By 1860 over 150 Turns or Turnverein had spread across the globe, making it the first scaled fitness offering to exist on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1926, Professor Attilla sold his New York club to Sig Klein, who operated the studio for another 50 years as Sig Klein’s Studio of Physical Culture.

After early fitness icon Jack LaLanne opened his first “fitness spa” in 1936, complete with a juice bar, health food store, and gym, the prototype for the club continued to multiply.

Vic Tanny Health Clubs –The First Suburban Fitness Club (1947)

Lotte Berk Studio – The First Barre Studio (1959)

Health and Tennis Corporation (aka Bally Total Fitness) – First Club Chain to Go Public in United States (1962)

Proctor founded the chain in 1964, targeting women and their “figure development” because working out was still largely an activity geared towards men.

Gold’s Gym – Franchising and Licensing Pioneer (1965)

A 1968 ad for the opening of the Milwaukee location of Elaine Powers screams.

The fitness chain started off as a spa shop opened by Lucille and her husband Bob in midtown Manhattan in 1969 located next to Macy’s.

Elaine Powers had cultivated this intimate workout space, utopian in theory but oppressive in practice, for women who desired to get fit in the company of women alone. “If you’re not having much luck going it alone, ask Elaine for the help you need!” a cheery 1979 ad urged viewers.

After a Healthworks location opened up in 1996 a lawyer who lived across the street became upset when he couldn’t join the club and filed a lawsuit against the company.

McFit – The First Scaled Budget Club Operation (1997)

When she started an all women’s boxing group in 2007, working out of Kingsway Boxing, she says male trainers regarded her mission to train women specifically with skepticism.

At Uplift Studios, opened in 2012, Shear preaches a constant emphasis on strength—both physical and mental, but particularly the former, and an overarching idea that working out is a tool of women’s empowerment.

Increasingly women aren’t afraid of weights, nor are they afraid of workouts that seriously challenge them. It’s this progress that has shaped the marketing of women’s gyms in 2018, slowly attempting to unravel a history of only pitching fitness to women as a constant pursuit of skinniness.