New centers pitch athleticism to prevent injuries

Until about 10 years ago, people wanting to lose weight and increase their endurance typically visited gyms and other facilities loaded with elliptical machines, treadmills, and weight-lifting equipment.

Now, fitness venues are more diversified, with more supervised group and one-on-one training for youngsters and adults.

A Wilmington facility, Competitive Athlete Training Zone, known as CATZ, is a good example of the new approach. The center opened last November.

"Fitness centers today are being designed to fit niche markets for different populations," noted Joseph Moore, president of the Boston-based International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, which has 5,200 member clubs nationwide.

"Club members everywhere are more sophisticated in voicing their needs, and owners are more sophisticated in what they are offering," Moore said.

The number of health clubs in Massachusetts has risen rapidly: from 458 in 1996 to 873 in 2006, according to IHRSA.

The parent of the Wilmington CATZ franchise is headquartered in Needham, where Michael Sapers, 46, and Lars Hem, 40, are cochief executives.

The CATZ style of training has evolved from a concept two Pasadena, Calif., trainers, Jim Liston and Kevin Wentz, developed in 1995 for the Los Angeles Galaxy pro soccer team, Sapers said.

"They then adopted the concept for every sport, age, and level of ability," he said, adding that he and Hem formed a partnership with Liston and Wentz 3 1/2 years ago. "We had to figure out how to take the concept national," said Sapers, whose background is in real estate development. Hem is an investment banker.

In addition to CATZ centers in Wilmington, Needham, and Acton, there are others in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, Phoenix, and Anaheim, Calif., he said. In the fall, centers will open on Long Island and in Denver, Sapers said.

All the centers have conditioning programs aimed at preventing injuries in young athletes, nonathletic youngsters, and adults.

"About 60 percent of our members are kids, the rest adults who want something more than working out at a gym," Sapers said.

At the CATZ center in Wilmington, there are 250 members, two-thirds of them between the ages of 6 and 18. Adult members range in age from 19 to 70, said Craig Galloway, New England managing director for CATZ.

Galloway, 39, of Belmont and Wes Atamian, 39, of Cambridge purchased the rights to open eight franchises, at a cost of $40,000 for the first and $25,000 for each subsequent center, Galloway said.

There are plans to open a facility in Arlington in late fall or early next winter and, after that, another in the Nashua-Manchester area of New Hampshire, Galloway said.

In the 6,500-square-foot leased facility in Wilmington, two full-time and two part-time trainers put members through their paces, said Galloway, who was a college wrestler.

Fees range from $15 for a one-hour group session to more than $100 for an hour of one-on-one training, he said.

"We train everybody with the same thread: core strength, balance, body control, all elements of athletics," Galloway said. Beginning in August or September, free sports injury-prevention clinics will be held every three months for young athletes and their parents.

These clinics, Galloway said, will be led by Craig Parsons, an owner of Wellesley-based Sports and Physical Therapy Associates, and others.

In a collaborative effort with CATZ, Parsons said he is setting up physical therapy units at each facility. "We'll create special workout routines for those coming back from injuries," he said.

Professional basketball player Souleymane Wane, 31, is working with a trainer four times a week in Wilmington after undergoing hip and knee surgery. "I'm improving my flexibility, endurance, and quickness so that, hopefully, I can return in the fall to playing again in Europe," said Wane, a Dracut resident and a 2001 graduate of the University of Connecticut. He is a native of Senegal.

Another Wilmington member, Jim Hackett, 54, has brought his wife, Carol, 54, and three sons, ages 19, 23, and 27, into the club. "By strengthening the whole core of our bodies, we feel we'll be able to lead active lifestyles as we age," said Hackett, who lives in Andover and owns a direct marketing company.

Older people also are enrolling in conditioning programs at other area facilities such as Personal Training International Inc. of Concord. "Most of the people who come here are between 40 and 70, and many of them still play some sport actively," said Yury Klimovitsky, who founded the facility 4 1/2 years ago.

Galloway said CATZ's only direct competition, in terms of attracting young athletes, is Velocity Sports Performance.

"Both of us are in the forefront of a growing industry that teaches kids how to become good athletes and, through biomechanical core strength training, helps them prevent injuries," said Ron Gilfix, managing partner of Velocity, which has 70 facilities around the country, including in Sudbury and Mansfield.

With a growing membership and break-even annual revenues of about $250,000, Galloway said, CATZ's Wilmington operation is clearly on the move with "its new model of training."