Customers must be at least 50 pounds overweight to join one gym
Strict requirement for one gym
Posted: 01/07/2013
DALLAS (AP) - Downsize Fitness is an exclusive health club, evocative of the nation's trendiest gyms. But there's a strict requirement to join: You must be 50 pounds or more overweight.
The chain wants its members to feel comfortable while exercising, so there are no mirrors inside and the windows are fogged. Even the equipment is designed for heavier people.
Chicago entrepreneur Francis Wisnewski says he started the gym because "I've been overweight my whole life, and I was embarrassed to go to the gym myself."
The first locations opened in Chicago and Las Vegas in 2011, and expanded to Dallas in 2012.
Gym member Janie Busch said she likes the supportive atmosphere.
Krisanne Hale, a personal trainer in Dallas, is still trying to lose weight. She says that helps members relate.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PRINT
| |
Special Reports
-
SPECIAL REPORT | Day care inspections
SPECIAL REPORT | Thousands of child care center inspections reports are NOW AVAILABLE. Find out what inspectors founds inside day care centers across the state.
-
Inside a Criminal Mind | Jason Scott
SPECIAL REPORT | When it's out of your hands, when your life is at the mercy of an armed, masked man staring down at you from the barrel of a gun in your own home, you grasp at whatever it is you can control; breathing, composure, or faith.
-
SPECIAL REPORT | Bad Medicine
SPECIAL REPORT | ABC2 Investigator Joce Sterman has reviewed thousands of pages of documents for her Bad Medicine report.
Top Stories
-
Police shoot armed suspect
A Baltimore City Police officer shot a suspect in Southwest Baltimore Saturday evening.
-
12-year-old girl hurt after 50 foot fall
-
Police investigate suspicious package
-
Maryland's top spellers
-
1-year-old killed in Baltimore shooting
-
Detectives used service guns in training
- Stay Connected
