15 minutes of pain? Testing Main Line Health and Fitness' legendary workout
Brian Freedman, Special to the Main Line Times

"Drink," Roger Schwab said, pointing to the water fountain. It was one of the nicest things, I thought at that moment, that anyone had ever said to me, right up there with "I love you," "You've been accepted to college," and "I do."

I was halfway through the Main Line Health and Fitness 15- Minute Workout, and my brief water break meant that, for those 10 seconds, I was not contributing to the soreness I knew I'd feel the next day.

In its September issue, Men's Health magazine wrote that the 15-Minute Workout at Main Line Health & Fitness was the best in the nation. But what made it so special? Would such a brief slice of time be enough for me to "feel the burn?" How effective could the 15 Minute Workout really be?

"I have the best body now that I've ever had," said Carol Elia, a trainer at Main Line Health & Fitness as well as an interior designer. "I've never had a body like this."

"And she's two babies later," Schwab added. She was not being immodest: Her arms were toned but not overly muscular, her abs were flat, and she possessed an all-over healthful glow.

Elia has relied on the Main Line Health & Fitness workout philosophy for several years. She has also adopted a healthy lifestyle. As a result, her body now moves with grace and elegance. My body, on the other hand, moves in fits and spurts. It creaks, even at 28 years old, like an old door with a neglected hinge.

I spend 10 to 12 hours a day hunched over my computer, but I do exercise, going through the traditional grunt-inducing motions at the gym or running pointlessly on the treadmill. I do not, however, look or move like Ms. Elia or Mr. Schwab. After working out with Roger Schwab, I finally see what I've been doing wrong.

Astoundingly, it is all a matter of philosophy. And despite the Men's Health recognition, Schwab does not time the session to last exactly 15 minutes. Sometimes it takes 20, but that is still far less time than most people spend, and nearly three-quarters of a hour less than my personal norm.

"To me ... the whole reason to exercise," Schwab said, "[is] to improve your quality of life. "But you'll never hear people say that," he added. "Why are they training? To have bigger biceps. ... Now, I'm 60, and my bicep is big ... but I don't go around flexing my bicep. I don't really care about that. It's part of the by-product of [exercising], not the reason [I] do it."

Unfortunately, the quest for bigger muscles was the reason I always went to the gym. I never gave much thought to what those bigger biceps and triceps I sought would help me achieve. I just knew that I wanted them. So listening to Schwab philosophize about exercise was, to say the least, eye-opening.

He believes that exercise should be part of a well-rounded and healthy lifestyle, and that the quest for physical perfection should not necessarily be the ultimate goal of working out.

"People who train six days a week and are in the gym [all the time] -- what kind of life is that?" Schwab said. "Where are the books that you should be reading? Where's the travel you should be taking? You don't need to be doing all those [long hours of exercise in the gym]. What you need to be doing is enjoying your life, and using this as a means to [that] end."

Which is where the Main Line Health & Fitness workout comes in. The idea behind it is to condition the entire body, especially the parts that are most vulnerable to injury. And because I would be going from one exercise to another with no break between them, I would get a cardio workout, as well.

But my heart rate soared even before I had done any actual exercises. Main Line Health & Fitness is a state-of-the-art facility, and much of the equipment there is capable of doing a great deal more than the machines at most gyms. So before the workout had even begun, Schwab strapped me into a Medieval-looking contraption that was hooked up to a computer. He told me that this was merely preparatory, that he would be measuring my torso's range of motion.

On a conscious level, I believed him. Schwab is a comforting and enthusiastic presence. But once the nylon straps had been pulled tight around my body, I couldn't help but think about the scene in The Princess Bride, where the character played by Cary Elwes is strapped to the wheel and his pain tolerance is measured.

That's when my heart started racing. Of course, I had nothing to worry about, and there was no pain involved. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Schwab has been at the forefront of both the national and local fitness scenes for more than 25 years. He was the head judge of the International Federation of Bodybuilders in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and he opened Main Line Health & Fitness in 1977. He estimates that at least 100,000 people have passed through the doors of his club. To put it mildly, he knows what he is doing.

He has accumulated a lifetime of experience, and I had never before met anyone so sincerely concerned about the physical fitness and overall well-being of his clients. For Schwab, running Main Line Health & Fitness is more than a job: It is a commitment between himself and all who are fortunate enough to be trained by him. And he practices what he preaches: He works out in the same way he trains his clients: Efficiently.

Most trainers focus on the results, on the aesthetic benefits of working out. Schwab, on the other hand, is concerned with getting "your muscles as strong as you can," he said. "Not for the idea of the body beautiful, [but] for the idea that your muscles support your skeleton." That, in turns, leads to a healthier life, one in which injury is less likely to occur.

Once I had begun, I was amazed at how intense such a short workout could actually be. Because Schwab had never worked with me before, he didn't push me as hard as he might have. But I was challenged nonetheless. And because of Schwab's encouragement, my body performed at a higher level than it would have without him.

The next day, as Schwab had promised me, the soreness I felt was more of a deep-muscle tiredness than the typical scorching body fire I suffer through after an ordinary workout. I had the odd sensation of actually feeling good "I had treated my body to the Main Line Health & Fitness 15 Minute Workout, and as a result, my body was treating me to a most unaccustomed feeling of well-being. Men's Health must be right.

This was the best workout I had ever done. Philosophically as well as physically.

© Main Line Times 2005