Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 15, 1993                   TAG: 9308130057
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

IT'S WELLER THAN EVER

For starters, the center's new, larger facility - at the approach to Memorial Bridge off First Street - will have a terrific heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

That's probably good news to the 220 Wellness Center members who have been working out in cramped quarters at the center's present West End site.

"We've outgrown the old facility, but we're going to maintain the same service," Wright said. "We sell primarily service."

"We're a true wellness center," he explained. "We can work with anybody . . . " from athletes to couch potatoes.

Before visitors or new members lift their first weight or dress out for aerobics, they receive a thorough evaluation and health screening, including a lab profile, to uncover any health risks or problems.

"If we have any concerns at all, we follow up with the family physician," he said.

With the information in hand, one of the center's health physiologists will customize a wellness program.

The center also offers a weight-control program with both group and individual counseling and activities. There's even a registered dietitian on staff. "We plan a program and help them through it," said Wright.

The new center will offer two aerobics rooms, a full-size steam room, new, bigger locker rooms and state-of-the-art equipment.

One aerobics room will have a 1,560-square-foot cushioned wood floor to ease the strain on legs and joints during dancing, karate and aerobics. The other will have 900 square feet of shock-absorbing carpet. The walls of both rooms will be equipped with rails and mirrors.

There will be at least four treadmills, two stair climbers, Nautilus and hydrofitness equipment, a universal gym set and free weights.

For parents, a child-care center with broad and sporty horizontal magenta, blue and aqua striped walls, will replace the old center's makeshift nursery. While mom and dad work out, the staff will watch infants and older youngsters as a membership benefit.

Wright sees child care and the other services as part of giving customers what they want as well as what they need.

"People are more sophisticated," he said. `You've got to provide what really works."

With the luxury of more space and better equipment and facilities, the Wellness Center plans to try to more than double its membership. Those who join now can get up to a month's free membership between the time they join and the opening of the new center, Wright said.

The cost of that service can range from about $300 a year for individuals to around $900 for families.

But Wright said there's one service that will no longer be available at the new, more visible Memorial Bridge location, which has often served as a used-vehicle showplace. "We're a lot of things to a lot of people," he said, "but we're not going to be a used-car lot anymore."