Spa 80 shedding all-women status

Longtime Rapid City workout center goes co-ed

By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff | Thursday, July 03, 2008

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Members of Spa 80 for Women have until noon to get in their last workouts at the all-woman fitness club. The club will close Thursday, July 3, at noon and reopen July 15 as Ultimate Fitness, a co-ed club.

"It's time," Nicky Spencer, who opened Spa 80 in 1980, said. "I know there will be some that are sad, but the overall response has been very positive."

Spencer will join forces with her son, Matt Dewolfe, who currently owns Iron Wolf Gym. For Spa 80 clients, the partnership will mean more exercise equipment, boxing and other classes, extended hours and a juice bar. Iron Wolf members will also benefit from additional classes.

Spencer said she was nervous about breaking the news to her clients, some of whom have been working out with her for decades.

"Everybody has been wonderful about it," she said. "They have nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point."

Spa 80 has come a long way since it opened in the era of leg warmers, leotards and matching headbands. At that time, many women were just entering the fitness world. Most knew next to nothing about weightlifting and were intimidated by working out in a gym full of men.

"Now, it's just a whole different group of women," Spencer said. "They're just so much more confident."

Women no longer put on make-up to go to the gym, she said. "They're here to work out."

The fitness industry has also changed. When Spa 80 opened, it was one of about four workout facilities in town. Now, there are lots of gyms and dance studios.

"I just look at it as growth," Spencer said about opening membership to men. "It's really hard to eliminate 50 percent of the population."

She previously has lost customers who wanted to exercise with their husbands or boyfriends, she said.

Truth be told, Spencer is a bit surprised Spa 80 lasted so long as a women's spa. She fully expected to be challenged on grounds of discrimination, as a Vermillion business was. (They lost.)

"Always in the back of my mind, I kind of knew that one day, I would have to do this," she said. "I just think it will be a wonderful blend."

Spencer said Ultimate Fitness will charge slightly higher rates than Spa 80, but they will be competitive with other gyms.

"I never wanted Spa 80 to be a club for the elite," she said. "I wanted it to be a club for every woman."

Or, now, for every man.

Nicky's son Alex Spencer is also involved with Ultimate Fitness. The club will accept members 13 years old and older. They will be open daily.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com