LATEST FITNESS CRAZE WANTS YOU ON BOARD : BOAT HOUSE PUTS A GROUP OF ROWERS ON HEALTHY COURSE IN INDOOR SETTING.

Byline: Heesun Wee Daily News Staff Writer

Waves of pedestrians and cars flood downtown Los Angeles' streets during afternoon rush hour on a recent weekday. But on a high-rise's seventh floor, inside a cool, relatively quiet health club, fitness instructor Julie Wiley calmly tucks her lean, toned body into the seat of a rowing machine. It's one of several crowding a corner of the weight room.

She flips on a boombox and Enigma's chant-filled moody mantra ``Sadness'' flows through the speakers.

For the next half hour, Wiley will row and cheer on her seven students, mostly clad in spandex, with a perky cheerleader's enthusiasm. She'll prod them to increase their rotations per minute, again and again, with a fitness expert's finesse.

``Up to 33 (rotations per minute)!'' she yells, pointing her left thumb toward the ceiling. ``Take it up!''

This is Boat House, a group exercise being marketed as the hippest athletic activity since Spinning, a trademarked indoor cycling program. The 30-minute rowing class debuted in January at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, one of 10 gyms in the country piloting the rowing class and machine, called Concept II.

Class participation at the Los Angeles gym currently is limited to 11 on a first-come basis.

``It's fabulous. It's a great workout,'' said Marlis Brutsch in gasps after a session, sweat glistening on her cut muscles. A Los Angeles-based national sales manager in the garment industry, Brutsch rows once a week.

Some health clubs and a Vermont-based company hawking the rower and the program are hoping many more will try the activity and gush, ``Fabulous.''

Designers of the machine and program, in Morrisville, Vt., readily admit to the influence of indoor cycling programs such as Johnny Goldberg's (a k a Johnny G.) Spinning, Karen Voight's Power Pacing and Cycle Reebok.

Johnny G. created the first indoor cycling program and bicycle a decade ago when using a road bicycle on rollers, or mounting a road bicycle's front-end to a stationary unit, proved unsatisfactory for off-road training.

``Spinning showed us that health clubs are willing to look at other ways to use other existing exercise equipment in a class setting,'' said Robert Brody, who helped develop the rowing machine and program. Often banished as boring when used solo, stationary equipment plied in a group is gaining momentum.

Shin salvation

Following more than a decade of aerobics beginning in the 1980s, America's collective knees and shins seem to be aching. Americans want a high aerobic, cardiovascular workout without the impact, according to exercise statistics. So health clubs, exercise equipment manufacturers and fitness gurus are brainstorming their own trademarked solutions. Once the dust settles, some fitness experts argue a new exercise trend may dominate the end of the 1990s and beyond - the use of minimally jarring exercise equipment in a group environment.

``I'm watching what other kinds of programs will be developed using cardiovascular equipment. That's the larger picture,'' said Cathy McNeil, a spokeswoman for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (or IHRSA) in Boston.

``I wouldn't be surprised to see a version with NordicTrack,'' said Steve Morgan, an exercise physiologist and health and fitness director for a gym in Springfield, Pa.

The boom in group, indoor athletic programs that employ stationary equipment often attract the same kinds of consumers - those aging and starved for time.

So the new exercise regimes are virtually impact-free.

Between 1987 and 1995, participation in high-impact aerobics dropped nearly 25 percent, while interest in low-impact aerobics increased nearly 16 percent and the popularity of stationary cycles rose nearly 12 percent during the same period, according to a January 1996 survey by American Sports Data in New York.

``Baby boomers want to get away from impact as they get older,'' said Colin Milner, vice president of sales and marketing for Keiser in Fresno. Voight's Power Pacing program uses Keiser bicycles.

The new group classes also give customers fitness results in less time.

Most indoor programs using stationary machines last between 30 and 40 minutes, unlike most aerobic classes, which run about an hour-plus.

And the new indoor programs also revolve around new machines, beefed-up versions of their ancestors. Unlike most traditional rowing machines that feature pressure-sensitive pistons, Concept II rowers used in the Boat House program, for example, boast fan-like flywheels. By pulling a handle in a rowing motion, the flywheel creates wind drag and generates resistance that more closely resembles a workout on water.

The new classes also incorporate minimal choreography, a plus for the dance-weary, especially men. ``Most people don't get intimidated by cycling,'' said Voight, well-known for her workout videos.

Monotony vs. motivation

Some fitness industry experts say the pure novelty of the new athletic programs is enough to lure participants. In the never-ending battle against boredom and burnout, exercise enthusiasts constantly are on the prowl for new fitness options to stay motivated.

``It's a new challenge,'' said Joyce Courtney of West Hills. She ``spins'' at least three times a week at the World Gym in Woodland Hills.

``You're getting a higher high at a quicker pace,'' added Courtney, a florist at a Calabasas nursery.

And in the competitive health club industry, where the motto ``keeping up with the Joneses'' rules, customers - including Courtney - say they're more than willing to shop around for the latest fitness activity - particularly in body- and health-conscious Southern California. In turn, more gyms are investing in new programs to hold on to members and woo new ones.

Milner compares the health club industry to bars. ``People are looking for the latest, most fun place to go,'' he explained.

Of the country's roughly 13,300 health clubs (California boasts the highest number of gyms with 1,400), about a third to half house indoor cycling programs, according to IHRSA estimates.

But NcNeil and Voight question the likelihood that group, indoor programs using stationary machines will ever equal, let alone surpass, aerobics' ubiquitousness.

``There's not as much variety, and you have to buy the bikes,'' Voight said.

Indoor athletic programs' machines aren't cheap. One rower costs $725. An indoor group cycling bike costs between $500 and $700. ``Aerobics is here to stay. ... It costs no money to the gym (in terms of equipment). It's too good of a thing,'' Voight added.

She speaks from experience. Voight and other aerobics gurus, including Jane Fonda, helped propel the sport into America's living rooms during the '80s. And when all the jumping up and down and ``feeling the burn'' became tiresome and painful, variations of aerobics began sprouting up - low-impact, jazz, funk, hip-hop, step aerobics and sliding. Aerobics constantly reinvented itself to remain popular among fitness fans.

Indoor programs that integrate stationary machines, however, lack the inherent flexibility of aerobics and allow for minimal varieties. And that may shorten the life span of the new exercise genre, Voight said.

But, then again, what's a fitness trend anyway?

``A trend has to do with what's behind the new idea. Spinning has been around a long time. Someone got clever and decided to market it, and it has the appearance of something new and innovative,'' said Dr. John Cianca, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Cianca often works with injured athletes. ``It's nothing more than dressed-up, old ideas,'' he added.

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) ROW WARRIORS

The race to find the next big fitness fad

(2) Julie Wiley leads a Boat House class at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The program takes the group concept of Spinning to a new, specially designed rowing machine.

(3) Liz Caine, left, Kimi Kim Uriu and Robin Campbell pull on their rowing machines during a Boat House class at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Phil McCarten/Daily News