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Fitness center pushes toward opening

By Lisa Stevens John - | May 3, 2000

Couch potatoes begone there’s a new fitness center in town.

Jeremy Robbins, 26, a registered athletic trainer, watched last week as truckers unloaded a gymnasium full of exercise equipment at Tonganoxie’s soon-to-open Midwest Athletic Club.

This is the culmination of months of hard work by Robbins and his family, he said.

“We’ve been out here working until 10 or 11 at night.”

The athletic club, as well as Midwest Chiropractic office in the same building, are part of a family business.

“I’ve have my brother-in-law and his chiropractic office next door and my sister, Meghan’s in massage therapy there,” Robbins said.

His brother-in-law, Rob Schuck, opened Midwest Chiropractic in February at the former bowling alley. Also open at that location is J.A. Custom Computers. The athletic center now takes up the rest of the space.

Scheduled to open Saturday, the center features exercise equipment, including treadmills, low-impact treadmills and weight lifting machines. In addition, the business will have two tanning booths and childcare by appointment.

In the large gymnasium area, mirrors surround most of the walls and a stereo system and at least three wall-mounted televisions will provide built-in entertainment for exercisers.

Robbins, who works with Rehab 1, a physical therapy clinic in Lawrence, and who is the head athletic trainer at Lawrence’s Free State High School, said he will start in the fall as athletic trainer for Tonganoxie High School.

He’s looking forward to his work here, especially in helping those who are recovering from surgery such as knee repair.

“I like working with people,” Robbins said. “You get a sense of reward when you get somebody who is post-op and you work with them for a certain amount of time and when you finish with the therapy, they’re back to 100 percent.”

He’s also glad to be working in his hometown after living and working in Lawrence.

“I like the small-town atmosphere, my family is here and I would like to move back here eventually,” he said.

Schuck, too, said he’s looking forward to the opening of the fitness center, and said he plans to work out there, too.

Also, he said the two businesses fit well together.

“They compliment each other,” Schuck said. “Not only in rehabilitation, but also on total health. Fitness goes hand in hand with the chiropractic and nutritional lifestyles.”

Robbins said that Midwest Athletic Club has plans to be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.