Does Anyone Remember ELAINE POWERS exercise studio

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  • jhsusak
    jhsusak Posts: 2 Member
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    So happy to run into this thread - I worked at corporate for Elaine Powers. I started as Consumer Relations Manager, then product manager for Sensible Eating Formula - if you worked at EP in 1980 or so, I came to your salon to train you on it. I also wrote the newsletter, sold franchises and a few other things. It was a terrific job for which they paid us almost nothing, but I learned skills that served me well for the rest of my life, and made a couple friends who are still among my best friends to this day. I am so glad you all had such great memories of Elaine!
  • jhsusak
    jhsusak Posts: 2 Member
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    Did any of you former employees attend "Apple University" in Milwaukee? When we opened it, I had to go around to the TV and radio stations in the standard cranberry-colored-with-white-stripes leotard and hand out press releases and apples. One DJ asked me, onair, if I was a "former lardbucket". See what I mean about learning skills :)
  • dianer127
    dianer127 Posts: 1 Member
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    I joined Elaine Powers salon in St. Paul, MN back in the early 1970's. My lasting memory is of those round, whirling machines we sat and held on to that were made of what looked like wooden baking rolling pins.
  • Juless804
    Juless804 Posts: 1 Member
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    I loved Elaine Powers! I miss it so much! I used to go when I lived in Austin, TX and always felt so comfortable working out with just women. I would love to find something like this now!
  • Motherjoe
    Motherjoe Posts: 5 Member
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    I used to be an aerobics instructor in 1987 when Elaine Powers closed a new place opened up called Living Well Lady! It was in East Detroit, Michigan. I'm laughing thinking about the blue and red spandex bodysuits HAHA
  • asha6665
    asha6665 Posts: 1 Member
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    I was an asst mng in Tampa, 1972. Loved it! Can we still get copies of the old workout routines or music that was used for floor exercises. Best shape I was ever in, at age 60 somewhat good shape want to get back to the old routines. Anyone who can help out there w/info please email tdebrocke3@gmail.com. Thnx!
  • kirstinethornburg
    kirstinethornburg Posts: 300 Member
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    YEs I joined in highschool was my first gym member ship and hated it. Now at 53 years old loveing working out at Anytime fitness ten times more
  • Hope228
    Hope228 Posts: 340 Member
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    Wow, I belonged to one in Hollywood, FL years ago. I remember there was this machine that jiggled my fat! LOL :o
  • Whitehallgirl
    Whitehallgirl Posts: 1 Member
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    I worked in the Whitehall salon in Pittsburgh in the 70's. We won two cruises to Nassau! Big competitors were Elyria Ohio and one of the Detroit salons. I met my best friend working there...ended up my matron of honor and now we are facing retirement - still friends and still remember Elaine's fondly. Anyone remember the Team Time rhymes..."we must, we must, we must increase our bust..." pretty much at the infancy of our feminist instincts - yikes. St. Patrick's Day parties were the highlight of the year...we raised 10,000.00 in one day! Our VP was Jim Day and senior VP Marketing was Donna Hurley? Loads of fun, I still have my SEF container in the kitchen. Probably one of the most well done training manuals I've seen. Used much of what I learned at Elaines throughout my management career and oh, those leotards!
  • Fit4evrGRL
    Fit4evrGRL Posts: 7 Member
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    OMG! I was just talking to a friend of mine recently about Elaine Power fitness salon. I used to one in that strip mall, across from the Northland Shopping Center in Southfield Michigan. Those were good times back then. The class was small, the instructors were great. I had a good time! Those were good times.
  • Quest4HotGranny
    Quest4HotGranny Posts: 3 Member
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    I Loved Elaine Powers I remember the sensible eating formula.....was that the shake?? I loved it and have never found anything that tasted like it. I was offered a job there at 18 but I was still in my last couple months of high school. I couldn't take it because I had to go out of State for training. I remember they would ring the bell when you lost weight. I remember the little thing you would straddle on in the warm ups to take the fat off your thighs! I LOVED Elaine Powers. Worked for Jenny Craig and Formu 3 and SLenderform later but Elaine Powers was like my favorite workout place.
  • celestecurran
    celestecurran Posts: 2 Member
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    lbewley3 wrote: »
    My sister worked at one in Buffalo NY area in the early 1980s. Yes, the "warm-up" included the old 'jigglers'. :laugh:
    We were talking about it not too long ago and I dug out a picture of her in her leotard, tights and leg warmers!! Of course, she had the big hair and big eyeglasses from the 80s too!!

    I worked in one of the very first centers that Elaine Powers opened back in 1968 in Bay Ridge Brooklyn first day as a instructor then assistant office manager good memories I still work out to this day
  • keepingfit2day
    keepingfit2day Posts: 1 Member
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    I appreciate the memories, all! I also worked at Elaine Powers (Springfield, PA) for less than a year when we were told that it was going out of business. I enjoyed leading the ladies during my short stint there after college in Powercises and selling SEF. I also remember Joannie Greggains (Wikipedia says she was programs director) and many of us from neighboring salons joined her at a TV news studio, being aired, just outside of Phila. I have a picture with me on the floor in leotards and tights (not related to the airing!). I thought of E.P. because I just joined a club today.This workout place is now joining with a hospital for wellness and having this in their title attracted me. I want to utilize the personal trainer 1/mo. and various workout classes. E.P., my long-ago college dance classes, and movement course for theater helped me to be "fitness aware", which for one not up for competitive sports has been a valuable help! Being aware of the moves your various body parts can make helps with toning and strengthening during times of injury (what prompted me to think "wellness") as well as the other benefits. My mother, in her '80's, shuffling with her feet, is needing to exercise. It just must be kept up for strength in later yrs. - not easy without being in the habit. I also I met a young lady at the salon in the early '80's who was in my wedding, too!
  • joannspicer1
    joannspicer1 Posts: 1 Member
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    .
    keepingfit2day wrote: »
    I appreciate the memories, all! I also worked at Elaine Powers (Springfield, PA) for less than a year when we were told that it was going out of business. I enjoyed leading the ladies during my short stint there after college in Powercises and selling SEF. I also remember Joannie Greggains (Wikipedia says she was programs director) and many of us from neighboring salons joined her at a TV news studio, being aired, just outside of Phila. I have a picture with me on the floor in leotards and tights (not related to the airing!). I thought of E.P. because I just joined a club today.This workout place is now joining with a hospital for wellness and having this in their title attracted me. I want to utilize the personal trainer 1/mo. and various workout classes. E.P., my long-ago college dance classes, and movement course for theater helped me to be "fitness aware", which for one not up for competitive sports has been a valuable help! Being aware of the moves your various body parts can make helps with toning and strengthening during times of injury (what prompted me to think "wellness") as well as the other benefits. My mother, in her '80's, shuffling with her feet, is needing to exercise. It just must be kept up for strength in later yrs. - not easy without being in the habit. I also I met a young lady at the salon in the early '80's who was in my wedding, too!

    Then you were at the giant Joannie Greggins led powersize at the Roosevelt Blvd salon. I didn’t make the cut, but one of my staff did. I think her name was Andrea. You guys did a routine with her on the Mike Douglas Show I think.
  • bmschmitt
    bmschmitt Posts: 1 Member
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    I'm so excited that I found this thread about Elaine Powers. I started working for EP my last year in college (1978) in Austin, TX. There were 2 salons in Austin at the time and Donna Hurley was the franchise owner. A young woman by the name of Melanie was my first manager there. I just loved working there and felt I had found my dream job. I ended up working for EP until 1984. By that time I had transferred to an EP Salon in Dallas, TX in 1981 and had been promoted a number of times to salon manager at the Redbird salon and then to an area manager. I have really fond memories of my managers, Barbara Warren and Patty Lomanico(sp)-Wynn. I finally left since I was homesick for Austin. Dallas was just too big and impersonal for me. One thing that has stuck with me is a lifetime of fitness. I became an avid YMCA member and I have been doing CrossFit for the last 10 years. Working at EP was an invaluable experience.
  • HURRICANEHILL7
    HURRICANEHILL7 Posts: 1 Member
    edited July 2023
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    I worked with Elaine powers from 1973 to 1982
    I was a regional manager for the Elaine Powers Figure Sloans in North Carolina over 10 salons
    I would love to find some of the people I used to work with!
    Lisa
  • puravida1220
    puravida1220 Posts: 1 Member
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    I worked at Elaine Powers on the westside of Columbus, OH in the early 1980s. I would walk to work, open the gym, work a 12 hour shift leading aerobics, teaching women how to use the machines, and selling memberships, close the gym, clean all of the equipment, then walk back home. It was pretty much non-stop high-energy activity & I was in the best shape of my life! My favorite machine was the one you laid down on & the bottom half of the machine rotated. I never believed it sculpted your waistline, but I loved the stretch.

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