Stockbroker Christopher Carter, whom a jury acquitted last week for overturning the stationary bike of a loudly grunting fellow Wall Streeter in his Upper East Side Equinox spin class, spent months in the headlines. But gym rage is nothing new at the fitness chain, which has added a class to its employee-training program designed to teach what to do “When the Shit Hits the Fan.” “We want people to feel attached to their workout, but we need to remind everyone that it is a shared space,” says Lashaun Dale, national group-fitness manager for the club. “We have such a small amount of living space in New York that some people see ‘their’ bike or ‘their’ spot on the floor as an extension of their personal space.” The course offers step-by-step solutions for various scenarios, like diverting agitated members with humor. “We would rather they get into it with an instructor than with another member, because we are trained to handle it,” says group-fitness manager Mark Hendricks. “At first I thought, ‘New Yorkers can handle it, I’ll leave them alone to sort it out.’ But guess what? They can’t.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Beth Landman
• Table of Contents: Jun 16, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!