Midtown Athletic Club believes in the power of connection, and by coming together as a community, we can do anything. We aim to create a safe space for people to talk about their mental health struggles, break down the stigma surrounding mental illness, and support each other. 

This year, the clubs will host Mindstrong on Saturday, May 18th, to recognize mental health awareness month, and raise donations, support, and awareness for mental health causes that impact our communities daily. 

Mindstrong will feature various activities at each club, including special tennis, fitness and aquatics offerings and our Mindstrong smoothie, made with ingredients shown to boost mental well-being. Additionally, there will be raffles, giveaways, and silent auctions. 100% of donations and 100% of proceeds from Mindstrong events will go directly to the charity partnered with each club. We will be accepting donations for the entire month of May. In addition, Midtown will donate $1 per check in on the day of Mindstrong, May 18^th, towards these organizations.

More about the causes Midtown has partnered with to make Mindstrong happen: 

• Hope for the Day (H.F.T.D.): a Chicago-based, non-profit mental health organization empowering the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education. To learn more about H.F.T.D., click here. Midtown Chicago, Midtown Willowbrook, Midtown Palatine, and Midtown Bannockburn have partnered with Hope for the Day for Mindstrong 2024. 

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Cobb: Georgia’s proactive suicide prevention and mental health education projects. Windy Hill Athletic Club has partnered with NAMI for Mindstrong 2024. 

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Rochester: Rochester’s proactive suicide prevention and mental health education projects. Midtown Rochester has partnered with NAMI for Mindstrong 2024. 

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Broward: Miami’s proactive suicide prevention and mental health education projects. Midtown Weston has partnered with NAMI for Mindstrong 2024. 

• Jewish General Hospital: Midtown Sanctuaire has partnered with the Jewish General Hospital to support mental health and wellness programs for medical and hospital staff. We’re also supporting crucial research in developing innovative interventions for the treatment and prevention of mental illness.

We’re thrilled to announce some exciting news. We strive to offer the best possible experiences to our members–and that means investing, and reinvesting, in extraordinary spaces that inspire you. Over the next few months, we’re making investments in our Chicago club to continue our strive towards extraordinary–all based on feedback we’ve gotten from you, our members.

Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about the upcoming club enhancements, including progress updates & temporary disruption dates. Check back here as much as you’d like, we will keep this page updated with the latest information.

We are very excited about these upcoming changes. We believe these changes will greatly increase the availability of our most popular equipment, ensuring you experience minimal wait times even during peak hours.

– Midtown Athletic Club Chicago

ARENA | A NEW STUDIO FOR HIIT CLASSES – OPENS MARCH 31ST

Arena is finally coming to our Chicago club! Arena is one of Midtown’s signature studios that features high-intensity classes using functional fitness equipment.

What to expect when you take an Arena class:

• The workouts focus on building strength, speed, and endurance.
  • Classes in Arena will be live starting March 31st
• Arena will be located on the 2nd floor, in the former RIDE studio

Arena will host 2 classes: 

• APEX: Maximize strength power and speed through high-intensity treadmill and weights. 
• Endure: Tone up and build endurance alternating between weights and treads. 

RIDE | TRANSFORMING INTO AN INDOOR/OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE – OPENS LATE SPRING 2023

We are making significant enhancements to our RIDE studio: an entirely new studio space that allows us to transition between an open-air outdoor environment and indoor studio, based on the class (and the weather!).

• RIDE classes will be temporarily paused starting March 13th, but don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.
• Our new RIDE studio will be located on the first floor
• Our new RIDE studio will be opening late spring

SECOND FLOOR | CARDIO, RECOVERY, AND STRENGTH

We are consolidating our cardio layout and adding more of what you like, such as: 

• 9 new Woodway treadmills
  • These treads are compatible with your apple watch, designed specifically for runners and have the highest incline of any tread on the market
• 2 new stair steppers (climb mills) for a total of 10

We are expanding the stretching space to allow for a larger recovery area with:

• Twice the stretching space
• A hyperice station– percussion self-massage tools

We are adding more space for strength training with the following equipment: 

• More dumbbell sets 
• 4 Fitbenches
• More regular benches
• A smith machine
• Rubber flooring under the benches 
• Stand alone mirrors in front of Fitbenches 

THIRD FLOOR | A STRENGTH TRAINING OASIS

We are moving our Queenax closer to the field to make room for additional strength equipment:

• 6 Eleiko half racks and platforms (smaller size platforms)
• 50% more dumbbells, racks and benches
• Precor plate loaded shoulder press
• Precor plate loaded hack squats

Cable machines see some of the highest usage so we are adding 100% more cable machines:

• 2 Life Fitness Multijungles
• 4 Life Fitness dual adjacent pulleys

And for a new, fun way to do cardio, we are adding: 

• 2 SkiErgs

The following is an interview conducted by and for Midtown Magazine with Midtown CEO, Steven Schwartz.

MIDTOWN: What is your first memory of Midtown Athletic Club?

STEVEN SCHWARZ: You have to understand that the original project, Midtown Tennis Club, consumed our family 24/7/365 for a couple of years. My dad worked all the time, so it was very typical on the weekend to have people over for meetings, artistic design brochures, logos, all kinds of things. I vividly remember those people around our dining table. When it opened, my dad let my brother Andrew and me be the first people on the courts. We were in a race and we got angry and started throwing rackets at each other. Boy, did we get in trouble. We had to take timeouts in the hallway between courts nine and five.

MIDTOWN: What have been the biggest changes to Midtown’s neighborhood over the years?

SS: It’s been a dramatic conversion. I think back to my early days as a kid and then when I was working here. It was industrial and the houses were occupied by lots of families. It was a nitty gritty working neighborhood with no stores. Fast forward to the new millennium and Bucktown just exploded. That’s when all the renovation started to happen.

MIDTOWN: Are there leaders you look to for innovation?

SS: When I was at Hyatt, there was a regional vice president named Don Deporter who managed the Midwest region. He was a magnificent marketer and promoter and someone who encouraged you to take steps out of your comfort zone. He would ride you pretty hard, half expecting you to fall on your face, challenging you to get up. We became friends and he had a dramatic influence on me. Plus, he threw great parties!

MIDTOWN: Do you collaborate with other leaders in the health club industry?

SS: About 15 years ago, I joined a roundtable group of health club CEOs. We don’t compete with each other and they’re from all over the world. For the meetings, we go to each other’s hometowns or cities where they do business. We have met in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, São Paulo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Chicago. It’s really opened my eyes to what health clubs can be, as well as what the boutique fitness business is and what is cutting edge. Talking with them two or three times a year in depth challenged me to think in different ways about Midtown.

MIDTOWN: What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken?

SS: Building the new Midtown Chicago—by far! The scale of the project and the cost of the building relative to the size of our company was a big bet. Fortunately, the concept fits well with the neighborhoods around us. It’s been the pride and joy of my business life to be able to actually do this and see it.

MIDTOWN: What elements of hospitality make Midtown a luxury fitness resort?

SS: Adding the hotel and having Chromium as an upscale restaurant in the heart of the Club really change the feel and perception of the Club. For most health clubs, the biggest business cost is the real estate, meaning the space you have to work with. As a result, every inch is utilized as much as you can, so hallways are minimized and fitness equipment is wall to wall. We intentionally developed wide walkways and a series of staircases so you have to walk through the building. As a result, you see people and it’s a more social environment. We also tried to build an energy into the space that comes from natural light, tall ceilings, and natural materials. We focused on acoustics, so you don’t hear noise, but you feel a sense of sounds around you.

MIDTOWN: What has changed since Midtown was founded 50 years ago?

SS: Well, I’ll tell you what hasn’t changed in 50 years: our emphasis on programming. When my dad started the business in the 1970s, tennis became popular and all you had to do was open up. People would come and play, and you could charge by the hour. My dad had a completely different take. He wanted to create tennis players, partially because it’s good business to be self-generating and partially because it’s his mission in life to promote the game of tennis.

MIDTOWN: What are the biggest challenges facing the fitness industry today?

SS: Lots of fitness is faddish, going in and out of style. What we have to do is be able to adapt to those changes, so we can bring new trends to our members and keep things fresh, fun and relevant. The hardest thing is sunsetting a program that people still like but is not really popular anymore.

SPIRIT: What are your thoughts on at-home workouts?

SS: In the time I’ve been here, we’ve seen the percentage of people in the United States who joined health clubs go from 8% to 20%. And we’ve seen the concept of a health club go from a fad to a staple. Young people today join health clubs as part of what they do. What people have learned and science has told us is that exercise is one of the best things you can do for almost anything that ails you as well as preventing future health issues. As that becomes more and more understood the need for movement becomes greater, so you’ll do some of it at home. And that’s terrific. We’ve developed a place that promotes healthy habits, and is a place you want to be. Midtown is a lifestyle.

MIDTOWN: Midtown is a family business. When you first started you worked with your dad and now you work with your son. How has that experience been and what do you think it will be like in the future?

SS: I’m thrilled Alex has joined the company. If it was up to my dad, he’d get rid of me tomorrow and put Alex in charge. He’s brought a new dimension that neither my dad nor I brought because of his background in marketing as well as his creativity. He has great energy and he’s a very smart kid with a great future. That gives me confidence that our company will be in good hands for a long time.

The following is an interview conducted by and for Spirit Magazine with actor and Midtown member, Timothy Olyphant.

It’s not too surprising that for an actor best known for playing cowboys, Timothy Olyphant knows how to stay physically and mentally sharp during filming. That may explain why off- screen you’re more likely to find him with a tennis racquet in his hand than a six-shooter at his hip. Though most famous for portraying U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens in FX’s Justified (2010-2015), his career started on the stage in 1995 with the play The Monogamist. This past year he found himself acting opposite Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Donning a new hat, Timothy Olyphant joins the cast in the highly anticipated new season of FX’s Fargo. Fargo may have brought him to Chicago, but tennis brought him to Midtown. It’s a good thing this town is big enough for the both of them.

MIDTOWN: How long have you been coming to Midtown?

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT: I started the job just before Thanksgiving and I’ve been coming out about twice a week. Whenever I’m on vacation I try to find a place where I can either play tennis or swim, preferably both. Keeping yourself fit keeps you sane.

MIDTOWN: When did you start playing tennis?

TO: I grew up next door to a swimming and racquet club, so we all played a little bit of tennis when we were young and swam. I started playing tennis again in my 20s or 30s when I moved back out to LA. I had my daughter start playing, and now, I’m constantly trying to improve to keep up with her.

MIDTOWN: What has your experience been like in Chicago?

TO: I love this town. I’ve been to the Art Institute half a dozen times and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and it was fantastic. The job I’m doing is really a blast as well, and that always makes everything nice.

MIDTOWN: How often have you been able to see your family?

TO: My wife came up to visit and we had a lovely weekend here with tons of good food—not good for you, but good.

MIDTOWN: Santaland Diaries was recently in Chicago. You were the first to play that role?

TO: My wife and I were living in New York, and I got a call for this one man show. David Sedaris was just gaining traction. He is a very seriously good man.

MIDTOWN: Have you ever been starstruck?

TO: I don’t feel like I have, but I appreciate just taking in the presence of certain people. My wife and I went to the SAG Awards, and over my left shoulder was Meryl Streep and De Niro sat a table over from us. It’s nice to be in the room. Well, yeah, Leonardo. When I’m doing a scene with Leonardo DiCaprio, there’s moments where I’m in the middle of the scene and I’m thinking, “I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen this guy.”

MIDTOWN: Do you have an ultimate career goal?

TO: No. I enjoy the job, especially when the work is great, and that’s really about how well written it is. It’s fun to be part of a good story. Then the job takes on this whole other kind of life. I find myself both completely immersed in the work, while also aware of how it fits into the larger story. Because I’m aware of what’s transpiring outside of the scene at the same time, it allows me to enjoy the moments more fully; you trust the moment so much more. I think back to this last year and I’ve been really spoiled, so I don’t know how to approach the next.

MIDTOWN: Is there a celebrity or athlete out there that you would love to play tennis with?

TO: Oh, wait, I haven’t been truthful. I do have a goal. I want to do a tennis talk show. The way Jerry Seinfeld drives around with the comedians, I just want to drive around with professional tennis players, and then we head over and hit for a while. I’ve got a whole vision for it, theme song and everything. Yeah, that’s rad. I love it.

Learn more about the racquet sports programming that brought Timothy Olyphant to Midtown.

When was the last time you focused on moving all of your spine? According to Joseph H. Pilates, the creator of the Pilates method (originally referred to as Contrology), if your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old and if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young. Spinal stability and mobility are key elements in the trunk integration that is practiced in Pilates.

I have taught Pilates for 20 years and now teach Pilates instructors as a Balanced Body® Master Trainer at Midtown. On a daily basis, I work with members to untangle disfunctional movement patterns and help lay the foundation for them to achieve efficient movement. When members approach me about having aches and pains, they are often surprised to hear that the body part that aches is not the issue. For instance, knee pain is often related to a disfunction of the foot, ankle, hip, or all three. When the issue persists long enough it results in a knee injury. Fixing the knee, however, will not always solve the underlying disfunction that initially caused the injury.

The spine is very much the same. Students with neck pain, low back pain, headaches, shoulder pain, and hip pain often find relief when they focus on spinal mobility. Each section of spine has vertebra that are shaped differently to facilitate different ranges of motion in different directions. The seven cervical vertebrae provide the most range in all directions and help us move our heads around to observe our surroundings.

The five lumber vertebrae provide the second highest amount of flexion, extension, and lateral flexion, but not much rotation due to the shape of these bones. What I find the most interesting is the average range of motion for the twelve thoracic vertebrae. For many people, the thoracic spine has minimal to no mobility. Our thoracic spines should be forward bending (flexing), back bending (extending), side bending (laterally flexing) and twisting (rotating). The shape of these bones facilitate range in all directions, but the shape of the spinous processes limits the amount of extension. This makes extension work all the more important. “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”

All too often I see the lack of mobility in the thoracic spine and hypermobility of the cervical and lumbar spine. The cervical vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae are forced to do the job of all 24 vertebrae. It’s no wonder why so many people suffer from lower back and neck pain, not to mention the disfunctional patterns that arise in the shoulder girdles from an immobilized thoracic spine. Putting a coat on or reaching for a seatbelt can become difficult.

Joe Pilates believed that breathing, concentration, control, precision, balanced muscle development, rhythm, whole body movement and relaxation are important components to health and well-being. Midtown offers these elements in many ways in its programs. If you are ready to set your thoracic spine free, stop by the Pilates Studio upstairs and chat with an instructor. Remember, you are only as old as your spine.