Before the exercise science professor took over, the Body Shop had been a clamorous, poorly lit room in Boyden, visited mostly by bodybuilder types. Rife and his graduate assistants plushed things up with carpeting and mirrors, and went on to open this spa in Totman and three more in Gorman, Webster, and the nineteenth floor of Washington Tower. The gyms are their own little chain, self-funding and employing sixty to seventy students who may very well go on to take their places in the burgeoning fitness field. In opening the Body Shops in the late eighties, Rife was anticipating an explosion in fitness, and he was right. The young flock to the gym in hopes of achieving the beauty ideal planted in their minds by the media they grew up with.
Older members come to do right by their hearts and hips.
But Rife envisioned a place that went beyond mere body sculpture to include the growing awareness of diet and stress management. Thus, the Body Shop is also where members can get their cholesterol screened, learn about the best running shoe, get great recipes, or attend a talk by an eating-disorders specialist. He has a tawny athlete's face, long tanned hands that played no small part in his competing with the U-S. Modern Pentathlon Team at the 1968 Olympics. For now, Rife is concentrating on doubling the size of the shop in Boyden. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess.