Silver Stars sells fitness to aging Baby Boomers

At most fitness centers in the city, the millennials dominate.The music is blasting, the bodies lithe, and the atmosphere intense.Devoted to fitness, many 20-and 30-year olds crave staying healthy and thin.

Baby boomers are often the minority; the outsiders looking in, something they're not accustomed to.But fitness instructor turned entrepreneur Jason Greenspan wants to change all that. In May 2013, he opened Silver Stars Fitness, a midtown fitness center located on 7 ^th Avenue and 55 ^th Street that specializes in training baby boomers.

A long-time fitness instructor, 42-year-old Greenspan said, "Baby boomers and older adults were working out more and more.I saw that in the city there wasn't a facility that catered specifically to them."Since he had been training older adults and ran a fitness consulting business, he tapped his own funds to open a modest 1,300 square-feet, third floor facility in a commercial building.

Unlike most fitness centers, Silver Stars doesn't require annual membership.Instead he offers a program of 18 different classes that cost $240 for a package of eight classes or $30 a session.Classes target participants who are advanced, intermediate and beginners. In addition, it offers one-on-one training, yoga and Pilates classes, and massages."It's private and everything is done by appointment," Greenspan said.

The main studio accommodates about a dozen people, and a smaller studio offers one-on-on training.Most classes average three to five participants with a maximum of six.

"Classes are small and intimate.That allows us to give personalized treatment, modify each exercise, so people will be less prone to injury than taking part in a class with 10 to 20 people," said Greenspan, an Upper West Side resident.

Gary M. Stern is a New York-based business journalist and author.