Two others are Contours Express, which started in 1998 with a 29-minute circuit workout and now has 72 franchises in 16 states, and Slender Lady, which also offers a half-hour circuit and operates 56 franchises in 10 states, mainly in the West.
Playing his fifth N.H.L. game Thursday, the 20-year-old defenseman was confronted by the Calgary news media after the Rangers' morning workout about why he slighted the franchise.
To his left there is the popular Curves for Women franchise, which has offered its 30-minute, no-pressure workout mantra in town for almost four years.
The entire two-hour workout was broadcast live by NBA TV — another product of the franchise's newfound glasnost under D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh, the new team president.
It is unclear whether quarterback Drew Brees, the team leader who is unhappy that he has not received a long-term contract and that the team placed the franchise tag on him, will report for those workouts.
He has received the franchise tag but might not report Monday, when voluntary workouts begin.
Friend also would not be confused with the Indian master Bikram Choudhury, who created and franchised a kind of hot yoga, which stresses transformation through a rigid workout in a 100-plus-degree room, not through happy sermonettes.
Now low-budget franchises are more competitive," the pitcher Jon Lester told me as he prepared for his day's workout regimen in the Cubs' spring clubhouse.
