Spice up your exercise routine with stripperobics

CHICAGO – The girls had been waiting, so when Antonio Coke arrived, he went straight to the corner of the aerobics studio, popped in a sultry CD and hurriedly pushed a large, square platform with a silver pole to the front of the room.

“Welcome,” said Coke, a 5-foot-8, 180-pound dance and fitness instructor with muscles bulging out of his sleeveless T-shirt.

“Everyone got a pole?”

Poles are a necessity for this class, called Cardio Striptease and offered every Monday night at Crunch Fitness, a trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood gym. The class promises a rigorous workout using sexy moves, naughty looks and sensual choreography. Stripper bodies and layered clothing are optional, but participants also shouldn’t be surprised when Coke hands out feather boas.

For years, Cardio Striptease has been wildly popular at the fitness chain’s New York, Miami and Los Angeles branches, fueled in part by the publicity gained when celebrity Carmen Electra took an interest in the workouts. But it was discontinued at the Orange County, Calif., Crunch because the area’s conservative clients weren’t, well, turned on by the trend. Management at Chicago’s flagship Crunch gym worried that people in the buttoned-up Midwest might be reluctant as well.

Nope.

Since the Chicago Cardio Striptease classes began last year, there routinely have been anywhere from 20 to 30 people of all sizes, mostly women, thrusting their pelvises and crawling on the floor in each class. Participants are encouraged to slap their booties, use “come hither” gestures and crawl between each other’s legs. At a recent class, Coke taught participants several sets of eight-count moves, one of which culminated with all participants on their backs, legs in the air, spread eagle.

“It’s a huge workout,” said Alexis Leventhal, a 24-year-old high school teacher and Cardio Striptease regular. “It’s like a dance class, just a little bit sexier.”

Her friend and fellow teacher, Carolyn Briggs-Gaul, 32, said she’s told some of her students about the class, which she sees as a lighthearted way to get into shape.

“You see yourself in the mirror doing all these crazy moves and you end up laughing half the time,” Briggs-Gaul said.

Coke said he makes up most class routines spontaneously. He’s never had any professional dance training – except for a few months in New York when he worked as a stripper to help pay the bills.

The classes are just one of many innovative group lessons that Crunch – which boasts the motto “No Judgments” – offers. The class before Cardio Striptease is called “Bounce,” where members work out on mini-trampolines to music. On Sunday mornings, there’s “Gospel Aerobics,” in which a full gospel choir serenades a sweating exercise group.

“People are just waiting for something like this to come along, and they say, ‘Finally, I can come out of the box,’ ” said Richard Marshall, the 36-year-old general manager of the Lincoln Park Crunch, of the classes.

Shae Bitton, 22, almost could have passed for a shy girl, sitting quietly by herself on a bench outside the Crunch aerobics studio before a recent Cardio Striptease class started.

Moments later, Bitton was dancing and whipping her shoulder-length brown hair from side to side. The TV sales rep said she was lured into the class because she missed dancing, which she did for most of her childhood. After one Cardio Striptease class, Britton said she was hooked.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “This will be my Monday ritual.”