How to Get Inn Shape: Hotel Workouts

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TRAVELERS CLAIM TO WANT top-notch workout facilities when they book a hotel, but then they get pooped from sightseeing and end up sleeping past their wake-up calls. Instead of letting their fancy fitness centers get lonely, some D.C. hotels are letting locals in on the action.

A few will let you join as members, so you can avoid the riff-raff at your neighborhood health club. At the Four Seasons in Georgetown, it's $250 a month, plus a $7,500 initiation. And oh yeah, there's a waiting list. The Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner offers individual memberships starting at $150 per month with a "nominal" initiation fee.

Just looking to sample a hotel workout? Both the Fairmont (which also allows folks to join as members) and The Mandarin Oriental are offering these workshops to the masses.

» ABOUT FACE

The youthful visage of 43-year-old Val Georgescu has sold her facial workouts for years, as she's taught her clientele to stay taut through the ages with a variety of props: straws, balls, gloves. Her newest twist? Just add water.

Think of the Mandarin Oriental's Liqua-FACE as spa fitness. It's a cocktail of a class, one part etiquette lesson, one part facial and one part workout. Georgescu leads her subjects through her trademarked series of exercises determined to ward off wrinkles. But by standing in a heated pool, students learn to connect their facial and body movements.

Underused facial muscles do the heavy lifting here. Cheekbones and brows gently elevate in the Snooty Face posture, while jaws and cheeks stretch in the Scream — think of the Edvard Munch painting. You'll do "push ups" with your lips and blink just the external corners of your eyelids (it can be done!).

The routine has always included elegant walking. "When women used to walk in high heels, they lifted everything," she says. Now, we're a droopy, trudging lot, and that wear and tear shows on our faces. So she has students prance along the pool's lanes, making the facial movements as they lift their arms and legs. "Because your body can relax differently in the water, you can move with flow," she says. Students break from exercises by blowing bubbles, which helps release the tension in their face muscles. Whereas land students must use gloves to keep oils fingerprints off their faces, water students needn't worry.

Even with the water resistance, this class is far from strenuous. That being said, she coerces faces into postures most people have never imagined, leaving students feeling taut in their cheeks and self-conscious about crinkling their foreheads.
Individual sessions, as well as classes, are available for $35-$110. There is no set schedule. Interested parties should contact the Mandarin Oriental Spa (1330 Maryland Ave. SW) at 202-787-6100 to set up an appointment.

» DOUBLE THE PEACE

After years of practicing both massage and yoga, Jo Anna Hawthorne hit on an elegantly simple idea: Combining the two. By applying pressure to various points on the body while students move through their yoga practice, she could help them boost flexibility and relax into deeper stretches. The result is MYO (for massage and yoga), her new class at the Fairmont hotel. Rather than moving the students into positions herself, Hawthorne massages as they stretch and pose.

The intimate class — each is limited to four students — begins with students lying face up, shoes off, on two cushy yoga mats; rolled-up towels spritzed with peppermint oil support their necks. A single candle lights the room. Five minutes of breathing exercises kick off the hour and help students take mental stock of their muscles — what's tense, what's tight. "Your diaphragm is the seat of your emotions," explains Hawthorne. "By strengthening that muscle you learn to express yourself effectively."

After breathing exercises come familiar moves: bridges, table pose, cat and dog stretches, cobras and forward bends. Hawthorne rubs peppermint oil on her hands, then strolls the room and uses her own muscle to push, pull and lengthen students' limbs. She walks on students' feet while they lie face down, and sits on their backs while they stretch in child's pose. By the end of class, students are in a seated position, mentally reexamining the changes in their body.

Hawthorne seeks to alter the way exercisers think about fitness. "I fused together ancient techniques to fit more Western lifestyles," she says. So many Washingtonians already lift weights or run miles, she says. "For many people, flexibility is the missing link."

» April 8, 10 and 13; $49 for members, $54 for non-members at the Fairmont (2401 M St. NW; 202-429-2400)