ADDING MUSCLE TO YOUR MAN CAVE

Take a world-class fitness trainer with a passion for art and design, add a background in mechanical engineering, coupled with a keen understanding of anatomy, and what you get is Mark Harigian, internationally renowned designer of “Workout Environments.” Appropriately, Mark’s expertise has earned him the title – Architect of Anatomy.

Mark’s career as a celebrity trainer started in the mid 80’s, and his first burst of inspiration came during a visit to Tom Hank’s home gym. “It was little more than a bedroom,” says Mark, “and the equipment was an afterthought.” Right on the heels of this visit, he made a trip to Tom Selleck’s so-called home gym. “There was no ambience, no continuation of the taste of style of the home. Nothing flowed. It was full of mismatched equipment – one brand in gray, another in white. No one would want to spend time there.”

You could call this Mark’s eureka moment. His clients could comfortably afford renowned designers and decorators for their homes, so why were these personal gyms less than welcoming? “I kept going to homes where every room was Architectural Digest quality, except the gym. That was the one room you didn’t want to be in. “Most people think a home gym must look industrial and be strictly functional. But if that’s not your style and it isn’t a pleasurable space to spend time in, you’ll never use it.”

What had started as a private training business in 1984 soon led Mark into designing custom gyms, or in his preferred terminology: workout environments.