If you think (well, hope) the end of summer means the end of exercise, you’re fresh out of luck.
The recent, inescapable parade of uber-athletes on TV has created a new class of people, young and old, with renewed interest in sweating, grunting and working their butts off to achieve maximum greatness.
That’s right. The Summer Olympics may be over, but it’s not exactly gone.
Take 7-year-old Payton Roberts. Watching her lift up into the perfect arabesque, it’s difficult to believe she took up gymnastics less than three weeks ago.
Inspired by her heroine, US double-gold-medal winner Gabby Douglas, Roberts is determined to succeed.
“We watched Gabby’s performance, and at first Payton said, ‘I could never do that,’ ” says her mom, Rose Roberts, 35, a lawyer from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. But Payton, albeit in humbler surroundings than the 16,500-square-foot arena in London, has begun tackling once-intimidating maneuvers at her thrice-weekly beginners’ class at Powerplay, a neighborhood gym near the Gowanus Canal.
“We brace ourselves every four years,” says Fritz Jean, owner of Powerplay, which has seen inquiries about kids’ and adult classes rise by a third this year.
Whether it’s gymnastics, swimming, women’s boxing or fencing, sports fever is everywhere.
Amateur boxer Adrienne Ford, a mom to 4-year-old twins, credits her first championship title in the recent New York Tournament to the buzz surrounding the US women’s team.
“I was totally energized — those women are so inspirational,” says Ford, 30, a TV executive. “It’s the first time women’s boxing was [an] Olympic event, and it shone a much-needed light onto the sport.”
The medals won by Team USA members Claressa Shields, 17 — who took home gold in the women’s middleweight category — and Marlen Esparza, 23, who got a bronze medal in the flyweight, are still a hot topic at the Manhattan gym Kingsway, where Ford is trained by Vanessa Greco, associate coach with New York’s Team Free-form Women’s Boxing Club.
“The Olympics have opened up more opportunities for us,” says Greco, a former national Golden Gloves champ. “A whole lot more people are signing up.”
Ditto for triathlons. The Ironman Triathlon in New York earlier this month attracted a record 2,653 entrants — 22 percent more than in 2011.
They signed up pre-Olympics, but first-time competitor Karen Mateo, a 42-year-old from the East Side, believes the Olympics helped motivate her fellow cyclists, runners and swimmers. She says she was particularly spurred on after watching the open swimming events in the Thames.
At least one city gym, capitalizing on a good marketing opportunity when it sees one, has taken advantage of the Olympics’ popularity.
Manhattan Plaza Health Club, near Times Square, had a 20 percent increase in membership applications after running a “Fulfill Your Olympic Dream” promotion. It offered discounted registration, as well as free membership, to the popular swim team, which meets every morning at 6. and has seen a fair number of newcomers.
“People are inspired when they see competitors like Michael Phelps winning medal upon medal,” says swim coach Jim DiPaola. “Even if they’re just recreational swimmers, it creates a buzz, and they want to improve their technique.”
Few are as committed as finance editor Paul Rekoff from Manhattan, who trains at the pool for 90 minutes weekday mornings before work. Weekends, he does four hours total.
“What I get from watching the Olympics is a free two-week intensive stroke clinic by the best swimmers in the world.” says the 53-year-old long-distance swimmer, whose ambition is to swim the English Channel. “Swimmers tinker with their stroke more than golfers, and there are things I’m doing now based on strokes that I saw [on TV].”
Water polo has seen a surprising uptick in interest as well. No one was cheering louder than Danielle Ingram when the US struck gold in women’s water polo. She’s one of a handful of female members of the co-ed water polo team at Asphalt Green Pool and Fitness Center on the Upper East Side.
“The sport is much better known on the West Coast, I guess because of the weather, but it’s really catching on in the East,” says Ingram, who works in advertising and hails from Hawaii. “People have been seeing it on TV over the summer and are trying it on for size.”
Meanwhile, the Upper East Side’s Abigail Teitelbaum, 26, used the Olympics as an excuse to step out of her comfort zone and tackle fencing. The p.r. and marketing worker is among a swath of newcomers at Sheridan Fencing Academy in Manhattan.
Teitelbaum, who has been fencing for two months, says, “It’s a great workout.” The sport, she adds, allows her to channel swash-buckling scenes from movies like “The Princess Bride.”
The over-the-top success of the women’s gymnastics team means it is getting the most interest.
Special-needs counselor Devora Leventhal, 23, of Midtown, recently took up the sport at Chelsea Piers. She attends the 90-minute lunchtime beginner/intermediate gymnastics class, and says, “I’m not as good as I’d like to be, but I’m doing OK!”
She’s joined by 19-year-old first-timer Giovanni Reid, of Fort Greene, who was glued to the Olympics. His goal is to improve his strength for his “real” work on the running track. Gymnastics is “recreational and fun,” adds Reid. “I’m not taking it too seriously.”
Payton Roberts, on the other hand, is young enough to dream about 2024, the first games in which she’ll be old enough to compete.
“I’d love to win a gold medal like Gabby,” she says with a giggle.In the meantime, she’s busy perfecting her handstand.
Get your sport on: Want to be a (pretend) Olympic athlete? Begin your path to the podium at one of these NYC venues.
GYMNASTICS
* Powerplay Sports Center: Friendly two-story gym offers coaching for kids and adults at all levels. 432 Third Ave., Gowanus, Brooklyn, powerplaykids.com
* The Field House at Chelsea Piers: Classes for kids and adults combine floor work with state-of-the-art apparatus, including vaults, rings, bars and balance beams. Between Piers 61 and 62, West 23st Street at the Hudson River; 212-336-6500, chelseapiers.com
BOXING
* Kingsway Gym: Old-school Flatiron-area boxing gym with two regulation-size rings, bags, weights, cardio equipment and plenty of New York attitude. 1 W. 28th St.; 212-679-3427, kingswaygym.com
SWIMMING, WATER POLO, TRIATHLON
* Manhattan Plaza Health Club: The retractable roof above this swimming pool allows inside and outside training sessions. Plus, it boasts its own swim team and coach. 482 W. 43rd St.; 212-563- 7001, mphc.com
* Asphalt Green Pool and Fitness Center: Brooklyn’s own Olympic bronze-medalist swimmer, Lia Neal, 16, trains here, and an amateur adult co-ed water polo team holds thrice-weekly practices. There’s coaching for wannabe and experienced triathletes. 555 E. 90th St.; 212-369-8890, asphaltgreen.org
FENCING
* Sheridan Fencing Academy: Beginner-, intermediate- and advanced-level coaching for kids as young as 4 (the youngest musketeers use safe plastic sabers) through adults are welcome at this Upper East Side studio. 1801 First Ave., at 93rd Street; 212-831-0764, sheridanfencing.com
jridley@nypost.com