Health & Fitness: Shake a Leg, Mrs. Plushbottom

The scents of lemons, wisteria and pines perfume the California breezes. Or perhaps ocean spray invigorates the skin and spirit at the tip of Long Island. Or the clear desert air of Arizona reinforces the sense of being cleansed. Whatever the surroundings, the wake-up call likely comes at 6 a.m., and after a breakfast that could be served in a thimble and saucer, the hectic dawn-to- dusk pace rivals anything ever dreamed up by a drill sergeant. "By the end of the day," declares Diane Sepler, 46, a Miami interior designer who is a happy devotee of such regimens, "I'm like a noodle."

Welcome to the U.S. spa, 1980s style. Only a decade ago, the spa's hallmark was pampering and passivity. Fat farms, so they were called, catered to well- fed, well-spread Mrs. Plushbottoms. No longer. Most of today's spas are one- stop fitness shops, sweat-soaked emporiums where guests are run ragged during the day, fed near starvation rations at lunch and dinner, and then hectored on proper nutrition, stress reduction and healthy habits. Coddling facials, pedicures and massages serve as soothing, but temporary respites. "If you want to expose yourself to new things in health and fitness, diet and nutrition," observes Judy Kennedy, co-author of The Spa Book, "a spa week is the way to start."

, A virtuous vacation, refulgence not indulgence, is the new favorite of the fitness-minded. "Three or four years ago, I don't think I booked a spa except La Costa," notes Selma Weiner, owner of a travel agency in New York City. "Then suddenly it was Rancho La Puerta, Palm-Aire and Canyon Ranch." About 5 million people now sign up each year, says Edward Safdie, a spa developer. That is up phenomenally from 400,000 five years ago, and Safdie projects 30 million guests annually in five to ten years. To handle the growing popularity, spas are sprouting across the U.S. Only five years ago, there were no more than a dozen major establishments. Today there are perhaps 60, and new ones open seemingly every day. Next weekend Winthrop Hill in Watertown, Conn., registers its first clients. And doyennes are sprucing up. La Costa, near San Diego, is spending $70 million to remodel and add 240 rooms.