KETTERING — Alan Handlin has a job that keeps him at his desk, talking on a telephone and looking at a computer screen.

So the fact that he can go to a gym in the same building as his office to stretch his muscles and clear his mind is invaluable to him.

“You take time to work off the energy you have from sitting at a desk all day,” said Handlin, a Reynolds and Reynolds remote customer training professional from Beavercreek. “You come back energized after moving around.”

Handlin is one of about 1,000 employees who are members of Reynolds’ fitness center, the Body Shop. There are about 1,300 employees in the building.

The gym was built in 2002, but with outside management and a fee to join, it did not thrive.

In 2007, company chairman and CEO Bob Brockman put a new emphasis on fitness. Reynolds took over the Body Shop and full-time manager Kim Crockett was hired. She solicited feedback from employees on their needs and wants for wellness.

The company gym now has longer hours, including weekends, and a full slate of group classes. Crockett also organizes programs outside Reynolds’ walls such as volleyball and softball leagues.

Jan Combs, of the Reynolds marketing department, lives in Springfield, so it’s helpful for her to have exercise classes at work instead of adding that in to a day, which already features a long commute. She takes kickboxing, Zumba and step classes during the workweek.

“My friends are jealous,” she said.

Dayton Power & Light

Dayton Power & Light offers some wellness programs worthy of coveting as well. In 2008, the company put together a program to aid their linemen, who are out in their trucks all day, most likely eating fast-food lunches, said Linda Middlesworth, the company’s manager of compensation and benefits. Fast-food guides were created to show them how to eat better at the restaurants.

Since then, the company has done health assessments, with 40 percent of employees participating. Cholesterol, sugar levels and body mass index were all tested.

“This year we’ll do it again for comparison,” Middlesworth said. “If a person is doing worse, then maybe this could be the event that helps them take action.”

Another health perk at DPL sites is blood draws done by a staff nurse. Instead of going to a doctor’s office or laboratory to get a blood sample, it can be done at work, with the sample then sent to a medical facility for testing.

There also have been walking groups and weight loss contests among departments, she said.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Civilians get three hours of paid wellness hours per week at the base as part of the Installation Civilian Wellness Program (ICWP). There are 60 fitness classes available including golf, tennis, taebo, Mommy and Me, boxing, belly dancing and others, said Ray Szymanski, director of the program.

The classes are geared for beginners, he said.

“If you never swung a club before, you’ll be perfect,” he tells those interested in the classes.

Various types of classes rotate at various points on the base so they will be easy for people to get to.

At a gym during lunchtime, civilian and enlisted members played basketball and lifted free weights. A row of bicycles is available to check out for rides. Between 3,000 and 3,600 people use the gym daily.

To measure the benefit of this time, 100 employees agreed to have their fitness and health levels tested before starting an exercise regimen and then tested again after.

“It is to see if direct intervention has a payoff,” Szymanski said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2216 or kmargolis@DaytonDailyNews.com.