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Late last year, Equinox put out a call to members for stories about how the gym had helped/changed/shaped their lives. Inspirational tales poured in from both coasts. Take Anne from New York, who broke her neck in five places in a car accident last summer. It was a miracle she wasn't paralyzed. She spent five hours in the operating room. But because she was in great shape from attending Equinox's classes, she was back in the gym a week after surgery. "Both my physical therapist and my doctor say that the reason I recovered so quickly was 100% because I had always been so active," Anne says.