by John L. Micek

Barack Obama's Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, tour included a real workout this week.

And not just at any gym: at a Trexlertown facility owned by John Brinson, an outspoken Barackobama Republican firebrand.

Democrat Obama hit the treadmill, free weights and barbells, said Brinson, whose 24-7 Fitness Club staff called him to say they had a famous visitor.

''I thought it was an April Fool's joke,'' the free market-favoring gym owner said. According to Brinson, Obama arrived around 7:15 a.m. EDT Tuesday with a trio of Secret Service agents. Obama's staff had scoped out the gym Monday night, Brinson said, picking up a release form that the candidate dutifully filled out, signed and turned in the next morning.

Club members mostly left the presidential candidate alone to do his thing, according to the owner, who was not there. A few ventured over to say hello.

''We were nice,'' Brinson said, ''and that was all there was to it.''

As for Obama, he pushed several hundred pounds on an inclined leg-press machine and then, practicing good gym etiquette, put all the weights away when he was done.

''The Secret Service didn't help him,'' Brinson said.

This isn't the first time Brinson has had a politically connected customer.

In the late 1980s he nearly turned down a request from the staff of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who was looking to get in a few games of squash during a visit to the Valley.

Brinson told Specter's staff he disagreed with their boss' position on U.S. aid to Nicaragua's Contras, and that Specter was barred from the club unless he agreed to read a magazine article Brinson left for him at the front desk and then write a letter to him about it afterward.

Specter complied on both counts, and got his workout.

Would Brinson have made Obama promise anything? Brinson said no.

In fact, he said, he threw in free towels and water. ''Good Trexlertown water provided by the government,'' Brinson cracked.

Despite his famous guest, Brinson said he has no plans to make like the now-closed Charcoal Diner, which kept a coffee cup on display used by Bill Clinton after he visited there during his presidency.

Obama put his athletic prowess front-and-center during his Pennsylvania campaign swing. He played basketball with his new best friend, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, (D-Pa.), and made a now-notorious stab at bowling during a stop in Altoona last Saturday.

Asked whether his boss was more adept at the bench press or the bowling alley, Obama’s Pennsylvania spokesman Sean Smith responded, “He’s better at basketball.”

John L. Micek reports for the Morning Call of Allenton, Pa., a Tribune Co. newspaper.