Are those real ... or just real expensive?

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: SMALL [biz] - ABS Institute

What do you get the man who has everything? How about some six-pack abs and a chiseled chest?

When Dr. John Millard told me business at his plastic-surgery practice in Lone Tree was up 40 percent in the past 12 months, I figured maybe people were going to him to make themselves more attractive to employers amid the recession.

That's not quite the case.

"I see a lot of executives," said Millard, 47, a surgeon who learned a procedure called "high-definition liposculpture from Colombian doctor Alfredo Hoyos in 2006 and brought it to the United States. "I think by nature, these executives tend to be somewhat competitive. I'm not sure they're trying to be more employable as they're trying to maintain their edge, their confidence."

Millard and his partner, Dr. David Broadway, have built what amounts to a 40,000-square-foot anti-aging complex in Lone Tree. Upstairs there's a surgery center, five exam rooms, an area for performing botox, laser treatments and other procedures. Downstairs is a nutrition bar and a workout room with state-of-the-art fitness equipment and personal trainers.

Millard himself works out every day at 5 a.m. with a personal trainer. When I stopped by for a tour, John Elway and his wife were in the workout room doing sit-ups with medicine balls. "John Lynch works out here, too" Millard said of another ex-Bronco. "He's in great shape."

On the wall in Dr. Millard's office were before-and-after photos of a woman and another pair of photos of a man. Both had undergone high-def liposculpture surgery.

"How much would that cost?" I asked, pointing to the man whose formless midsection had been transformed into ripped abs.

"That procedure, because he also had pec augmentation--to put fat into his pec muscles--would cost about $20,000," Millard said. "The woman's procedure would cost about $ 15,000 because she didn't have pec augmentation."

In addition to seeing 20 to 30 patients per month, Millard partners with Hoyos to train other doctors in high-definition liposcupture, charging other doctors $25,000 for the three-day course and $7,000 for two-day basic and intermediate courses. So far they've trained about 75 doctors.

What's interesting about Millard's work at his ABS Institute (an acronym for Advanced Body Sculpting) is that it's not really for fat people.

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"A lot of my patients are people who worked hard to gel to a certain level; they...