Business moves to nearby location for additional space
Ten months after opening the doors at their new Tri-Fit business venture on K Street, owners Amy and Nick Owens announced major plans this week to add staff and class offerings to include more yoga and high-energy kickboxing.
The expanded list of services has also prompted a move to a larger space, just one door south from Suite A to Suite B at 1218 K St. It’s a lot of change at once, Amy Owens admitted, though she is herself energized by the transition.
“We started out small and here we are,” Owens said. “I’m excited to see what’s going to happen. October is going to be just incredible for us.”
The Owens purchased the former Most Fun-N-Fit Circuit business from Lisa Gretch last November, and since that time have seen a growing demand for personalized fitness training.
“We are exploding,” she reported. “First of all, what I started out with less than a year ago is not who we are today. There are remnants of that and we’re thankful for that, but it’s gotten to be so much bigger and so much more.”
Tri-Fit began by offering 24/7 access to members who could use circuit machines on their own or sign up for personalized fitness training with Owens. That response, she said, motivated her to rethink the business model, and ultimately to grow.
“I think personal training has really blown up here,” she explained. “We have a lot more personal training than we ever have and then we introduced yoga, and that has really transpired me.”
A program that began with one yoga class per week has recently been expanded to include two new yoga instructors, offering several new classes at different times of the day and week.
“We were doing a power yoga class on Monday night and then Mackenzie (Jacobs) came in and started teaching a Thursday night yoga class,” she said. “She will be doing three yoga classes, including a Saturday morning and a (Tuesday) noon-hour class, so that’s really exciting for people who are working or doing different things.”
“As I watched my clients, I noticed the one thing that was true for all of them is that flexibility was lacking,” Owens observed. “They could be strong, but at the end of the day we need flexibility and as I watched Mackenzie teach this class I thought that was the missing piece.”
A native of New York City who now lives in Aurora with her 4-year-old son, Andrew, Jacobs said she is excited to offer restorative yoga to the community, noting that she specializes in ayurvedic and is also certified in chair yoga for seniors. She has been doing yoga herself since age 7, and more than 20 years later has her 200-hour certification.
“Restorative yoga is designed to calm the nervous system,” she explained. “Your body is designed to go in and out of fight or flight mode, but some of us get stuck with that gas pedal down and it wreaks havoc on your nervous system, on your spine and on your body. What restorative yoga is designed to do is to purge those muscle groups of all that lactic acid buildup so you can get back to living your life the way you were designed to.”
Madi Berthelsen is also joining the Tri-Fit team as a yoga instructor. Berthelsen, who has a background in massage therapy and aesthetics, opened Revitalize this week at The Leadership Center, offering spa therapy and aesthetics. She and her husband, Myles, have a 1-year-old son, Hank.
“I became interested in yoga because I see a need for stretching and balance exercises in my clients,” she said. “I’m excited to be joining the Tri-Fit team. It’s a great opportunity.”
Owens herself is now a certified yoga instructor, having recently completed the training regiment.
“I chose to go through yoga faith, and so most of my work is going to be through Christian-based yoga,” she said, “which just means that any spirituality that I bring into my class will be based in scripture. That, to me, was important, not that one is wrong or right, it’s just what I’ve chosen to do.”
Owens noted that her faith is reflected in the business name as well, with Tri-Fit referring to mind, body and spirit.
“Our faith is very important, so we look at it as a trinity,” she said in a November interview.
Kickboxing dance class
Also new to the Tri-Fit lineup, though vastly different, is a kickboxing dance class taught by LaToya Hanson.
“I am going to be teaching Turbo Kick, which is like it sounds, a fast-pace kickboxing dance kind of a class,” she described. “We do everything on the beat, which makes it really fun because our music is very fun. It goes from high energy to some old-school hip hop -- just a very fun class.”
Hanson started taking a turbo dance class, initiated years ago by California fitness superstar Chalene Johnson, soon after having her first child. She and her husband, Erik, now have three boys (Ian, Emery and Ezra), and she said she is energized by the program and looks forward to sharing that energy with others.
“I really fell in love with that class after having my first child and just wanted to get back to the gym, but not really wanting to go near the treadmill,” she recalled. “That’s when I started with group fitness classes and then after I had my second kid I decided to start teaching at that point,” which was nine years ago. “We have three boys and I’m a homeschool mom, so I’m teaching to get out of the house for a little bit.”
Tri-Fit will be hosting an open house Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the new location in Suite B, where Owens said anyone interested will be able to meet the new instructors and learn more about the various classes available, as well as changes to come.