Giverny Fitness Offers Three Floors Of Exercise Equipment And Classroom Space
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
By its outside appearance, Giverny Fitness Center looks small. But once you enter the front door at 207 S. Buffao St., Warsaw, it’s not only a long building but there are also three floors of space for customers to work out or participate in one of about 45 classes. The fitness center with all the weight equipment and cardio machines are on the first floor. The back of the first floor used to be where the free child care for customers was, but is being reworked for more cardio machines. The child care has moved next door to Expressions. Up the stairs are the showers, changing rooms and locker area for men and women. The second floor also has space for cardio and dance classes. The classes there include Zumba, Club Dance, PiYo and Pound. On the third floor is where the Yoga and Pilates classes are held, without mirrors. Another room on the third floor has mirrors and is used for strengthening and toning classes. A system of straps hangs in the room for the TRX System. Business Manager Missy Cook said Giverny opened in March 2009. Co-owner Kelly Britton said, “We wanted to give people an easy way to work out. We didn’t want to make it difficult. We wanted to give people options as far as no class sign-up, no membership.” “We wanted to lower all the barriers people have for exercising,” Cook said. “People are sometimes intimidated to go to a new place. We wanted to have a place that is very welcoming, that was very easy to do from a flexibility standpoint, and also offer really good, quality classes and fitness programs that would be really effective for people.” “Our fitness instructors are very well trained,” Britton added. “You come to a class here and you’ll see a huge difference. People that even travel around on their job will come back and say they can’t believe the difference in quality of classes you find here versus other places.” Another big difference is something a person can’t see or put down on paper, Britton said. “It’s an atmosphere that’s created here by the actual customers. It’s very warm and welcoming and supportive and loving and encouraging. It’s an overwhelming group of ladies.” Cook said Giverny has about 20 employees, 14 of them instructors or trainers. The rest are front desk and child care workers. The Fitness Center offers about 45 classes per week, with the earliest starting at 5:45 a.m. and the last one finishing at around 8 p.m. on Mondays. Giverny’s hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. “The nice thing about us is that if there’s a time you can work out, you can use your same class pass and come use the fitness center if it doesn’t work out with your schedule,” Britton explained. “So you can come in and use any of our equipment with the class pass. And there’s no expiration dates on the classes. We’ve just taken the barriers away from the typical fitness centers that make it difficult.” Classes at Giverny are ongoing and there’s no class sign-ups so customers can take any class at any time, Cook explained. “And most of our customers purchase classes in groups of five, 10 or 20,” she said. “So, for example, if you buy a packet of 10 classes, you can go to any 10 classes you want. You don’t have to go to the same class 10 times. You don’t have to go 10 weeks in a row. You can mix and match.” Britton said another misperception about Giverny is that it’s for women only. It is not. While not as many men attend the classes as women, a lot of men do make use of the fitness center and the personal coach, she said. “We basically offer three services,” Cook said. “The group exercise classes, the fitness center and we have personal trainer services.” Britton is a personal trainer. “But we also have a personal coach,” Cook said, “which is a program really geared toward keeping people exercising over the long term. It’s a monthly payment instead of an hourly payment. Customers don’t need an appointment.” With a personal trainer, the customer can set up a program and the coach will walk them through it. Jim Mills is a personal coach at Giverny, and Cook said he works with customers ranging from high school students to older adults. Cook said Giverny averages about 300 customers a month. The monthly fee for the Fitness Center is $40 plus a $35 sign-up fee, but $36 a month plus the sign-up fee with AutoPay. Cardio equipment only is $18 a month, and a day pass is $9. Group exercise prices are $36 for five classes; $64 for 10; and $110 for 20 classes; or with auto reload are $33, $59 and $100 respectively. Day passes are $9. For youth 18 and under, costs are $23 for five classes; $42 for 10 classes; and $6 for a day pass. Unlimited passes are $59 for a monthly pass with AutoPay; $64 for a one-time monthly pass; or $669 for an annual pass. For personal coach and training costs, contact Giverny. Cook said, “We do work really hard to bring new things.” “We listen to our customers,” Britton said. “If customers are coming up and saying, ‘What about this?,’ we do whatever we can to make it happen for them.”
