Contrary to popular perception your name doesn’t have to be Kardashian in order to have a first-class personal trainer in Michigan’s Great Southwest, and your pockets don’t have to run nearly as deep as those along Rodeo Drive. The new Body Shop Fitness Center on Townline Road brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the gym and you can train individually, in small groups or even in a corporate fitness setting at your own site thanks to the team of professionals who have created this new enterprise.
Lisa Ellerbrock and Cheryl Zick Zuhl quietly rolled open the doors onto their new customizable business venture last fall and are prepping for a spring Grand Opening Open House, but in the meantime, they’re busy training individuals, small class groups, friends, colleagues and anyone looking for a truly personalized approach to their training regimen.
Cheryl says that Body Shop Fitness — located at 1648 Townline Road, Building C — “Evolved from the two of us meeting a couple of years ago, both of us being fitness people, and we started talking about and advancing the idea of a fitness shop for people of all ages where we could specialize in the individual goals of people in search of training in a different venue from your typical gym.”
Both women have been actively employed in the fitness trade themselves at area fitness centers and gyms, but Lisa says, “We found a lot of people are intimidated by the large gym environment.” She notes, “They want specialized coaching and we wanted it to be a bit more affordable and accessible for the entire community, not just for people with large bank accounts.”
The Body Shop Fitness team, as a result, allows you to customize your total approach regardless of your age or condition in a decidedly more “boutique” or an approach and setting.
Having a full kitchen in house allows the Body Shop Fitness team to also focus on nutrition as a key element of your training regimen. Cheryl says, “Not only can we help people, including what we like to call ‘active aging — not seniors’ with their balance, agility, flexibility, and those things that we need as we age, but also nutrition so we perform the functional activities we all need to do and want to do.”
There is literally something for everyone at the Body Shop Fitness center from Bridal Bootcamps as wedding season approaches, to corporate wellness groups, and even couples training. They’re currently working with one young married couple on a tight budget that work out regularly at Planet Fitness, but head for the Body Shop for personal training,”because they wanted to turn it into an experience, working together.”
By following the Body Shop Fitness team on Facebook at the link below, you can keep track of organized events and see special class offerings like their first Nutrition Workshop — Super Food Smoothies — coming next week on Saturday, the 24th of February.
Cheryl is a retired St. Joseph High School Teacher and Coach who also taught fitness at the Y for 25 years, but discovered the needs of the “active aging” when she, herself, retired, as they sought specialized and individualized training in a comfortable setting.
Lisa was s professional running coach and passionate long distance runner for more than 24 years who worked in risk management for an insurance firm in Scotland before committing her life more than five years ago to helping others with fitness training full time. As she says, “Now, we work together to make other people happy for a living. How can you not love this? Having such a powerful impact on people’s daily lives, giving them their confidence back, their self-esteem back.” It’s empowering.
Another great example is an 89 year old man who came to Cheryl three years ago and rarely if ever left his own home. Now that he’s hitting his personal training goals routinely, “He’s become a regularly extensive traveler, and is full of life.” She says, “If you want to be able to travel and live your life fully, there’s a way to do that, but you have to want that for yourself and be willing to train accordingly.”
With small group sessions, primarily the Body Shop Fitness will establish bootcamps, yoga-based, pilates-based, and the exploding field of barre fitness and similar opportunities.
A typical first visit would provide an assessment of strengths and weaknesses and then education regarding what you will need to do in order to accomplish whatever you are setting out to do, individually or collectively.
The two say, “Everybody has their own goals and everybody wants to have the perfect body, but the general public doesn’t always know how to go about it, and they have a tendency to think that if they just go and lift weights for a couple of days they’ll lose 50-lbs and it just doesn’t work that way. Our goal is to totally customize the plan so that you can achieve your goals.”
Thanks to low overhead, the Body Shop Fitness approach can be surprisingly affordable. Simply follow Pipestone to Townline Road and turn at Deals on Wheels until you see the Body Shop Fitness building to find the place. Call first at 588-9961 and if you get voicemail, leave a message, because with individualized training going on all the time, they may not get to the phone immediately.
Stay tuned for open house information on the Grand Opening this spring and you, too, can have a personal trainer helping you hit your stride in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
Here’s a link to follow them on Facebook:
