The Vienna Business Association is reviving its Get Healthy Vienna! Expo for 2024.
First introduced last May, the health and fitness showcase will return to the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) on April 6, from 10 am. to 2 p.m. The event is intended to highlight health-related businesses and resources available in the local community, VBA Health, Wellness & Fitness chair Karen Kerrigan says.
“The 2024 Expo will connect attendees to an array of services, solutions and opportunities that promote wellness and healthy lifestyles,” Kerrigan said. “The process of attaining optimal health and wellness is all about connections, education and taking positive action. I am excited about the wide-array of exhibitors at this year’s expo who are passionate about supporting the health and wellness of our special community.”
This year’s expo will feature up to 50 exhibitors and follow the theme of “Connections to Wellness,” reflecting an emphasis on the importance of social connections to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Outside of the vendors, highlights will include a Kids and Families Zone with children’s activities and demonstrations, such as face painting. The Vienna Singing Princesses will also make “a special appearance” involving superheroes.
For adults, there will be a variety of panels led by health and wellness professionals, who will discuss the root causes of chronic disease, the importance of movement and stretching, and other topics.
Several former James Madison High School student athletes have been enlisted for a panel called “The Importance of a Positive Youth Sports Experience: Lessons for Young Athletes and Their Parents.” Confirmed participants include:
- Football player Nick Dorka (College of William and Mary, Canadian Football League, International Football League)
- Lacrosse player Katie Kerrigan (James Madison University, including a Division I national championship in 2018, and the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League)
- Baseball player Trey Ramsey (Princeton University)
- Soccer player Jack Traxler (Catholic University)
VBA Chairman Greg Kunstbeck said the business association’s board is “excited” to see the event grow in its second year.
“The event continues to grow, evolve and respond to the needs and presence of the many businesses and organizations that provide services in the wellness space, along with the people they serve,” Kunstbeck said. “VBA members are making a positive difference in the health of our community and positively transforming people’s lives.”
The expo will fall in the middle of the fourth annual Mayor’s Fitness Challenge, where Vienna will try to defend its title as the “most fit community” from the rival cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. The contest will kick off this Saturday (March 16) and continue through May 11.
The now-annual Mayors’ Fitness Challenge between the Town of Vienna and cities of Fairfax and Falls Church is still more than a month away, but the competitors are already getting warmed up.
Registration is now open for the contest to determine which community is the most fit, a title that has gone to Vienna for two straight years.
The competition began in 2021 as a way of encouraging residents to get active after many people stayed at home during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Falls Church won that initial bout, but it’s still hunting for a second title, and Fairfax City is seeking its first.
The fourth annual Mayors’ Fitness Challenge will take place over eight weeks from March 16 to May 11. People who live or work in each of the localities can participate by tracking the time they spend walking, cycling and otherwise engaging in physical exercise. The locality that tallies the most collective minutes wins.
Falls Church started registrations on Feb. 1, per its website, while Vienna launched its portal yesterday (Monday). Fairfax City’s registration page is also now available.
Though registration for the challenge is free, Vienna and Falls Church are selling T-shirts for $16 and $5, respectively, and Fairfax City has hats for $5. The deadline for ordering a T-shirt is April 11 for Vienna and April 13 for Falls Church.
Last year, Vienna emerged victorious with 195 participants recording 466,142 minutes of exercise, almost doubling its winning total from 2022. Fairfax came in second with 409,539 minutes in 2023, and Falls Church finished third with 400,878 minutes.
A new group fitness facility for athletes is planning to open its doors in Reston next month.
D1 Training, a concept that emphasizes athletic-based training, will celebrate its grand opening at 1700 Bracknell Drive on Feb. 12. Located between a Trader Joe’s and a Wendy’s, the site previously belonged to a carpeting and flooring store.
The grand opening event includes a ribbon cutting, refreshments and tours of the facility.
Owner Pablo Smiraglia — who has more than 20 years of experience in coaching and sales — says he’s looking forward to taking over the business. Prior to launching Reston’s D1 Training, he worked in sales for more than 20 years and was a state soccer official and soccer coach.
“D1 is more than just creating great athletes, it is about growing fitness in a community,” Smiraglia said. “My goal is to foster a lifetime of athletic training for every fitness goal at any age, and D1 is the place to do so. Fitness has no age requirement; we cannot wait help community members reach their fitness goals.”
The company offers four age-based programs ranging from ages 7-11, 12-14, 15-18 and adults. Each program includes warmups, performance, strength, core and conditioning, and cool down exercises.
“We’re thrilled to welcome him to the D1 family and are confident in his ability to show the Reston area what they’ve been missing out on,” D1 Training Chief Operating Officer Dan Murphy said. “D1 is a one-of-a-kind fitness experience that’s built around the individual and meant to help people meet their appropriate edge.”
Founded in 2001 by former NFL player Will Bartholomew, D1 Training currently has more than 100 locations across the country, but its only other D.C.-area gym is at Pinecrest Plaza (6550 Little River Turnpike) in Lincolnia.
A new gym is slated to open soon at Fox Mill Shopping Center in Herndon, giving residents another option for fulfilling their fitness-related New Year’s resolutions.
Anytime Fitness will occupy a 6,000-square-foot space at 2551 John Milton Drive in Herndon, according to the center’s leasing website.
There are currently two vacancies in the shopping center, which is anchored by Giant. Other tenants include Club Pilates, Exxon, Subway and Lucia’s Italian restaurant.
Anytime Fitness has locations in Chantilly, Fairfax, Manassas Park, Springfield, Arlington and Bristow, among thousands of other spots throughout the U.S. and around the world. Open 24 hours a day, the gym offers personalized fitness plans, group workouts and one-on-one training.
The company did not return a request for comment from FFXnow by press time.
Image via Google Maps
Body Fit Training, a studio that offers custom workout plans, is coming to North Point Village Center in Reston.
The business will take up nearly 2,700 square feet of space at 1422 North Point Village Center. It was tentatively expected to open in the first quarter of next year, but the prospective franchise owner has had to step back, necessitating a temporary pause in development.
The company’s corporate team is currently conducting a search for new ownership.
Pavan Katariya, the company’s developer for Northern Virginia, says the Reston location is designed as a neighborhood space.
“We are basically personal training that’s done in a group fitness setting,” Katariya said. “So, unlike at other gyms where there’ll be one trainer to 20 or 30 or 40 people, we have multiple coaches in each of our classes, and so, it’s a much more curated and hands on experience and we are also entirely strength training-focused, which is not something that other studios do.”
He says the company identified a need in the Reston market.
“There wasn’t a good strength training studio that combined personal training and group fitness together in that area, and so, they thought it would be something that people in that area would really like,” Katariya said.
A location in Tysons is expected to open in November. It will be Body Fit Training’s first studio in the D.C. area.
Angela Woolsey contributed reporting to this story.
(Updated at 12:10 p.m. on 10/9/2023) A central piece of the Scotts Run development near the McLean Metro station is now in place.
Distinguished by a tall, glass-box front, the 28-story Heming has wrapped up construction after more than three years, bringing 410 new apartments and 38,000 square feet of retail space to 1800 Chain Bridge Road in Tysons, developer Skanska announced yesterday (Wednesday).
With site work underway since August 2020, the project required 1.1 million hours of labor, 2,700 tons of steel rebar and 37,000 cubic yards of concrete, according to the construction firm.
“We are excited to deliver this stunning project thanks to the unwavering commitment and meticulous work of our construction team,” Dale Kopnitsky, general manager and executive vice president of Skanska’s D.C. building operations, said in a press release. “As the communities of Tysons and McLean continue to grow, Skanska is honored to be part of the team transforming Scotts Run into a modern urban core.”
Resident move-ins began on Sept. 5, a Skanska public releations representative says.
The apartments that are still available range in size from a 545-square-foot, one-bedroom studio to 2,195-square-foot, three-bedroom units that cost $ 7,118 per month, according to property manager Bozzuto’s website for the building. The cheapest unit is a $1,331-per-month studio, one of 53 designated workforce dwelling units (WDUs).
(Correction: This article initially said the cheapest available unit was a $1,885-per-month one-bedroom apartment, and that there were 82 WDUs. Corrected numbers were provided by Skanska.)
The WDUs are reserved for households earning up to 60% to 80% of the area median income, or a maximum of $85,200 for one person, according to Fairfax County Housing and Community Development.
The residential tower is supplemented by underground parking and 23,000 square feet of amenities, including a penthouse dining room on the top floor, co-working spaces, club and game rooms, a pet spa, an outdoor pool with cabanas, a community garden and a fitness center.
Though Skanska didn’t provide information on how many units have been leased, the developer says Heming saw “a surge of interest” from both residents and businesses over the summer.
“The completion of Heming marks a substantial milestone for the Scotts Run Development and transitions this area of McLean and Tysons into a community that is navigable for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Mark Carroll, Skanska USA Commercial Development’s executive vice president of D.C. operations.
As part of the project, a new private street called Platform Avenue was built to connect Colshire Drive and Dartford Drive. Skanska has said the road could be blocked off for events, such as farmers markets.
Heming’s retail is centered around The Levels, a 21,000-square-foot, tiered outdoor public plaza that will host neighborhood gatherings and events.
Incoming tenants include Modan, a Japanese restaurant slated to open next spring, and Body Fit Training, which is scheduled to open in Suite 202 on Nov. 14, according to Pavan Katariya, the fitness company’s D.C. area developer.
The 3,374-square-foot studio will serve as Body Fit Training’s flagship franchise in Northern Virginia, where it plans to have about eight locations. Discounted memberships are now available for those who sign up for the founding member club.
Katariya says the company was drawn to Tysons for the area’s growing sense of community, something it tries to foster in its regular training sessions and through volunteer activities like races. Leading up to its opening, the new studio is offering free outdoor workouts at 9:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
“With the population increasing, with a lot of the pedestrian-friendly activities, with a lot of the things like The Perch at Capital One, it’s getting its own identity and its own neighborhood,” Katariya told FFXnow. “So, we felt like it would be a really good fit for Body Fit Training there.”
Scotts Run is planned for over 6.6 million square feet across 17 buildings at full build-out. Other completed portions of the mixed-use development include the Haden apartments, the Mitre4 office building, the temporary pop-up Shipgarten and Archer Hotel.
Sushi Umi was expected to open by the hotel at 7615 Colshire Road this summer, but a pop-up message on the Herndon-based restaurant’s website just says its new Tysons location is “opening soon.”
A Northern Virginia gym aimed at women hopes to flex its way into the Town of Vienna this summer.
StarFit Studio is expanding from its existing Arlington and Alexandria locations to the Cedar Park Shopping Center. The business has leased a 1,740-square-foot space at 266 Cedar Lane, according to property manager First Washington Realty’s website.
Construction is currently underway in anticipation of an August opening, according to StarFit co-founder and CEO Allie Baier.
“We are so excited about opening a location for Vienna women!” Baier said by email. “We think the small community atmosphere of StarFit works perfectly for the Vienna community. It’s a great place to meet new people, or come with friends!”
StarFit started in 2011 with its first studio at 6440 Landsdowne Centre in Alexandria. It added a second location at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center in Arlington around 2017, according to its Yelp pages, where it has almost all five-star ratings.
The business was inspired by a desire to create a place for weight-lifting and strength training where women could “feel safe and confident,” Baier told Northern Virginia Magazine in 2020.
By focusing exclusively on women, the gym can offer tailored workouts designed for its specific demographic, rather than “cookie-cutter classes built for the masses,” she said.
According to Baier, StarFit specializes in small-group and personal training, with an eight-person limit for each group class.
In addition to weights, the gym provides resistance bands, sandbags, stability balls, cable machines, rowers, and other strength and conditioning equipment.
“We focus on fundamental, functional movements and exercises that have worked for hundreds of years in fitness,” Baier said, quoting from the company’s website. “We stay away from gimmicks, fads or a one-size-fits-all cookie cutter class formats, which inevitably leads to boredom and plateaus.”
Sign-ups have opened to get on a pre-sale list for the Vienna studio.
(Updated at 12:55 p.m. on 6/14/2023) A new indoor climbing gym is crawling its way to Fair Oaks Mall.
Movement, a nationwide company of indoor climbing gyms, plans to open Movement Fairfax by the end of 2024. The 37,000-square-foot space will feature a boutique-style yoga studio, lifting platforms, locker rooms, fitness zones and a gear shop.
The gym includes 27,000 square feet of climbing terrain spread across two floors. The highest wall is 50 feet.
“We’re excited to bring Movement to Fairfax and offer a one-of-a-kind fitness experience to the NoVa community,” Movement CEO Jeremy Levitt said in a press release. “We have an amazing team of climbing coaches, yoga teachers, fitness instructors, and front desk team members who are eager to share climbing, adventure, and a ton of fun with the Fairfax community.”
The Fair Oaks location will also include classes for climbers of all levels, along with yoga and group fitness classes.
Virginia has one other Movement gym in Arlington. There are also locations in Maryland, California, Oregon, Texas, Colorado and Illinois.
Until Movement opens next year, Fairfax County’s only dedicated indoor climbing gym is Vertical Rock Climbing and Fitness Center in Tysons. There are also rock climbing walls in The St. James in Springfield and at Life Time gym in Reston.
A fitness studio that quietly opened near The Boro in Tysons during the COVID-19 pandemic will finally get an official welcome this week.
P20 EMS Fitness Experts will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its Tysons studio this Friday (May 19) — more than two years after the location opened inside OneLife Fitness at 8250 Greensboro Drive.
Supported by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, the ribbon-cutting is also intended to mark the company’s rebranding to P20 from its previous name of Personal 20, according to co-founder and owner Connie Ruiz.
“Realizing our clients have been referring to us as P20 for years, we decided it was a good time to rebrand and refresh with a new name and a new logo,” Ruiz said. “We changed our tag line as well to reflect that we are EMS Fitness Experts.”
EMS stands for electronic muscle stimulation, which involves devices that send electric impulses to mimic muscle contractions. Used in physical therapy as well as workouts, EMS devices can help strengthen or tone muscles but, by themselves, don’t result in a major change in physical appearance, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The Tysons studio is P20’s second location.
A native of McLean, Ruiz and her husband Pedro discovered EMS in Portugal and wanted to bring the concept to the U.S. With their daughter Carmen, the couple launched Personal 20 in January 2017 with a studio in Herndon.
The business claims to offer “a 20-minute workout with all the benefits of a 90-minute workout.”
“We love what we do, helping our clients get stronger, healthier and happier with P20,” Ruiz said. ” …We are not only the first to bring EMS to [Northern Virginia], but we are confident that our quality-controlled program and continuous education for our trainers has us on the right path to success for our clients.”
A cocktail reception to celebrate the rebranding will be held from 4-6 p.m. at the studio on Friday, with the ribbon-cutting taking place at 5 p.m.
(Updated at 9:15 a.m. on 9/1/2022) A new gym has opened in the Town of Vienna.
The Australian fitness company F45 celebrated the grand opening of its latest franchise at 322 Maple Avenue West on Saturday (Aug. 27). The event was considered a success, according to an Instagram post.
Businesses local to the D.C. area like Greenheart Juice Shop and Vegetable and Butcher participated in the event, which featured massages, food, live music, and vitamin injections.
F45 Vienna says classes are at 5:45 a.m., 6:45 a.m., 8 a.m., and 9:15 a.m. as well as in the evenings. The website says the gym offers cardio, resistance, hybrid and recovery workouts on different days of the week.
The gym is located next to the forthcoming YamaChen Sushi, which has now been under construction for almost a year. An employee at the restaurant’s Fairfax location said she doesn’t know when the Vienna one will open.
Known for its high intensity interval training workouts, F45 has grown rapidly in Fairfax County since 2019, adding franchises in Tysons, the Mosaic District, Fairfax Corner, Fairfax Circle, and Reston. The company says it’s the fastest-growing gym franchise in the world.
Yet another studio is in the works at Springfield Plaza. That location is on track for an opening in November or December, a pre-sales representative for the franchise told FFXnow.