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.
Pickleball fever has officially taken hold at The St. James, a sports, entertainment and wellness club in Reston Town Center.
The Reston location will now offer two separate outdoor, turf rooftop areas with four pickleball courts, in addition to strength-building and cardio equipment. There will be more than 70 weekly group classes.
The company, which also has locations in Springfield and Bethesda, says the addition of its pickleball club demonstrates the company’s commitment to the community’s needs.
“Our mission at The St. James has always been to exceed the expectations of our members and provide them with world-class training opportunities for growth within sport and in life,” said David Hoye, general manager of The St. James Performance Club in Reston.
The club opened at 11951 Freedom Drive last year. The main facility in Springfield has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, field house, rock climbing wall and other recreational amenities. It also offers 50 group classes per week, sports leagues and numerous camps.
Court use is complementary for members, but non-member rates are $10 for drop-ins and $25 per court reservations.
Updated at 2:15 p.m. on 6/29/2023 — The new gym tenant coming to Tysons West appears to be Club Studio Fitness, a new brand recently started by Fitness International, the same company that owns LA Fitness.
Earlier: Another gym appears to be angling for the former 24 Hour Fitness spot in Tysons West.
A lease has been signed for the 48,891-square-foot space on the third floor of 1500 Cornerside Blvd, according to a site plan from retail broker Rappaport.
Christian Kingston, Rappaport’s senior director of leasing and brokerage, told FFXnow that the company had no information it can share at this time. However, a different site plan from Tysons West developer JBG Smith suggests the tenant may be California-based LA Fitness, which is shown in the same building as Walmart and District Taco.
An LA Fitness customer service manager confirmed that the company is working on a Tysons location, but there’s no timeline for when it might open. When asked for further information about the plans for Tysons West, she said the company was “not interested in participating” in a news story.
Fairfax County issued a permit for commercial alterations for a “club studio” at 1500 Cornerside on April 13, and an electrical permit for LA Fitness was issued on May 22.
“Fitness Club Tenant Remodel to include revised lighting layout, new plugs and circuitry for cardio equipment, update fire alarm devices, adding some specialty workout rooms,” the electrical permit says.
LA Fitness has hundreds of locations across the U.S. and Canada, including gyms in Herndon, Springfield and Newington.
After closing on a temporary basis at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 24 Hour Fitness permanently shuttered its Tysons West gym in the summer of 2020. The company filed for bankruptcy that June, shedding 100 locations nationwide.
Three years later, signs for 24 Hour Fitness can still be seen above the door and in the reception area, which was occupied by a desk with computer monitors, refrigerators and a display stand, as of last weekend. It’s unclear whether the furniture was new or leftover from the previous gym, though the main club area looked cleared out.
In other Tysons West news, Walmart is working on a renovation of its nearly 80,000-square-foot store.
“A better Walmart is in the works,” a sign near the customer service desk said. “You may encounter some changes around the store as we build our new pickup and delivery fulfillment center.”
According to a sign outside the store, renovations will be completed in September with a grand re-opening scheduled for Sept. 8.
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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.
Gym-goers will soon expect a change of scene at Gold’s Gym in Reston.
The Plaza America location is expected to close sometime this summer and relocate to 11830 Sunrise Valley Drive, according to the company.
While the company’s media department did not return multiple requests for comment, a store employee told FFXnow that an exact date for the closure of the Plaza America location has not yet been determined.
The Sunrise Valley Drive location is expected to open in the summer, according to the company’s website.
VIDA Fitness is slated to open its flagship facility in Reston in the second quarter of next year, a company spokesperson tells FFXnow.
The facility will open at Reston Row, Reston Station’s newest district near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station. The facility encompasses 50,000 square feet across three levels of an office tower at 1845 Reston Row Plaza.
The company’s Reston location will include an oxygen treatment and recovery strength, a day spa that offers facials, massages, body scrubs, cupping, and CBD oil treatments, a fuel bar and a salon. Other features include locker rooms and sauna rooms.
Reston Row is currently under construction and includes a JW Marriott hotel.
The company has six other locations in the D.C. area.
Hotworx, a fitness studio that offers 24/7 infrared workouts, has opened in Woodland Crossing in the Herndon area.
Located at 2310 Woodland Crossing Drive in Suite G, the business gives customers access to workouts in a sauna-like room.
Customers can sign up for half-hour isometric workouts and 15-minute High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts. Patrons also have around-the-clock access to infrared sauna workouts that are virtually instructed.
Jannik Echenrode, the Herndon location’s general manager, said a grand opening is expected in about 45 days.
The Herndon location held its soft opening last Thursday (Jan. 26). It’s currently open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 6 pm. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Area locations include Leesburg, Ashburn, and Aldie. Another gym is expected to open in Dunn Loring this spring.
Residents of the Avalon and Halstead Square apartments near the Dunn Loring Metro station will soon have a new way to meet any fitness-related New Year’s resolutions.
Hotworx, a boutique gym that offers workouts in infrared-heated saunas, will open a studio in Suite C of the apartment buildings at 2750 Gallows Road in Merrifield, franchise owner Raja Khan confirmed to FFXnow.
The studio recently launched membership pre-sales and is on track to open in early April, pending the completion of construction and permitting.
“The most I’m looking for is to help the community there, help give them a good option where they can improve their health,” Khan said.
Khan and his wife own an information technology business together, but this is their first venture into the fitness world.
They tried an introductory session to Hotworx last March after a friend recommended it. Khan found that the heated environment makes it easier to get warmed up and can result in an intense workout in just 15 to 30 minutes, he says.
He also liked its emphasis on customization. Led by virtual instructors, the workouts get refreshed every three months and range from lighter options like isometric stretches and yoga to high-intensity interval training.
When he decided to pursue a franchise, Khan saw the Vienna and Merrifield area as an ideal place for the company to expand, since it already has locations to the west in Herndon and Sterling.
“It’s a very prime location,” Khan said. “There are a lot of other different kind of gyms, so people are exercise-oriented there, and it’s kind of central…We offer a lot, which none of the other gyms offer: isometrics, Pilates, Pure Barre kind of exercise, yoga.”
Started by entrepreneur Stephen Smith, who also founded the spa company Planet Beach, the first Hotworx studio opened in 2017 in New Orleans. It has quickly expanded since then to over 400 locations, including its first franchise in New York City.
The Merrifield studio will be between 1,200 and 1,800 square feet in size with eight saunas, which can accommodate up to three people at a time. The saunas will be open 24 hours a day, though the studio won’t always be staffed.
As part of its pre-opening sales push, the studio is offering unlimited sessions for $59 per month with a $5 enrollment fee — a discount compared to the usual $79-per-month dues and $99 enrollment fee.
That offer is available to the first 50 people who sign up. After that, the price will slowly increase until it reaches $79 per month with a $49 fee once the gym opens.
