Gym Anyone?

[DoryGray]

There has been some interest in opening a fitness facility in Pahoa. Please respond with your suggestions AND if you would be willing to commit ($$) to joining. This is a serious endeavor & commitment on the owners considering something like 90% of businesses fail in the first year. We are not looking to make a fortune, just to provide a much needed service & cover the bills & our time. Thank you for your response.

[csgray]

I would join in a heartbeat if a gym offered REAL pilates classes using the Reformer equipment. Nothing I've done since I quit being a competitive swimmer who specialized in butterfly has given me that thorough of a core workout.

Carol

[ericlp]

I'm not sure what real pilates classes are. I'd think for a small start up gym in Pahoa ... I'd imagine a big open space like a concrete floor with maybe 10 or so treadmills (high quality) a few elliptical and some free weights would be in order. Maybe even showers and lockers in the restrooms. Depending on how much $$$ one would invest up front I'm thinking money for fitness classes and teachers would be much later. Unless gyms have changed to have to have 5 staff members on hand at all times to train people in order to survive.

But as long as memberships weren't sky high and one didn't have to wait all the time to use a treadmill I'd be interested.

[csgray]

"Real" Pilates are classes taught by an actual trained Pilates instructor using Reformer equipment. Not an aerobics/zumba instructor trying to fake teaching a Pilates class with balls and mats and no training.

Pilates was invented by an athlete who was locked up for a long time in a small cell during World War II who didn't want to lose his muscle tone, after he was released he designed sets of exercises and super adjustable equipment to go with them, it all uses resistance and highly controlled movements that work specific sets of muscles in specific ways. A lot of Pilates instructors started out as physical therapists and work with clients to develop the exact work out they need, especially for people dealing with chronic conditions or injuries.

The only people doing Pilates in a real way here are on the Kona side.

Carol

[Carey]

UH-Hilo has had, & continues to have, Pilates matwork with Pilates Master Trainer Kea Kapahua and with UH Pilates Instructor Celeste Staton, offered to the community in CCES program in the Old Gym:
http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/ccecs/registration/

[nana valley]

A fitness gym sounds great! I belonged to one in my old town on mainland for several years at $35/month if you signed up for a full year. Treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, lots of weight equipment, mats, classes for yoga, pilates, "boot camp", steps, spinning with 20+ bikes. Town had a population of 9000 and it was supported successfully by the small community. I'd be happy to support such a center.

[birdmove]

There is also a program through Kiser Permanente. For those people covered under their medical insurance they will pay the gym membership annual fee above $100.00. So the insured person pays $100 and Kiser pays the rest. The gym must be on the program with Kiser. Right now, Aloha Fitness in Hilo and Curves in the Shipman Business Park are (I believe) the only gyms on the program. If a gym opened in Pahoa they could contact Kiser about joining the program. For the gym, they still get the same amount for the membership fee as I understand it.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[csgray]

Carey,
I saw that, and it looks good for mat work, which is very different from using the Reformer equipment. But I get into my classroom at 6:30 AM every morning, and I don't think I can wait until 5 PM to start a class before leaving Hilo to drive home.

I have to have hernia surgery soon due to a congenital weakness in my abdominal muscle walls, I am confident that I would not be going down this path if I had been able to continue the work outs I was doing before we moved here. Just one of those hidden costs to living in paradise, we don't get access to all the same amenities we could get wherever we lived on the mainland.

Carol

[spunky]

Would LOVE a gym in Pahoa. A real gym. Not a half assed situation. Real Pilates equipment (like csgray said). I would think shower facilities would be mandatory. Hell, if it had an eliptical and a Total gym machine I'd be thrilled. And since I belong to Kaiser - if the proposed gym partnered with them - even better!

[DoryGray]

I like the Kaiser idea, which I knew about but didn't think of applying to this situation - thank you. Most businesses that fail start out too big & can't recoup their investment much less pay their overhead. So this would be a smaller gym to start out, increasing in size as clientele supported it. Maybe treadmills, ellipticals, some weight machines, free weights & shower facilities. If there's room, classes. So far there's been minimal replies supporting this, considering there's roughly 50,000 people in lower Puna.