When Women's Fitness is a Big Business

As of if the health-conscious women of Brookline didn't already have options enough, two new fitness centers catering specifically toward women are opening up shop in Coolidge Corner, while a third location is in the works for Brookline Village.

Get in Shape for Women, a rapidly growing fitness program that typically operates out of smaller storefronts, is opening two franchises in the Village and Coolidge Corner this fall. Meanwhile, Healthworks Fitness Center is moving to a prominent Coolidge Corner location after nearly two decades on Brookline's oft-neglected Commonwealth Avenue border.

The three new facilities will be competing for membership in two neighborhoods already rife with fitness options, including the coed Coolidge Corner Gym and Beacon Hill Athletic Club, the women-only Benefitness Health Club and countless dance and yoga studios, weight-loss programs and small-scale fitness centers.

But representatives for both Get Fit and Healthworks insist they're bringing something new to the table.

Healthworks Fitness Center for Women

Healthworks has actually been in Brookline for nearly 20 years, but even some of its clients don't know it.

"Most people think we're crazy when we sat it's actually Brookline," said Matt Harrington, who serves as strategic project manager for Healthwork's five clubs "The line is literally on the sidewalk – the parking meters out front are the City of Boston and our address is Brookline."

Though technically in Brookline, the full-service gym sits on a section of Commonwealth Avenue that serves as the de facto campus for Boston University's 32,00 students. In fact, five years ago the university opened a massive student fitness center across the street the gym, though Harrington said most of Healthwork's customers were already coming from Brookline, not BU.

But when the club's lease came up for renewal this year, the owners decided to look around elsewhere. What they found was a large but difficult to rent commercial space that had housed the Barnes & Nobles in Coolidge Corner until it left town in late 2008.

"We're just trying to get closer to our clientele," Harrington said. "When we saw the space, we thought it would be a good move for the company and for our members. It's not that often that that much space becomes available in a space like Coolidge Corner."

Like the Commonwealth Avenue location, the new Healthworks will include a full gym with a range of cardio and weight equipment, most of it brand-new. The club will also offer the same catalog of group programs, including spinning, Zumba, body pump and more.

Harrington said the gym's owners were not concerned that one of its new neighbors is the long-established Coolidge Corner Gym, located just across Harvard Street. He noted that all Healthworks are located within walking distance of other gyms, but that their customers are typically looking for something else.

"We feel that we've got a pretty good niche in our business being women only and a full-service gym," he said. "What you find at most women-only facilities, they're very small and they're not going to have as many weight and cardio options as a co-ed gym."

Get in Shape for Women

Glenn Kaplus is not opening a gym.

Sure, his two new fitness centers will have cardio equipment, weights and fitness instructors, but they won't be places to hang out, flirt or make friends. Get in Shape, he said, is for women who are serious about losing weight.

"We don't want people just hanging out," he said. "It's not going to do us or them any good."

The model offered by Needham-based Get in Shape is built around quick, affordable training sessions supervised by a trainer who tracks clients' progress and offers nutritional advice to help them meet targeted goals.

With low overhead and startup costs – each location can be operated by a single employee – the company has been able to expand rapidly in the last four years. Get in Shape now has franchises in 12 states, including 56 in Massachusetts alone.

Kaplus, a longtime business consultant who still teaches entrepreneurship at Babson College, already owns two franchises in West Roxbury and Newton and expects to have little trouble finding customers for his Brookline store, despite their proximity to one another, not to mention existing competition.

"We offer something that nobody else can offer," he said.

Get in Shape has exactly one program. Members receive three one-hour sessions per week, broken down into 30 minutes of weight training and 25 minutes of cardio exercise, followed by nutrition coaching and a protein shake. Sessions include one to four women and cost $19 to $29 each, depending on the length of a client's contract.

Kaplus said the program works because trainers are able to hold each client accountable to their goals. Client set attainable goals at the start of the program and are weighed twice a week to measure they're progress.

"That's what they're paying us to do, be honest with them," Kaplus said.