FARGO — Club Pilates welcomes tired, sore, hunched bodies longing to breathe free.
When Chris and Brad Butts open their boutique fitness studio in May, they want people to know that club Pilates isn’t just for ballerinas and fitness enthusiasts.
Their mission is simple. It’s about providing fitness for everyone.
“Really, that’s true for everyone.” bodyy — Uppercase B, uppercase O, uppercase D, uppercase Y. I don’t care if she’s 100 years old, but our youngest member, she’s 14,” Chris said.
The 2,000-square-foot studio at 2701 Uptown Way, Suite 107 is one of the few fitness studios dedicated to Pilates, but the first club Pilates in the Red River Valley. The state’s first Club Pilates opened in Bismarck in December.
Club Pilates is just one of the brands under Xponential, a large fitness empire specializing in boutique fitness brands such as Cyclebar, StretchLab, and Pure Barre.
The franchise is touted as “the world’s largest Pilates brand and studio network” with 1,000 studios worldwide.
As a boutique concept, Fargo Studio is dedicated to Pilates in every detail, from the mirrored Pilates machines to the trendy activewear sold out the front.
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Instructors lead students through a 50-minute program that combines simple, repetitive movements to stabilize the core while building strength, endurance, flexibility, and control.
Exercises are performed on a mat or reformer. This machine consists of a box-like frame, sliding platform, springs, straps, and pulleys to support your spine and target different muscle groups.
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Although the machine is often described as looking like a torture device, the Butts said it is highly effective at training specific muscle groups while avoiding damage from high-impact exercise.
“This is resistance training,” Chris said. “The difference is that we’re stretching and strengthening our muscles, whereas when we lift weights, we’re tearing our muscles, which makes them bigger.”
Chris says about 60% of the workout will strengthen your back and core, and the remaining 40% will improve your flexibility.
You can also push aside a device called a “jump board” and give the reformer a low-impact cardio workout. But because it’s done while lying horizontally, the impact on the joint is significantly reduced, said Brad, who underwent ankle replacement surgery.
But it all started with a once frail German who devised a device from a bedspring.
Joseph Pilates, the German-born founder of Pilates, was a sickly child who suffered from rickets, rheumatic fever, and asthma. Determined to overcome his fragile health, Pilates worked tirelessly to become a bodybuilder, gymnast, diver and skier, according to the Pilates Foundation.
In 1912, Pilates moved to England. When World War I broke out, he and other Germans were detained in a concentration camp on the Isle of Man, located between England and Ireland.
So Pilates has developed fitness programs based on everything from yoga poses to cat movements. Other detainees who followed his treatment regimen remained surprisingly healthy.
Towards the end of the war, Pilates worked as a hospital orderly, installing bedsprings on the headboards of hospital beds so that captive patients could practice resistance training. These rudimentary devices morphed into the Reformer machine, which is now standard equipment in Pilates studios.
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After immigrating to America, Joseph and his new wife Clara opened a “Body Conditioning Gym” in New York City in 1926. Pilates’ ability to create long, lean muscles rather than a bulky silhouette helped attract dance world luminaries like Martha Graham. , George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
Club Pilates was founded in 2007 by Alison Beardsley, who worked as a personal trainer and Pilates instructor in San Diego for many years. According to her biography on the faith-centered website Godrooted.com, when she realized the only way to make a decent living was to open her own business, she maxed out her credit cards. , and built a studio in her duplex.
Word spread quickly, and Beardsley’s classes were filled with wealthy and successful people.
The housing market crash of 2008 left many students unable to attend classes. So she lowered the class price to her $10 and gave away hundreds of Groupon coupons.
She changed the business model from a millionaire’s paradise to one where everyone is welcome.
“Club Pilates removes the stigma and elitist attitudes from Pilates,” Beardsley said in his profile on the online newsletter Pilatesintel.com. “We keep it friendly, down-to-earth and accessible.”
Her new approach was so successful that Beardsley moved to a larger building and began franchising.
She sold the business in 2015 to entrepreneur Anthony Geisler, who later founded Xponential Fitness.
Athletes become franchisees
Chris Butts is originally from Fergus Falls, Minnesota, but he hasn’t lived here in decades. They moved at least 16 times before Brad retired from the Air Force. But they say it was always their intention to settle here and be closer to Chris’ parents when they get older.
“A contributing factor to this is that I have literally dragged Chris around the world for the past 33 years, and we finally got to a place where we could develop our business,” Brad said.
As former athletes, Chris as a championship bowler and Brad as a marathon runner, they wanted to find a gentler solution to staying in shape. Brad has a titanium ankle and Chris has had three surgeries on his shoulder due to a bowling injury.
David Samson/The Forum
Just before moving to Fargo, they lived in Rockwall, Texas, where Chris conditioned himself and found solace through Club Pilates.
She noticed positive changes throughout her body. “I have a bulging disc. But with my grandchildren, I would sit on the floor and play with them, and then I would have to get on all fours to stand up,” she said. “After I started Pilates, I just popped out. And it’s been a year and a half since I took the class, and I can still pop out, which is amazing.”
She says Pilates strengthens the muscles that are essential to maintaining daily movements that become more difficult as we age, such as climbing stairs without pain or raising your legs while walking.
Currently, 10 instructors, including Brad, are undergoing the 500 hours of training required to become Club Pilates Master Teachers. Each instructor is also expected to learn safe adaptation methods to help tailor her Pilates workouts to people with specific health conditions.
Chris said each instructor specializes in studying specific conditions, ranging from plantar fasciitis and Parkinson’s disease to lower back problems and pregnancy. He then educates other instructors on how to best adapt to their specialty.
The Butts invested more than $150,000 to outfit the studio.
“Everything we have is invested in it,” Brad said. But they’re excited about the community’s response. According to Chris, 1,300 people have expressed interest and there are more than 170 signatories.
Memberships range from $89 for four monthly attendance to $159 per month for unlimited attendance. You can also sign up for one-on-one lessons in a private room on a Cadillac, a luxury renovated car.
We also offer a 10% discount to first responders.
The general public will soon be able to tour the studio. Regular classes will begin on May 13th. A “soft opening” will take place from May 9th to 12th, with a 30-minute introductory class to try out the equipment. Chris said those who register by May 13 will receive a membership discount for the first three months.
Learn more about Club Pilates on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/clubpilatesfargouptown.
