Fitness regimes have changed significantly over the decades.
While there are still people looking just to increase muscle mass, there are just as many people, if not more, who are looking for a more well-rounded fitness regimen.
More and more, people are looking for a variety of services from their fitness centre, from weight lifting to cardio to fitness classed — and anyone living in Lively soon won't have to travel far to find it.
Jeff and Lisa Scharf have teamed up with André Thibeault to open Lively's new fitness centre, which will be located at the Ben Moxam Community Centre.
“Through talking to others, and through our own experiences, we knew that a good fitness centre was something the community was really missing,” said Jeff.
The Ben Moxam Community Centre was a natural choice for their endeavour, he said.
“We identified this building almost right away as a place that is well suited for a fitness centre.”
An entrepreneur, Jeff will be operating several other businesses out of the 18,000-square-foot building. However, the fitness centre will be front and centre.
He's hiredAndré Thibeault to help run the day-to-day operations.
“We were going door to door and talking to the neighbours during the rezoning process, and I met Anrde's dad, who told me who his son was and what he was looking to do, and that his dream was to run a fitness facility here,” Jeff said. “So, the pieces just kind of fell into place.”
Since then, they've been going hard at getting the plans together. They've conducted numerous surveys in the community, and the response has been amazing, said Lisa.
“It's that feedback that is really allowing us to tailor the services we will provide to the needs of the community,” she said.
The purchase of the building is still being finalized, and there's still a lot of work to be done, but an architect has already been hired design the new layout of the building.
“Our hope is certainly to open this year, but we can't give an exact date at this point,” Jeff said.
The Ben Moxam Community Centre was built in the 1960s as a small elementary school. Over the years, the building has been used for a variety of purposes including a daycare and to house Walden Minor Hockey.
“It was really well built, so renovations won't be too hefty,” Jeff said.
As for the name Ben Moxam, it's still up in the air as to whether that moniker will remain in the name of the building.
“There's a good chance we'll keep the name in there somewhere because of its historical background in the community, but we might just rename it to better fit the business."
Thibeault said the new fitness centre will offer services to everybody in the community.
“We want everyone, regardless of their fitness level, to feel they can come here and be treated like family,” Thibeault said.
Like most other gyms, the fitness centre will have a variety of fitness classes, as well as a complete weight training. Classes will include spinning, kettle bells, strength training, to name a few.
“Nothing is really finalized yet, and we'll be adding classes as the community tells us what they want,” Lisa said. “We'll keep listening to the community, and do our best to meet everybody's needs. We want to give Lively what it deserves.”
They've already had discussions to provide other services that really complement the fitness facility, such as health and nutrition services and physiotherapy, Jeff said.
“We're very excited.”
For a chance to win a free six-month membership, visit surveymonkey.com/r/LivelyAthleticCentre and fill out the survey.
For more information please visit livelyathleticcentre.ca.
