A growing chain of Illinois fitness clubs has opened its first Quad Cities area location.
In January, Luke and Maggie Wells of Geneseo opened Fitness Premier 24/7 Club at 1045 S. Oakwood Ave., Geneseo. Maggie, satisfied with her own experience as a member, knew a chance to own and operate the first location of the club — now in 16 communities in Illinois and one in Indiana — was a perfect way to give back to their hometown.
They acquired an existing 5,000-square-foot gym (there over 10 years) and it never closed. It used to be Snap Fitness, and then later Geneseo Fitness.
An Annawan native, Luke had been a member of the Geneseo club when he was in college, he said Monday. Maggie was a member of Fitness Premier (FP) for 10 years at its Manteno, Ill., location, which is two hours of east of Geneseo.
They got married in May 2021 in Manteno (after being a couple since 2018) and moved to Geneseo last August.
“I’m from the area, and once we got married we had been looking to move back to this general area,” Luke said. “We ended up buying a house in Geneseo.”
Maggie has worked in cardiology for 20 years, as an echotech (doing ultrasounds of the heart and other testing). “It was fun; I loved it,” she said.
Luke still works as a project manager for a utility construction company, working full-time with them.
“I do some entrepreneur things on the side,” he said, noting he has a partner where they have rented and sold houses. “I’m always looking for opportunity. My wife had been a member for Fitness Premier for many years and became good friends with her trainer. He’s the owner and operator of the Manteno club.”
“Next thing you know, we closed on the gym and here we are,” he said, noting Geneseo Fitness never closed. The Wellses bought the building as well.
“I had never really belonged to another gym,” Maggie said, adding she always felt welcomed at Fitness Premier. “It was really nice to have that culture, not feeling you’re being judged there.”
She has three kids (age 10, 12, and 20) and went through a divorce. “I had all kinds of things adding to my stress level and my personal trainer helped me get through a lot of things,” Maggie said.
He helped her not only with her fitness goals, but her mental health challenges.
“Mental health is a big thing,” Maggie said. “Not only helping people inside the gym to become more confident, be more healthy, but also be there for them on those mental health days, where you need someone to just vent to.”
Being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is a big advantage, and a first for the Geneseo market.
“Home lives are so diverse now,” Maggie said. “Especially in our area, we have so many factories, like Springfield Armory here close by. People are working all sorts of different schedules.”
“We’ve found that a lot of people are using the opportunities to come into the gym whenever it fits them,” she said. “It’s no surprise to drive by the gym at 2 o’clock in the morning and see five cars sitting in the parking lot.”
Different levels of membership
FP has varying levels of membership, including a basic level (with admission from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.), a 24-hour membership, and added access to classes and trainers.
They eventually hope to have 4 to 6 employees and will have a grand opening week in April (4-9).
The Manteno club started with 6,000 square feet and has expanded three times, Maggie said. That metro area (in Kankakee County) doesn’t have much competition in fitness centers.
Geneseo has a Jazzercise and a CrossFit gym.
FP acquired the 400 members from the prior fitness club and now has about 450 total. They repainted the whole building and have made some renovations, with new equipment coming in March.
“We’re rebranding and trying to bring in the Fitness Premier atmosphere,” Luke said.
He actually planned to open the club two years ago, and shelved that after COVID shutdowns in March 2020.
“The whole franchise did a really great job in reaching out,” Maggie said. “They did classes online, pre-recorded classes. There are all workouts planned by trainers strictly for you. There was definitely a of thinking on their feet, to help our members achieve their fitness goal and still try to be healthy, and be able to keep everybody home and also keep our doors open.”
Hitting the gym hard
The numbers are showing that people “are coming back and hitting the gym harder than ever,” she said. “In our area, we definitely have a diverse group – in some people who come into the gym and feel comfortable coming without a mask on, standing there chit-chatting. And we have other people very concerned about it.”
One thing about Geneseo, “everybody is just so kind,” Maggie said. “This town just has a huge heart. Everybody’s willing to help everyone and be so respectful. Those members who are very concerned about it…we make sure they have signage so when they’re on the treadmill, it says ‘Please respect my social distancing,’ to help encourage and support social distancing.”
FP has a much stronger mobile app and online features now, for people to work out from home, she said. “This app just does an amazing job of filtering all that out and making it so easy to use,” Maggie said.
She says it takes a unique person to have the dedication to work out at home.
“I do not work out well at home; I like being with a friend, in a group setting,” Maggie said. “I love team training and personal training. I definitely do not push myself as hard at home as I will in the gym. Being part of a group is always better.”
Luke is much better in being able to exercise at home, she said.
“I do stay busy with my work,” he said. “I’ve got to find a routine that fits my schedule, which can be all over the place. So if you had to drive to the gym, 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back, I’ve been able to put a gym in whatever residence I was at. I was lucky where I had a basement wherever I was at, where I could put my equipment.”
Luke has been doing that since 2013, he said.
You can get a week free pass
FP has an introductory 7-day free pass, to try everything before joining. They also have no-contract memberships, where you can join in a month-to-month basis. Maggie said.
“If you feel like, this just isn’t working out for me, you’re not locked into anything,” she said. The best way to find out about prices is to come in and discuss your fitness goals, Maggie said.
“There’s a huge array of price brackets,” she said.
They also plan to do volunteering and outreach in the community, noting they are Chamber of Commerce members. FP may get into sponsoring youth teams and activities, Maggie said.
“It doesn’t have to be sports or fitness related,” she said. “When it comes to youth getting them together, getting them as a team to come up with a goal, where they have to work together to achieve. It could be a robot building competition – anything we can do to help these kids get off YouTube and get off video games, that’s what we want.”
For more information, visit the club’s website.
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