enerShe Fitness, Mahopac
Believing that fitness is more than just working out a few days a week, but a lifestyle change, Karly Schneider, owner of enerShe Fitness, is providing women in the area the chance to take their life in a healthier, stronger direction.
Opening enerShe Fitness last month in Mahopac, Schneider is continuing and improving upon a tradition of having a female-only fitness center for residents to exercise in comfort and have some fun, too.
Before Schneider took over, the same location was a women’s gym for 38 years and the previous owners had it for 28 years before they sold the property to Schneider.
Once the opportunity fell into Schneider’s lap, she jumped on it. With exercise and fitness a passion of Schneider’s for a long time, the chance to have her own fitness center was perfect.
“It’s a lifestyle facility that I’m trying to transform us into,” she said. “It’s just so much more than a gym. Women can go, lean on each other, work out, have fun, make friends and find a more holistic kind of life.”
Schneider, a Mahopac resident, would go to the gym in college, but she really honed in on making fitness a way of life after she gave birth to her last child.
“I decided, ‘OK, enough is enough, I’ve got to do something with myself,’” she said.
At the past gym she went to as a patron, the classes, owners, and other members made her feel like she was visiting a second family each day. It also fueled her motivation to look into one day pursuing this as a career.
Schneider knew for years she wanted to open a business that was focused on women and children. Welcoming all ages and fitness levels, enerShe Fitness hosts yoga classes, cardio kickboxing, sculpt, spin, and other various workouts. There is a daycare facility so while moms exercise, their kids are taken care of. In the future, Schneider hopes to create classes for kids, too and offer massage therapy.
The fitness center also has a high-tech infra sauna set at a 120 degrees where a woman can do a 30-minute workout with a virtual instructor. The heat is meant to open your pores and release toxins, Schneider said.
Schneider offers a big welcome every new person that joins the gym. Just by joining, that woman has already pushed aside the hardest obstacle to getting in shape. She wants fitness goers to have fun while they’re working out.
“Once the ladies come in, they see it’s a family atmosphere,” Schneider said. “Come in, workout and enjoy the place. We’re not here to judge you; everybody is in the same boat here. It’s not really a chore like some people might see it as. It’s a lifestyle change.”
Growing up, Schneider always thought she’d one day own a business, but in a completely different industry. For about 12 years, Schneider worked as a classically trained French pastry chef until she got married.
She worked in bakeries, restaurants and cafes since she was 16 until she worked at her husband’s business for eight years “and now here I am, all on my own.”
enerShe Fitness is located at 989 Route 6 in Mahopac and its phone number is 845-628-7165.
