New Fitness Studio to Open in Downtown Chappaqua
If you’re still leery of going to a large gym due to COVID-19 or just want more privacy or personal instruction, there’s a new fitness center in the area to try. Sam Gomes is opening G-Fit Training & Health Solutions in downtown Chappaqua this Monday, his first effort as an entrepreneur after working for about eight years as a certified personal trainer.
With the pandemic persisting over the past 18 months, Gomes reasoned that there would be plenty of local residents who would want to work on their fitness without the uneasiness of exerting in crowded quarters.
His roughly 5,000-square-foot North Greeley Avenue studio will cater to people’s individual schedules and training needs, he said.
“It seems that most people are doing Zoom training, in-home training, at a park,” said Gomes, who is also a corrective exercise specialist, a precision nutrition Level 1 coach and Titleist Performance Institute certified. “In general, I’ve noticed that the whole industry seems to be kind of moving away from bigger gyms because you don’t know who’s in there, what their habits are. Are they washing their hands? Are they vaccinated? So I kind of took all of that into account and part of it was like opportunity, too, because I saw the chance.”
Whether a client wants to gain strength, lose weight or improve their overall fitness, Gomes will design a personalized regimen for them. One-on-one sessions are an hour, typically starting with a five- to 15-minute warmup and progress depending on the needs of the client.
Unlike some boutique training facilities, you won’t have to look as though you’ve stepped out of a fashion magazine or off a runway to come to G-Fit Training. It’s geared for anyone who wants to improve their health and fitness.
“It really doesn’t matter what the fitness level is,” Gomes said. “I just like helping people become better and that’s the philosophy I really adhere to. By tomorrow, you should really be better, whether you’re physically stronger. You should be consistently progressing, not regressing.”
Gomes, a Westchester native who now lives in Danbury, grew up in Mount Vernon before moving to Yorktown for high school. He was a media and communications major at Pace University but his interest in fitness dated back to his high school years. Gomes helped friends and relatives with their workouts, some of whom suggested he consider training as a potential career. He got his certification and gave it a little bit of time to see how it would progress.
“As time went on, it kept snowballing,” Gomes recalled. “I got one client, then three, then a couple more. As time went on, I could definitely do this as a career. It’s exactly what I wanted. I had a lot of passion for it.”
Gomes learned of the vacant space on North Greeley Avenue and reasoned that it was centrally located for him to draw on Chappaqua and neighboring communities.
For the first few months, Gomes plans to train clients on his own. He hopes by the end of the year he will have gained enough of a following to hire a couple of trainers. Gomes is also looking to eventually add a physical therapist and perhaps a massage therapist to his operation as well.
At some point, small group classes of up to eight participants are likely to be offered, but the demand will help shape the schedule, he said.
“My goal was to see where the people’s wants are,” Gomes said. “If they’re like I’m really looking for a high-intensity interval class, we’ll open up a spot for it.”
Gomes is also developing various packages for those who want to come once or twice a week and those who need more frequent training.
G-Fit Training & Health Solutions is located at 75 N. Greeley Ave. in Chappaqua. For more information, call 914-623-8684 or visit www.gfittraining.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
