Tennis club revises its service
The former Fitness and Tennis Club of Norwalk on Post Road, now called Intensity, has grown its focus from old-style tennis club to fitness for body and soul, though still with space to swing the racquets.
“We have created a real five-star workout facility for a clientele that appreciates upscale design, an impressive range of amenities, leading-edge cardiovascular machines, high-performance conditioning equipment and an impressive broad menu of fitness classes,” said Clair Mason, co-owner of Intensity.
Owned for the past four years by Mason along with Michael Marcus, Mason said the club was intent on changing the identity since they stepped into ownership, a move that was in fact encouraged by the former owner.
“The previous owner had said to us when we bought the business that we just had to change the name,” said Mason. “It was then just a stuffy old club. Not many people knew there was fitness in here. I was looking for a small fitness club to buy and my husband wanted me to go back to work.”
Mason a former IBMer left her job in sales upon the birth of her two children.
“Not working at IBM I got more and more involved in fitness as something I could focus on,” said Mason. “My kids were in preschool and then kindergarten and I would be out running miles and going to another gym and I realized I was influencing people in that way and I was getting people into fitness. I was kind of building somebody else”™s business. It was fine because it was really a passion for me and it”™s so satisfying seeing someone workout as much as I love to.”
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Mason, having no desire to go back to the corporate world, found a business partner in Marcus, a Rye Brook, N.Y., resident and former owner of Stamford”™s Twin Lakes Indoor Tennis Club.
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Intensity has gained space, now more than 10,000 square feet, and provides services like zumba (a cardio, hip-hop, salsa aerobics fusion), spinning and body pump classes, massages, babysitting services, as well as ongoing tennis. At the entrance to the facility is a juice bar.
“Working out is so much more of a social environment now,” said Mason. “The fitness industry is a lot about how good your group programs are. Even more men now like the group end of it. It”™s the social aspects, it”™s fact that somebody else is guiding you through your workout, it”™s that it gets done in a structured environment. You just don”™t get bored doing it.”
Mason said she has also been growing the professional team of personal trainers, instructors, day-care providers and treatment specialists.
“We”™ve just had so much success since taking over,” said Mason. “I think being involved in fitness now is more of a necessity than a luxury. People see the direct benefit to their health. It”™s much more a way of life.”
Mason said the recession has actually affected the fitness club in a positive way, saying the industry is still one of the fastest-growing sectors.
“Those people who had gotten used to exercise kind of clung on their exercise,” said Mason.
“If you compare the cost of a membership to the price of going out to dinner for two and a babysitter, the math is easy,” said Mason. “The coffee on my desk costs nearly five dollars. It is peanuts and it makes you feel so good to have done something physically satisfying.”