It’s 5:30 a.m. on a Thursday morning and Ashley Stotts is already busy at work. She didn’t stamp a time clock, and the work she does won’t earn her a paycheck, but Stotts is still looking for a big payoff.
She and seven other clients work at F45 Training on Cumberland Trace Road, Bowling Green’s newest fitness center.
Stotts and her colleagues have a head start on their New Year fitness goals and follow video instructions that walk them through high-intensity interval training.
F45, so named for its 45-minute functional training, was brought to the mall in front of the Cumberland Trace Village apartment complex in October by franchise owners Quentin Hunter and Janae Morelli. It goes down with customers like Stotts.
“I have friends in North Carolina who go to F45 and they told me it was a challenging workout,” said Stotts. “I work from home so this is a chance to get away from home. It also helps my mental health. “
Another F45 customer, Leslie Priest, also came to the new fitness center after hearing about it from friends outside of town.
“I found out about this from my brother in Louisville, who has been doing this for years,” said Priest. “As soon as it was open, I wanted to try it out.”
Stotts likes the high-tech nature of the workouts that include weight training with a variety of aerobic exercises.
“It’s good because all the workouts are programmed in advance and shown on the screen,” she said.
Not that customers just need to watch a video screen. Hunter and Morelli fit in, instructing, and encouraging the routines as they correct form problems.
Morelli and Hunter, both graduates of Western Kentucky University, met while working as nurses and decided to pursue their shared passion for exercise.
Though new to Bowling Green, Texas-based F45 Training is a rapidly growing fitness franchise that has expanded to more than 1,750 locations worldwide since it was launched in 2012.
Morelli said she was primarily drawn to F45 because it offers a variety of workout routines.
“It’s set up differently every day,” she said. “We have a bank with more than 4,000 exercises.”
Both Morelli and Hunter were members of an F45 location in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which led them to buy into the franchise that has invested actor Mark Wahlberg among its investors.
Hunter, a U.S. Army veteran who toured Iraq and Afghanistan, said his military background led to his love of fitness training.
“In the army you get fit when you are not fit,” he said.
Although the F45 routines are far from a “boot camp” setting, Hunter still allows him to realize his desire to help people achieve their fitness goals.
“Over the years, fitness became my passion,” says Hunter, 37. “Now I make a living doing what I love. I could do that 12 hours a day. “
Hunter believes that the workouts at F45 can provide benefits beyond physical fitness.
“I have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) with anxiety and depression,” he said. “I didn’t want to take antidepressants.
“It wasn’t a conscious thought that exercise could be therapeutic, but it worked that way. I’m glad I found that. “
Morelli is glad she and Hunter found a way to open an F45 location in a growing part of Bowling Green.
“We are both WKU graduates,” she says. “I love this community very much. When we were looking for a location, I thought that would be the perfect place. “
– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.
– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.
