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Staying fit 24/7Date: 05.12.2006
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
Mark and Dee Lamm have reached another milestone in their lives, but the topics are still the same: health and fitness.
The Lamms are the new owners of the former 14th Street Fitness Center and have called it “Fit 24/7.” It's a limited liability partnership. The business is at the corner of 14th Street and Avenue G, and the weight-lifting units in the front will be the same, but the back room has undergone some changes.
Bodybuilding is often associated with men, but women interested in fitness lift weights and they also work out on treadmills and other apparatus that can be found in the back room.
Members have a key to access the facility 24 hours a day (and, as the name of the business indicates, seven days a week). But the Lamms are extending the office hours to provide better access for prospective clients or answer questions for current clients.
Owning a storefront business is new for the Fort Madison couple, but owning a business is not for Dee, and neither are strangers to the world of fitness and bodybuilding.
“I grew up in Chicago,” Dee said, “and I became an aerobics instructor and was involved in fitness and taught in various clubs in the early '90s.” She has a degree from Human Kinetics Institute. Kinetics is the science of how the body moves.
Mark was competing in a bodybuilding event in the Quad Cities and Dee was attending as a spectator.
They met each other there and soon after she moved to Fort Madison and the couple got married.
“We both started training together,” Mark said, “and we did a couples competition. She realized all the different ways nutrition and diet go into competing and being in top physical condition.
“I loved the fact of wanting to work out and be involved in the fitness industry,” Dee said.
They were consulting with a professional from Fort Madison, and both Mark and Dee took the necessary tests to become certified in the ISSA (International Sports Science Association).
Soon Dee decided she wanted to share her newfound knowledge.
“I wanted to help other people,” she said. But she also discovered, “There was a great need for privacy and one-on-one attention.”
So she began offering personal training at a studio behind her house.
“I had a great clientele base,”she said. “Clients came from word of mouth.” Fitness Connection has been running successfully for the past five years. Even with the purchase of the new business, Dee will still have her personal training business at her studio.
Dee said, “I'm a self-motivated person, and I was hitting some limitations in the studio. There were a lot of things I wanted to offer, especially for women.”
“That's why we changed the back (of the new building), ”Mark said. “To gear it more towards the women.”
The current ratio of male clients to female clients is 70/30. “I want to change that,” Dee said, making it closer to 50/50.
While still working out of her studio, Dee wasn't looking to move out yet. But the previous 14th Street Fitness owner, Dan Roach, contacted her and asked if she wanted to buy the place.
“It was a perfect time at this point of my career,” Dee said. “We decided to purchase this not only for what it had, but for what could be done in the future. We gave immediate attention to the back room. We've done some remodeling and started turbo kickboxing and weight training. I'd like to add pilates and yoga in the near future.”
Dee will still have a personal training business at her studio and Mark will keep his job at Roquette America. But they plan to work together on the Fitness 24/7 business. Mark said, “I'm the brawn, and she's the brain.”
The Lamms have hired three part-time employees, and the expanded office hours are from 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. “We're looking to hire other people,” Mark said.
There is a monthly membership fee of $27 and also six-month and year-long plans. The Lamms want to make the place a social gathering place as well as a fitness center to encourage regular attendance - which is necessary to maintain proper fitness.
“Our hopes and dreams are being involved with the industry,” Dee said. “We see how the industry changes. We want to keep fitness fun. We want to make this a fun, lively place to work out.
“We want to have a little kids room for parents to bring their kids.”
In the near future, the Lamms hope to do some community involvement projects. But those plans are still in the works, so the community will have to “weight” until the couple sees “fit” to reveal them.
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