Much has been written about the awarding of culinary stars, ratings of 90-point wines and the ascendancy of the million-dollar, two-bedroom home. But one award made to a Healdsburg business should not slip through the cracks—the naming of the Healdsburg’s location as North America’s “World Gym of the Year.”
“I couldn’t believe my ears,” said Joe Talmadge, 65, manager of the World Gym Healdsburg location since it opened eight years ago. The award was announced to a packed hall at October’s international convention of World Gym operators in Las Vegas. “Healdsburg?”
There are currently more than 225 World Gyms, most of them in North America. The business has modest roots: Joe Gold founded it in Santa Monica seven years after he sold the first fitness business he created, Gold’s Gyms. So the competition was stiff.
“Obviously there are other gyms that probably are a little bit bigger and more fancier and offer different amenities as well,” Talmadge said. “But World Gym looks for ‘Key Performance Indicators,’ the things that really matter to them: How good of a job we do serving our specific community, how good we are with our members and of course the cleanliness of the club, the type of equipment we have, being up to date on everything that we offer.”
Talmadge himself has worked in the fitness business for decades, having opened his own gym in San Francisco some 40 years ago. When the Healdsburg Avenue location became available, he leapt at the chance. “When I first came and saw the space, I fell in love with it immediately,” he said. “I felt the space had good bones, but it was pretty long in the tooth. It was very dated.”
Then known as Healdsburg Community Health and Fitness, the gym had lost a bit of its luster since being founded by the late Jimmy Payne, a Sonoma County competitive weightlifter and trainer who Talmadge called “our local Jack LaLanne.” Payne died in 2012, at 85.
Talmadge took out the racquetball and basketball courts, and added more weightlifting and other fitness equipment, which enabled the gym to serve more customers at any given time. “It’s very simple math,” he said. “You want to be as efficient as possible with the space, where you can get enough people in there to be able to utilize it all at the same time.”
While the gym is being upgraded this month with “wellness” features such as an ice bath, infrared treatment and massage tables, Talmadge has no intention of slighting his lifelong commitment to weight training. In fact the gym is open 24/7 to make that level of commitment possible for its members.
“Muscle is the fountain of youth,” he said. “A lot of people are losing weight now with Ozempic and all these different drugs, and a lot of the weight they’re losing is a lot of muscle, too, which is not good. So we are a place where people can come and get the muscle, and keep the muscle.”
World Gym Healdsburg, 1500 Healdsburg Ave. Open 24/7, monthly $60 fee. (707) 385-1142. worldgym.com/healdsburg
Cadillac of Fitness
For those who require a wider list of options than weight training, Parkpoint Health Club offers it all: aerobics and weights, and classes in a multiplicity of modalities—Pilates, yoga, barre, adult ballet and many more—most of which are free for members.
It’s one of three Parkpoint clubs in the county, the others being in Sonoma and Santa Rosa. “We have our own personalities,” said Jan Blalock, the Healdsburg club’s programming and operations manager. “But the philosophy and the environment is very similar, and our classes and personal training are quite similar.”
As well as the extra-large workout rooms, a mirror-lined spin studio, Pilates and massage, yoga and HIIT (high-intensity interval training), Parkpoint offers men’s and women’s locker rooms and showers to complete the full gym experience. Plus, a lounge with packaged snacks and free coffee, stocked with current newspapers.
The gym further boasts a heated, outdoor 25-meter lap pool and a warmer exercise pool for physical therapy and “aqua aerobics.” Especially since the pandemic, Blalock said, the pools are an increasingly popular feature. “The therapy pool is about 86 degrees, so it’s super comfy. You wouldn’t want to do lap swimming in that heat!” The lap pool is a refreshing 80 degrees.
Most of the classes—about 70 are offered per week—are free with membership. “Our trainers have a lot of different backgrounds,” Blalock said. “For instance, we have a couple that are triathletes, so they work a lot with people who are trying to prepare for an event of some sort.
“Most of our members are fit and over 50,” Blalock added. “And during the summer a lot more families come hang out at the pool.” More so than most, Parkpoint serves as a social club as well as a health club.
Parkpoint Health Club Healdsburg, 195 Foss Creek Circle. Open Monday-Friday, 5:30am to 8:30pm; weekends, 7am to 7pm. Memberships 70% off until Jan. 15. Monthly dues $157; contact Sheila in Membership at (707) 385-2500 or sh****@pa*****************.com.
Fitness in Motion
A tier below Parkpoint or World Gym is Motion Fitness Healdsburg. Smaller and without shower facilities, it lacks a pool. But it does offer what many in search of health are looking for: a wide array of well-designed, well-maintained equipment and 24-hour access.
“We’re focused on weight training,” said founder Lori Marioni. “No classes involved. Just mainly strength training.” Though the gym offered more classes before Covid, the pandemic’s limitations on social interaction helped Mariani focus on the core (so to speak) of Motion Fitness.
“When people call up, I always just say we’re a 24-hour gym. So I am focused on people being able to use it 24 hours a day, and having all the weight equipment they need,” Marioni said.
She pointed to three criteria for a successful business in the health industry: Affordability, availability and cleanliness. With modest monthly membership fees and 24/7 access, how much more available can a gym be? And Marioni and her small crew, including “JP” Garcia, are attentive and responsive.
“What’s made Motion successful for me is being hands-on,” Marioni said. “You know, if anybody wants me at any point in time, they text or call me and I always answer my phone. Unless it’s the middle of the night and I’m asleep.”
The gym features three weight rooms, 25 pieces of cardio equipment including stationary bikes and the like, three universal cable towers, and a stretching and abdominal center where the classes used to be. As big as it is, as popular as it is, the gym still has room for more members.
“I never want to get where people are waiting,” Marioni said. “Right now my members are totally happy, and they could still accommodate some more and still be totally happy.”
The gym is located at the end of West North Street, at the corner of Moore Lane—still technically “downtown,” but by no means obvious. One has to want to go there, and that may be the reason for its success. There’s that focus again.
“It is self-driven here, but I’ve made it simple in the way I laid out the gym,” Marioni said. “Because they’re independent, our members realize that their health is dependent on themselves and not on a teacher.
“There comes a time when if you’re going to the places that offer classes, they are going to be more expensive,” she continued. “You have to pay for those instructors. So if you can get used to doing it on your own, you take out a level of cost. Motion doesn’t charge any enrollment, either, and I think that helps people out.”
Motion Fitness, 103 W. North St. Open 24/7. Memberships $50/month. Contact Lori at (707) 326-4224 or JP at (707) 293-6238, Español. Email in**@mo**************.com.
A number of smaller local health studios are located in Healdsburg as well. The Tribune will cover them in a forthcoming issue.
