As “Dry January” unrolls, it’s time to examine the physical side of fitness. With three larger gyms and a half-dozen smaller studios, the options for finding an appropriate level of fitness maintenance is up to you. Their offerings are multiple: mat-based barre, Pilates, cycling classes, yoga, strength training, HIIT, cardio dance, even sound baths and mitt boxing.
We discussed Motion Fitness, Parkpoint Health Club and World Gym in an earlier survey, but just because they are the most visible does not mean they are the most apt for all pursuers of fitness, general health or other goals. Some other options hide in plain sight, while others need to be tracked down. Here is our survey of the ones for which we could find information.
Strength for Living
This small studio gym sits downtown next door to the Senior Center, just off the Plaza. Cindy Anderson has run it for years, but is leaving town. She recently found a buyer who promises to keep everything the same—including rates.
A trainer is always present; for years it has been Anderson, a weight trainer since 2002, but she is phasing out and moving to Idaho. New owner David Bailey is not a trainer himself, but a satisfied customer who didn’t want to see a change. They continue to search for new, experienced trainers.
Strength for Living’s “modality,” or specific type of technique used to achieve a fitness goal, is “slow motion high intensity strength training,” during one 30-minute session per week.
Bailey simply called the method “super-slow,” saying it’s been around for quite a while and he had been doing it for 15 years at various other places before he ended up in Healdsburg. “It’s where you really push the machines very slowly; you get work both directions,” he said. It combines strength and resistance training in the same exercise.
Who comes to this downtown gym? “I would say most are retired and just want to continue with keeping your muscle mass,” Bailey said. “Because when you get older you lose muscle mass, and if you let it go it’s really hard to get back.”
Strength for Living, 137 Matheson St., $75 per session, 10-session package $720. Call (415) 948-6651, email ci***@st*********************.com or visit strengthforlivingstudio.com.
The Studio
The Studio has been a fixture in the Mitchell Plaza for some time, but during the Covid pandemic it became more visible. As owner-founder Catherine Ziegler described it, “I opened The Dailey Method Healdsburg in October 2019, just months before the pandemic hit … When the pandemic forced gyms to close, we pivoted quickly, shifting to an online platform and offering live-stream classes via a private Facebook page for our members. We also took our classes outdoors, holding sessions in local parks and building a deck in the parking lot of our shopping center,” the Mitchell Plaza.
The self-described “boutique fitness studio” has three rooms for barre, cycling and reformer sessions. Ziegler went independent two years ago when The Dailey Method franchises dissolved, and she’s still at it with a growing number of classes and an increased focus on using the reformer Pilates machine.
“Our members have discovered the incredible benefits of this low-impact modality, which effectively strengthens, tones, increases flexibility and improves posture,” Ziegler said. “The growth of our Reformer program has been a huge success, and we’re excited about what’s to come.”
Ziegler recommends the New Client Combo Pack for $69, which includes two Core Classes and two Reformer Pilates classes. “From there, we’ll work with you individually to find the best fit for your fitness journey,” she said.
The Studio, 451 Center St, memberships start at $119 for five sessions per month. Call (707) 756-3193 or visit thestudiohealdsburg.com.
Soco Fitness
Chris Daly has the right kind of resume for those looking for one: Worked in the athletic department at MIT including with the men’s rowing team, Crossfit coach with Reebok and Invictus in Boston, came to Healdsburg six years ago and bought the Moore Lane gym from the previous owner during Covid.
He is the owner and only coach at Soco Fitness. He describes the gym, located in the long series of warehouses on Moore Lane between North Street and its dead end, as a “3,000 sq foot open space with rowers, assault bikes, treadmill and ski ergs …DKs and KBs [dumbbells and kettlebells] up to 100’s and a variety of barbells for lifting along some strength equipment.” There are two bathrooms but no shower.
“My vision is to get people to move better in daily life and be pain free,” Daly said. “So a lot of my work is movement based and not using machines.”
The highly personal approach borders on the idiosyncratic. “I don’t have ‘classes,’” he added. “My clients come in and train when they want, and I’m there coaching and helping them … so there may be one person or 10 people depending on the time of day.”
Soco Fitness, 476 Moore Lane, cost is $165 a month with personal coaching, individual sessions available. (707) 395-0157, on instagram@socofitness706_cmd or email cd***@so************.com.
NoXcuses Gym
Josh Wade has been a Healdsburger since he was six months old, following a brief residence in Georgia. He started No Excuses Healdsburg, or “NoX,” 12 years ago and his training goal remains the same as always: “I’m just trying to move it for 30 to 45 minutes with no breaks,” he said. “And then just to continue to push ’em as hard as they can go, as they progress through the gym.”
While he uses a number of “modalities” or training regimens, they all are bound together by his vision: consistency plus intensity equals results. Wade calls his business, located in the Best Western next to the Lodge Hotel, a “group and personal training gym that focuses on circuit training; combined with weight lifting, short burst cardio, and TRX-based movements.”
He also offers mitt-boxing, exercises that develop individual coordination and strength training, choreographed by the trainer for maximum value depending on the customer. This is the only one-on-one training he offers, the rest are private or semi-private sessions.
“Most people’s goal is weight loss. Some people’s goal is just to be healthy and maintain,” the 46-year old trainer said. The ages are “the full range—I got an 8-year-old kid in there and I got a lady who came in the other day who was 85 years old.”
NoXcuses Gym, 1229 Grove St. Unit 4, classes Mon-Thurs at 5:15pm and personalized sessions through Saturdays. Cost is $180 a month for “as much as you want.” Preferred contact is via text at (707) 478-6644, visit the Instagram account @NoXcuses_Training or noxhbg.com.
Healdsburg Pilates
The longevity king of the downtown studio scene is Healdsburg Pilates and Personal Fitness. Peter Sheridan opened it 25 years ago, and his personal approach and charisma has made “Peter’s Pilates” the benchmark of local fitness clubs. Spin and Pilates classes are so popular, and his skills as a personal trainer so in-demand, that Sheridan is now reluctant to seek new customers.
The degree to which Sheridan and his hand-picked staff of trainers are committed to fitness is best expressed by the 7am start time of their cycling and circuit fitness classes.
Healdsburg Pilates and Personal Fitness, 424-C Center St. Call (707) 433-2737 or visit healdsburgpilates.com.
