Anytime Fitness to Open Personal Training Studio

Yorkville’s is opening a personal training studio within months of celebrating its five-year anniversary here.

The studio, which is expected to open next week, will be in a nearby unit in the same shopping center as the gym at 68 E. Schoolhouse Road. It will provide space for sessions for three to six people.

“Expansion was always part of the idea (of opening the gym), and this seemed like the right idea at the right time,” franchise owner Debbie Greenleaf said during a recent interview and tour.

The goal of multi-client training is to get people who might not otherwise have an opportunity to work with a certified trainer into small groups. They work a couple of times per week on developing their fitness, as well as routines to maintain their fitness.

“People think ‘personal trainer,’ and get intimidated,” Greenleaf said, as she showed off the former State Bank of Illinois unit that she and her husband, Ron, are converting for use as the studio.

While private sessions with a personal trainer might cost $50 to, well, whatever you want to spend, those who enroll in one of the multi-client training programs will spend about $22 per each hour-long session. The payoff is that clients not only will receive some personal attention, but also “unlike a class, which is doing the same things over and over and over,” trainers will be focused on “improving the training from week to week,” so that participants continually see results, Greenleaf said. 

Not only will the programs and the new studio be available to members of the gym, but nonmembers will be able to register for training as well. Greenleaf sees the new programs as a way for those who might not consider going to a gym — because they’re embarrassed, don’t know how to start, or just don’t know what to do — to grow comfortable and confident in their abilities to work out. 

So, what if you’re not a beginner? The concept of the personal training studio is, as the name indicates, about personalization, said Patch blogger and Anytime Fitness trainer Sue Smith.

“I want it to be what they want it to be,” Smith said. “People set goals for themselves, and we help them find the best way to reach those goals.”

Smith also said she’s eager to work with newbies.

“Some people, if you leave a key by the door, they’d come in and just work out by themselves,” Smith said. “Some people need to be shown what to do.”

Smith said she sees it most frequently in women, that “within just a couple weeks, women see what they’re capable of.” Once that little bit of confidence kicks in, tangible results are within reach.

Greenleaf is eager to get the new space finished, and new programs started. A self-described workout lover, she said she is driven to help people find their way to fitness.

“If we just wanted to be rich, we’d have opened a liquor store or a tobacco shop,” she said. “We wanted to do something that helps people.”

To find out more about the sessions, stop by , see its website, or call 1-630-553-6678. You need not be a member to participate in the multi-client training programs.

Editor's note: Anytime Fitness is offering a limited number of free sessions next week. A schedule is attached to this article as a PDF file.