New Fitness Studio 'Shaping' Women With Accountibility

Dedham women can begin working their way toward a new car and a year of personal training in a 12-week competition at Get In Shape for Women on Washington Street.

The personal training studio opened its doors next to on Jan. 3 and has since brought in 25 women to help lose weight and stay healthy, said Christine Williams, studio manager.

Women will get pushed to eat right six days a week and receive challenging individual attention from one of the studio's three personal trainers as they work women through a half-hour strength training and half-hour cardio workout, Williams said.

"We want to encourage them to be as healthy as possible," Williams said.

On the seventh day, Williams said she wants her clients to remain healthy and not to dive deep into a vat of chocolate, but the day off serves more of a way to feed the desire for a glass of wine or serving of ice cream.

"They don't use it as a pass to go hog-wild because it negates the work they did all week," Williams said. "We don't want them to feel deprived."

But the biggest part for women at Get In Shape is the phone call that comes if they are late or don't show up for an appointment.

"We know that if you are here, yo'll do thw ork and if you do, you'll see the results," Williams said.

Accountibility is what pushed Williams to get fit several years ago, and what she and her trainers pride themselves on as they help women of all ages shed pounds and get in better shape.

The Needham-headquartered fitness company has 67 franchises across the country, mostly located in Massachusetts. 

"It's a transformation-based model for women ready to make a commitment or a change in their lives," Williams said.

Beginning in March, women at the studios across the company will compete to see who can lose the highest percentage of weight - and their prize is a year of personal training and a new Mini Cooper.

But it is a new lifestyle that Williams said is the real prize - something that can take a commited six months of regular training to achieve.

"[Clients] get to a significant chunk of their goal and have it become a part of their lifestyle," Williams said.

Three personal trainers work with no more than four clients at a time, and there are no more than eight women working out in the studio at the same time, according to Williams.

"We keep it small and focus on individuals that are commited reach their measurable goal," she said. "We don't want to be a factory-house gym."

Many women feel intimidated when they walk into a fitness club and don't want to lift weights in front of men, said Tricia Hunt, a personal trainer at Get In Shape.

Hunt and her colleagues focus on "simple, but effective" workouts with weights that aim to challenge clients, she said.

"We are getting all the muscle groups from head to toe," Hunt said. "They're definitely getting a real workout."