Accountability Sets Wayland Fitness Center Apart

Check out the wall of 2012 resolutions at Wayland’s and it quickly becomes apparent that the clientele at this Wayland fitness center thinks more broadly than losing a couple of pounds.

“Eat better, more protein, more frequently, less sugar.”

“Become more knowledgeable about nutrition and apply to mine and family meals.”

“Running stamina.”

“Tighten midriff.”

“Eat clean and healthy.”

The breadth of the client’s goals showcases the overarching goal Get in Shape for Women owners and Wayland residents Bob and Emily Kaplan have for their clients: Transformation.

“My passion really is health and fitness and nutrition,” said Bob Kaplan, who owns six Get in Shape for Women locations including the centers in Wayland, Weston and Wellesley. “This model [of fitness center] is all about accountability and results. You get them to transform, and it’s your job to get them results.”

Bob Kaplan has degrees in nutrition and exercise physiology (as well as business) and said that owning and operating Get in Shape for Women franchises has been an excellent fit for his passions and philosophies.

“I tell the women, ‘I’m livin’ the dream,’” he said. “I’m inspired by [the clients’] motivation, by how hard they work.”

Kaplan said that the accountability offered at Get in Shape for Women sets it apart from other fitness centers that charge a monthly fee and “pray that nobody shows up.”

At his fitness center, every client’s first visit begins with a detailed assessment of goals and a discussion of whether those goals are reasonable. Then, after a weigh-in, clients take part in a free first session that includes about 30 minutes of resistance training and 30 minutes of cardio work with one of the center’s two trainers.

Get in Shape for Women is not an open gym where members come and go at all hours. Instead, clients make specific appointments for their workouts. Up to eight women at a time, four on resistance training and four on cardio training, can work out together.

“It’s like being on a team, almost,” said Emily Kaplan, adding that the team element means that clients have to be a good fit in order to become members. She explained that part of the initial assessment includes determining whether a client will be a supportive, active team member. So far at the Wayland location, everyone has been a good fit.

The Kaplans said that 96 percent of their current clients have continued to see measurable results after as long as eight weeks.

A lot of that long-term success, Bob Kaplan said, has to do with the transformation model on which Get in Shape for Women is built.

Bob Kaplan’s main focus is the nutrition element of the transformation. “Nutrition is the hardest part and also the most important part,” he said.

Sugar and flour, he said, are the biggest culprits when it comes to causing the most damage to people’s diets. And, while the adage “calories in, calories out” is true, it doesn’t tell the whole story of why people are overweight, Bob Kaplan said.

He said people assume that they gain weight because they eat too much and move too little, but he said that people eat too much and move too little because they are gaining weight – it’s natural for a body to grow and that growth zaps energy and leads to overeating and under exercising.

“Horizontal growth is the driver; gluttony and sloth are the side effects,” he said.

His job is to help his clientele, generally 40 to 60-year-old women who have some weight to lose, change the way they live even if it’s a difficult transformation.

“You give the clients what they need,” Bob Kaplan said, “not always what they necessarily want.”