18 Feb PUMPED UP ORANGETHEORY FITNESS OPENS FIRST PROSPER STUDIO BY LISA FERGUSON PHOTOS BY SHELLY NIEHAUS PHOTOGRAPHY

Exercise options in Prosper continue to expand this spring as the newest location of Orangetheory Fitness opens its doors at 790 Preston Road, Suite 40, south of Preston Trail. Inside the roughly 3,000-square foot facility, members can access the heart-rate based interval-training workout, state-of-the-art equipment and highly trained staffers that are the hallmark of the company’s thousand-plus studios worldwide.

Count on Kimberly Wesolowski to be a regular there. A Prosper resident of three years, she is vice president of operations in North Texas for Orangetheory Fitness. “We are so excited,” she said of the grand opening. “Both my husband and I will definitely do the workout” at the Prosper location. “Being closer to home makes it that much easier.”

Orangetheory Fitness’ hourlong, full-body workout is comprised of cardiovascular exercise on treadmills and bikes as well as WaterRower rowing machines. Floor equipment such as dumbbells, suspension trainers and medicine balls are also employed. Its heart-based interval training allows for the burning of more calories than traditional exercise. Members wear the company’s exclusive OTbeat heartrate monitors throughout their workouts and can view their results in real time via display screens stationed inside the studio.

Wesolowski said the workout is suitable “for everyone” in their mid-teens and older. Beyond weight loss, some members use it to supplement other exercise regimens. “Maybe they’re cyclists … or maybe they run. Some people will come in once a week if they have other things going on, but then we have others who solely (work out) at Orangetheory and they’ll go four or five times a week,” she explained. “It’s more about working out your heart. We talk about how the most important muscle in your body isn’t your legs or your biceps, it’s your heart and the need to make sure that your heart is just as healthy as the rest of you.”

Michael Piermarini, vice president of fitness for Orangetheory Fitness in North Texas, agrees.

Heart-based (heart-rate based) interval training “is the crux of what Orangetheory Fitness is. It’s science-backed, technology-tracked and coach-inspired,” he said. The collaboration of modalities “encourages you to vary the mental and physical stress on the body, activates different muscles and leaves you feeling successful and energized after every workout.”

Although classes are conducted in a group setting, he said, “Our coaches are trained and certified to be able to work with each individual member to … make sure they’re kept safe, their form is efficient, as well as keep timing throughout the class. It takes a unique person to coach and deliver the workout, but that is also part of the experience that sets us apart.”

Before Orangetheory Fitness came onto the scene in 2010, heart-rate based interval training was used primarily by elite athletes. “It really allows you to target based on your physiological re- sponses, your individualized heartbeat,” Piermarini explained. “It allows you to cater those results to you based on the programming that we developed. It doesn’t let you under-train, and it also keeps you safe from over training.”

No matter which Orangetheory Fitness location a member visits, “The workout never repeats itself,” Piermarini said.  “The workout you do today is not going to be the workout you’ll do tomorrow and vice versa, so it consistently changes up the stimuli on the body, which helps everybody achieve results faster.”

Not only is Piermarini a vice president, but he’s also an Orangetheory Fitness member. He utilized its workout while training to participate in the 2015 Zofingen ITU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championships as part of Team USA. “It really helped me, and I can speak to the benefits at the highest levels of talent and performance,” he said.

The experience also helped Piermarini, who previously led exercise classes at other Orangetheory Fitness locations, to better relate to the members he taught. “You can get caught up in (achieving) more, more, more, or looking at a scale. Fitness is supposed to change you from the inside out,” he said. “My experience helps me to have that sense of empathy and connect in a unique way to members, which is what we want all of our coaches to do. So, having that little bit of personal but also professional (experience) as well, it just builds

a different sense of community.”

At Orangetheory Fitness, community building is just as important as building  strength and muscles. “Everybody from professional athletes to someone who is trying to walk on the treadmill for the first time” works out side by side, Piermarini said. “We’ve had classes where you have somebody who is 85 next to a professional (football) linebacker … next to somebody who is a weekend warrior. That is what Orangetheory Fitness is really all about.”

Wesolowski added, “We have a huge variety of people that have been with us for a long time and are advocates of Orangetheory Fitness, and have seen …  what it can do for their bodies and their health overall.  It’s our Orange tribe, our Orange family – not only the members, but the employees who work there. We just try to drive home that Orangetheory overall gives you more life.”

Visit our Facebook page. We will be posting news about our opening and construction progress. Follow along at Orangetheory Fitness Prosper!

(972) 474-0422

690 Preston Road, Suite 40

Prosper, Texas  75078

prosper.orangetheoryfitness.com