Fat to Fit, Female Style at Get In Shape for Women

At Get In Shape for Women, Christine DaLuz and her staff doesn't make losing weight easier, but they do help their clients figure out where to start and how to keep going.

"So often we see workout facilities that are just that, facilities, a place to casually go and workout if and when you feel like it," DaLuz said. "In those places, there aren't any real results happening. When we accept a woman into our program, we are ready to go down an amazing road with her."

Get In Shape for Women is a women-only fitness chain with 64 locations across Massachusetts and hundreds more across the U.S. DaLuz started working at the Plymouth location, at 74 Long Pond Road in West Plymouth in July 2010 as the studio manager. By October of that year, she had purchased the franchise.

"I really love helping women on this amazing journey we call a body transformation," she said. "The franchise and the support we receive as franchisees is extremely helpful, especially for me as a first time business owner. There is a model and system that they teach us and continue to teach at our company meetings and workshops on a monthly basis.  I attribute much of my Plymouth studios success to following the GISFW model and executing it as they teach us to."

The studio-style fitness center focuses on structured programs and accountability, DaLuz said. "Accountability plays a huge role in our clients achieving results. When you have an appointment with a trainer, you are coming. When you have a choice to go to the gym after work and you maybe don't feel like it, you most likely, will not go. This is part of our accountability. Our clients knows we are waiting for them, expecting them."

It's also about customizing the workout to the client's fitness level and ability.

"You're not hoping into an aerobics class where the instructor doesn't know really anything about you and what you are or are not capable of," DaLuz said. "As women, when we age, it is crucial that if you are going to engage in exercise, you do so with the guidance of a trainer. The last thing you want to happen is injure yourself."

Just as important is the atmosphere of the club, which DaLuz says is like a community among the clients, which she credits to the way they select clients for the program.

"The camaraderie is unmatched," she said. "The women you exercise and train with become your cheerleaders....you can rest easy knowing that each women you come in contact with at our studio is committed and focused on achieving transformation, it's contagious and very motivating."

Get In Shape for Women focuses on four components, weight training, interval cardiovascular training -- which DaLuz says are the two best forms of exercise for the female body, nutrition, and accountability.

"When each of these is followed correctly our clients achieve results 100 percent of the time, it's a scientific fact," DaLuz said. "A typical program would be three scheduled training sessions, journaling your nutrition intake, and being held accountable with weekly baseline checks on the scale. Our staff of amazing trainers, along with a studio manager and myself, the owner, deliver a high level of customer service providing personalized attention to each and every client in our studio." 

"Some women are seeking to lose weight and tone up, others may be looking to get healthy, come off of medications and some are seeking a serious exercise program designed specifically for them.

"Ultimately, this is a program about transforming, when a women has experienced this, she has also transformed her mindset and is now focused on her long-term good health and fitness. This program is for women who are 110 percent committed to their goals and willing to do whatever it takes to get there. I have seen many many transformations in my studio in our 3 years of business thus far and I can say that it is so awesome to witness...these women are an inspiration to all of us and to brand new women coming in and starting their journey with us."

Read one Plymouth woman's story of how she shed the baby weight through Get In Shape for Women's program.