Lynchburg Business

Classika Sport and Fitness: Where Training Gets Personal

Issue: May 2010 by Hilary Sutton in Business Profiles, Inside The Magazine

Classika Sport and Fitness is revolutionizing the fitness industry in Lynchburg one success story at a time. Upon entrance to the facility located at 2306 Bedford Avenue in Lynchburg, the industrial building appears to be comparable to other local franchise gyms. But upon further study, potential clients learn what makes Classika unique: A fitness philosophy that recognizes the body as an interconnected unit and a commitment to personalized athletic training.

Athletic trainer Mark Haskew is an All-American success story. He relocated to Lynchburg in 2005 with a vision to create a private personal training studio where clients could train in a spacious, focused setting. After working for other gyms in town, he purchased a small space on Timberlake Road in 2007. Classika quickly outgrew that space and soon upgraded to a larger building on Commerce Street, but even that space wasn’t enough to hold his clients for long. As a result of Classika’s success, Haskew relocated his business yet again in November 2009 to its current location, which is a former car dealership. In this new space, Haskew believes he has finally found a long-term home where Classika has room to keep growing.

So why did Classika experience such a rapid growth? Haskew believes the answer lies in the combination of a unique product and savvy business moves, as well as the fact that Classika’s approach to fitness is simple and fresh.

“The human body works as a unit, not a collection of individual muscles,” Haskew explained. “Muscles are meant to work in groups and fire in a certain order. To make the body function better (aka, be more fit), it needs to be trained that way. Our workouts concentrate on multi-joint or full-body free weight exercises, most of them done in a standing position.”

Classika is meant to be experienced with the guidance of a personal trainer. That personal attention is athletically focused, meaning workouts are concentrated on groups of muscles and full-body exercises.

“We keep all the fitness aspects in mind—aerobic endurance, fat loss, strength, balance, power and flexibility—while prioritizing what exactly it is that the client is looking for,” Haskew said.

It’s this holistic approach to working out that has separated Classika from other self-service gyms that are lined with muscle-isolating equipment and rows of cardio machines. While trainers at Classika can tailor workouts for athletes focusing on a range of sports, most of Classika’s clients are people who simply want better health. Classika’s training team offers the accountability, encouragement and guidance to help clients achieve their goals.

Individual training programs focus on development in three-month increments. They use techniques that historically have been reserved for athletic strength and conditioning. While focusing on the clients’ personal goals, such as losing weight, improving balance, gaining muscle mass, improving a weak joint or enhancing athletic performance, Classika’s training also focuses on the overall fitness of each client.

Classika’s attitude towards growth and investment is slow and steady. As a small business, Haskew’s goal for the company is to grow slowly without accruing much debt in this touch-and-go economy. In large part, Haskew attributes Classika’s success to word-of-mouth advertising, since the gym’s uniquely private training setting is rare in Lynchburg.

Classika’s new, larger facility also makes semi-private training a more plausible financial possibility for the average customer. With more space, more training can occur, while simultaneously lowering the individual cost by a large margin. Small group training is also offered and is typically done in groups of four. This approach dramatically cuts down on prices without leaving clients completely without guidance to achieve their fitness goals. Recently, Classika opened a membership area within the gym in which clients can exercise without the guidance of a trainer, though Haskew remains confident that it’s the guided workouts Classika offer that separate it from other local gyms.

Haskew and his team at Classika have numerous goals for the future. Among them are plans to expand the business’ personal training while tailoring sessions to specifically focus on certain careers, such as police and firefighters, EMTs, nurses, truck drivers, rescue workers and industrial workers. With Classika’s unique whole body training, Haskew believes his team can help people in active careers avoid back injuries. This goal falls in line with one of the largest worker’s compensation claims in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which shows that back injuries are among the primary reasons employees miss work.

Another vision for the future involves Classika providing the community with a more active means of recreation. Still in the brainstorming phase, Haskew plans to eventually organize family activities such as races or tournaments.

Classika provides personalized services to clients who want to get more out of their gym visit than a confusing and ineffective trip to the weight machine and 30 minutes on the treadmill. If the past is any indication of the future, Classika will continue to be at the forefront of the fitness industry in Lynchburg.