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There are plenty of fitness clubs in the area. Why should someone choose Century Fitness in East Longmeadow?
According to owner Todd Witwer, the choice should be an easy one.
It’s the culture of Century Fitness.
“We’re friendly and welcoming no matter where you are in your fitness journey,” Witwer said, adding that the number of members who have been with Century Fitness since he purchased the facility from Meadows East in 2000 is a testament to his staff’s commitment to that ideal.
“My staff is amazing,” Witwer shared. “Many have been with me for more than 10 years and they are on the front lines of maintaining this friendliness. I always tell them I want to be the friendliest gym in the country, and they do a great job at it.”
The busy pace in the club at 10:30 a.m. on a weekday was a testament to the appeal of this local fitness mecca. The front desk greeted members by name, often chatting with them about some snatch of life. Clients were working out in every area of the facility — utilizing the Peloton bikes, stair steppers and weight machines in the second-floor main workout room, the kettlebells in the turf rooms, classes in the mirrored exercise area, free weights in the smaller rooms and barbells in the rack rooms.
There was also a bevy of clients enjoying a post-workout break — or day — in the hot tub, pool and saunas.
The hydrotherapy bed — a new recovery-focused addition at the club — was occupied, but there were other recovery-focused areas such as massage and aromatherapy rooms ready to welcome recovering exercisers.
Witwer shared a quick story about a regular client who takes full advantage of the “recovery” aspect of his Century Fitness memberships.
“He kids me about his day off doing the ‘tri-bathalon’ — he uses the pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room,” Witwer shared. “Sometimes he just sits in a chair and listens to the waterfall — by the pool — as part of his recovery day.”
Whatever the client is looking to achieve in his or her fitness experience, Witwer said the instructors and personal trainers at his two-story club are ready to help them work towards it.
Witwer said he was fresh out of grad school in Arizona, a master’s degree in physical therapy in hand when he decided to make a bid to purchase what was then the Meadows East Health Club.
“I came back to East Longmeadow, I loved sports, and I always wanted to own my own business,” Witwer explained. “I got in touch with the owner, created a business plan, got in touch with some banks and got denied multiple times.”
The then 27-year-old — who also had an undergraduate degree in business administration — was just about ready to give up on his dream when the local branch of Westfield Bank called, accepting his plan.
“I was petrified. I didn’t take a day off for four years. The loan made me highly motivated,” Witwer admitted, adding he concentrated on “remodeling and getting the club up to a top-notch facility” during the first few years.
Over the next two decades, Witwer further expanded the club’s footprint, renovating spaces that were formerly occupied by other building tenants to create a twofloor full-service club.
Today Century Fitness is a “full multi-purpose health club that offers rows of strength and free weights, cardio, group exercise classes like yoga, multiple turf areas, a 30-minute total body circuit, Peloton [bikes], a sauna, pool, hot tub, aromatherapy room, steam room, tanning, massage, red light therapy and personal training,” Witwer said.
Witwer shared that the state-of-the-art club — which will be adding some new offerings based on what he learned at the recent National [fitness] Club Convention in Las Vegas — has been constantly evolving to meet the needs — and match the trends — that clients want over the past 25 years.
For example, shortly after he bought the club in 2000, the trend shifted away from the strength and cardio work of the 1990s to a focus on functional training.
“It was much like the physical therapy work I knew, using physio balls, foam rollers, therapy bands — and I had been trained on that,” Witwer said. He added he had originally planned to incorporate a physical therapy business into the health club, but soon found his time was taken up with the day-to-day operations. “I only used [my training] to help out members, which I still do,” Witwer shared.
But, Witwer said, he also learned quickly that the fitness industry can be fickle. It’s “well-known for its trends… you have to be careful not to jump on a trend that’s gone in 18 months,” he joked, noting that in 2000 there was the craze for “Billy Blank and Tae-Bo.”
The trend in the past few years has moved back to strength training, he noted, and he’s reworked spaces in the club to accommodate the trend. He’s created four different areas where members can utilize dumbbells and transformed an area downstairs into a private rack room.
For example, he said those who like a kettlebell workout “can do kettlebells in the turf area, in the open classroom or in the H.I.T. area, it depends on where they want to do their squats.”
“Most clubs just have one room and one area for kettlebells,” Witwer continued. “The way we have set up the club with two floors and multiple rooms there are different atmospheres [for working out]. Members tell us they love that aspect.”
Another recent shift in the fitness industry is toward recovery and an overall holistic approach to fitness. “Techniques like foam rolling, massage therapy, hot tubs, saunas, theraguns and active recovery workouts have become as important as the workout itself,” Witwer said.
He added, “We have a red light therapy bed with a focus on recovery and rejuvenation, a hydro-therapy bed with a focus on recovery” in addition to their spa amenities. Overall, Witwer said he sees a focus on longevity at the core of today’s fitness trends.
Witwer acknowledged that devices such as smart watches, Oura rings and fitness trackers have changed the way clients approach and track their workouts, a trend he expects to see grow as more and more people adopt these devices.
These devices, he said, “have revolutionized fitness tracking, allowing individuals to monitor the heart rate, steps, calories burned” and other fitness measurements.
To facilitate this trend, Witwer said the club has incorporated Peloton bikes into the cardio offerings Century Fitness provides to members, with access to the digital workouts included in their membership.
Overall, Witwer said he strives to offer his members a full-service club with the latest amenities at an affordable monthly membership price, providing “luxury for less.”
CENTURY FITNESS IS LOCATED AT 491 NORTH MAIN ST. IN EAST LONGMEADOW. THE CLUB IS OPEN DAILY, MONDAY-THURSDAY,
5 A.M.-10 P.M.; FRIDAY, 5 A.M.-8 P.M.; SATURDAY 6 A.M.-5 P.M. AND SUNDAY 7 A.M.-5 P.M.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, INCLUDING MEMBERSHIP COSTS, VISIT CENTURYFIT.COM OR CALL 413-525-8800.