Donnie Jarreau and Troy Archer are converting their Fit 365 health club in the Drusilla Village Shopping Center to a new boutique fitness studio called Regymen that will be the first of several planned for the Baton Rouge market and, possibly, beyond.
Regymen will offer group exercise classes that combine high-impact cardio workouts with strength training and boxing in a studio that uses lights and music to motivate and create an effect. Similar concepts have proven wildly successful. The Florida-based Orangetheory Fitness is one of the fastest growing fitness chains in the country, with more than 800 locations over the past eight years.
Jarreau and Archer opened Fit 365 more than a year ago in the shopping center, which Jarreau acquired in 2013 and renovated, but never marketed or promoted the gym. That’s because they were holding off until they could decide what kind of programming to offer, Jarreau says.
For the past several months, they’ve been working on the Regymen concept, which they believe will be successful because it capitalizes on the growing popularity of high-impact interval training in boutique fitness studios.
“Ten years ago, 10 percent of the population belonged to health clubs,” says Jarreau, a real estate developer and veteran of the local health club industry. “Today, it’s 20 percent of the population, and half of that 20 percent belongs to boutique fitness clubs.”
Jarreau founded Spectrum Fitness in the 1990s and at one point owned seven locations around the city. He has since sold all but one of the Spectrum clubs.
Already, the former Fit 365 at Drusilla has been rebranded and is offering 60 minute Regymen classes in the gym, which has been slightly remodeled to accommodate the new programming.
In the coming months, four or five more Regymen studios will open in the market, says Jarreau, who is not ready to disclose specific locations.
Plans are also in the works to take the concept national with a franchise operation, though Jarreau also isn’t ready yet to discuss details.
