Developer Donnie Jarreau is closing his Regymen Fitness location at the Drusilla Shopping Center and turning the space over to local kinesiologist and personal trainer Paul Kaklis, who will operate the facility as a boutique health club called Fit 365.
Jarreau opened the health club under the Fit 365 name in 2016 but then rebranded it in early 2018 as a Regymen location—a fitness concept he owns with multiple locations that, like Orange Theory, offers high-energy, cardio and strength-training workouts to lights and music.
After a little more than a year in operation, however, Jarreau has decided to relocate the Drusilla location to a new 2,600-square-foot space on Corporate Boulevard adjacent to Maxwell’s Market. The space previously housed a mattress store.
Another Regymen location in the South Gates Shopping Center near LSU will also relocate—to a still-undisclosed location near Juban Road in Denham Springs.
Jarreau says he is relocating the two Regymen locations because the concept works better inside a studio designed specifically to accommodate its unique workout routines.
“(Drusilla and LSU) were studios inside fitness clubs,” he says. “We work best in stand alone studios.”
Kaklis, meanwhile, is reconfiguring the Drusilla space to allow for cardio machines, personal training sessions and yoga. Baton Rouge-based Yoga Rouge, located at LSU’s south gates, is opening a satellite facility inside Fit 365 and has already started classes.
In addition to round-the-clock access, personal training and the Yoga Rouge classes, Kaklis will offer fascia stretch therapy, a specialized type of therapy that focuses on connective tissue and the central nervous system, as opposed to just muscles, and is proving effective in increasing range of motion and alleviating pain.
Though the Drusilla fitness center struggled under Jarreau’s management, Kaklis believes there’s considerable demand for what the new Fit 365 will offer in the Drusilla-Jefferson Highway area. He also plans to begin marketing group fitness programs to the many businesses along the corridor.
“This is a great location and there’s really nothing else around here that will be doing what we do,” he says. “We’re very optimistic about the potential.”
Changes at the Drusilla location will become effective later this summer.
(Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the location of the new Regymen studio, which will be on Corporate Boulevard. Daily Report regrets the error.)
