Five years after the pandemic, Newton’s small fitness studios keep the city moving

Many types of independent fitness studios across Newton – from Pilates and strength training to high-intensity cardio – serve as community hubs for residents to move, get strong, and connect. During the COVID-19 pandemic, gyms and personal exercise businesses had to adapt by offering virtual or outdoor classes to stay afloat. Some failed to survive in the aftermath, while others found their footing.

Approximately two dozen independent studios have survived in Newton by discovering creative ways to stay personal following an era where everyone was starved for personal connection. To understand how some studios continue to thrive, Fig City News visited and participated in several: a reformer class at Kink Pilates, a tour of Ank Fit, and an outdoor workout with Cardio High. 

Pilates – trial by fire

On a rainy Tuesday morning, instructor Carrie Johnson led a dozen brave souls through a reformer Pilates class. Pilates can be challenging, testing rarely used muscles, even for those who stay active.

Before opening her own business, Sarah Rapaport saw firsthand as an instructor during the pandemic how fragile the fitness industry could be. “The studio I was at had just opened a second location two months before the shutdown,” she said.

Rapaport and her colleagues there pivoted quickly, teaching on Zoom even when students did not have access to specialized reformer machines. This experience shaped how Rapaport approached starting her own studio. 

Rapaport started Kink Pilates in Waltham three years ago in a space of just 500 square feet. “It was like a living room,” she said. Still, she built a loyal base that followed her to her new, 4,000-square-foot Kink Pilates studio in Newton Highlands. The gym that previously occupied the building had never recovered from the pandemic.

“My space that I have now is a casualty of COVID,” she said. 

Rapaport said the pandemic taught her about the importance of community in fitness studios. 

“It’s not just exercise,” she said. “The shutdown stripped away so many of the things that we took for granted in life.”

Carolyn Grillo started Pilates at Kink’s about a year ago after having a child, seeking to rebuild core strength. She told Fig City News that she comes three times a week and values seeing familiar faces at every class. 

She enjoys the calm that Kink Pilates provides compared to other types of workout classes. 

“I feel strong and peaceful – not strong like I have to go take a nap,” she said. 

Rebecca Stein has been attending Kink Pilates for about three months. She emphasized the neighborhood feel of the studio. 

“The reason why I stuck with this place is because it was so much more personal,” Stein said. 

Stein also praised Johnson for her humor and storytelling, which make tough workouts fun. 

“Sometimes, when we’re doing these intense exercises, she tells us crazy stories from her week and weekend, and she’s so funny,” Stein said. 

Johnson teaches at multiple studios across Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She said she continues instructing at Kink Pilates because she loves the Newton community. “They want to work,” she said. 

Rapaport’s focus is on making Kink Pilates a place where people want to stay, before and after class. She said Newton’s word-of-mouth culture helps sustain that. Running the business, Rapaport said, has not been easy, as Pilates memberships can feel like a “luxury line item” in uncertain economic times.

“We really do give a good workout, but Kink’s is really good at weaving in, making people feel way better than when they arrived,” Rapaport said.

Strength in small spaces

Owner and personal trainer Ryan Ankner said that if Ank Fit could have a slogan on its front door, it would read “Meticuliousness.”

Inside Ank Fit’s compact Newtonville studio, there’s a focus on efficiency and individual attention. Ankner has built a supportive group of clients and said his goal is to make training accessible. Trainers work closely with clients at every level, adjusting workouts to accommodate injuries, fitness goals, and personal motivation. 

After working at larger corporate gyms, Ankner said he realized he wanted something more authentic – a gym with more of a personal touch that chain branches lacked. 

Ankner opened Ank Fit’s current two-floor space in stages in 2022 in the aftermath of the pandemic, after years of operating out of a studio-apartment setup that closed in 2018. Private sessions perfectly met the needs of pandemic-conscious customers. 

“It was timing, but there was also some luck to it too,” he said. 

Ankner said he often quotes the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire when he onboards new trainers. “The key to this business is personal relationships,” the character Dicky Fox says in the movie. Ankner said he likes to be a “sounding board” for his clients. 

Ank Fit operates more like a collective than a traditional gym. Personal trainers rent space, run their own sessions, and set their own rates. Ankner said trainers are welcome to bring their own clients and only have to pay a fixed rate of $35 a session to use the space. 

“Now the trainer is making double or sometimes triple, and the client’s cost is the same for a cleaner, more private, better experience with newer equipment in a nicer location. It’s a win-win for everyone,” Ankner said. 

Ankner now oversees a team of about 15 full-time trainers who span specialties from powerlifting to rehabilitation to martial arts. Ankner limits his own roster to around 20 clients, typically conducting 35 sessions a week. 

Every potential client at the gym starts with a short phone consultation with Ankner. “Typically, I can figure out within 10 minutes [which trainer] would be the right fit,” Ankner said. 

Trainers like Bryanna Labouz embody the culture Ankner set out to build. Labouz specializes in corrective exercise and women’s strength training. She became a trainer after pursuing fitness on her own and handling issues with her weight fluctuating. 

“I decided that I wanted to help other people who experience that, because I understand how hard it is for people to even start, which is why I love what Ryan has created,” she said. “It is such an encouraging environment.” 

For Felecia Bartow, who lives just five minutes from the studio, joining Ank Fit started with a walk down the street. 

“I was walking by one day, saw the sign, poked my head in, and said ‘Hi’ to Ryan,” she said. 

Three years later, Bartow trains regularly with Anker and credits him with helping her build strength and consistency in a way that feels sustainable.  

“Ryan is super personable,” she said. “He makes it a point to get to know each and every one of his clients really well.” 

She said Ankner’s coaching style removes the intimidation factor that often comes with strength training. 

Bartow’s twin daughters, who attend Newton North High School, do physical therapy at Ank Fit to rehabilitate their knee injuries and have started doing strength training as well. 

Ankner will often have the door open, and people will stop by with their dogs. Bartow said it feels like a communal space instead of simply a gym.

High intensity, without the hurt

Founder Mark Goodman explained the origin of his high-intensity training studio while jogging with Fig City News across Newton North High School’s football field on a sunny Wednesday morning. 

For more than a decade, Cardio High in Auburndale has carved out its own niche in Newton, offering workouts that push people hard while protecting them from injury. Goodman calls it “the safest high-intensity workout” – a mix of cardio bursts, strength sessions, and balance training. 

Cardio High faced tough times during the pandemic as the majority of clients stopped coming to indoor sessions. Goodman estimated that 90% of his clients stopped coming into the gym. “By far, the biggest challenge was getting through COVID,” Goodman said. 

As a result, Cardio High offered outdoor and virtual classes that kept roughly 40% of the clients engaged with the program. 

The outdoor sessions have since become a signature of Cardio High. On a Wednesday morning, participants ran across NNHS field, threw a frisbee mid-workout, and finished with corrective mobility drills. 

Goodman, who has always been active playing tennis, squash, and Ultimate Frisbee, said the idea for Cardio High came from his personal experience. 

“Once I got to a certain age, I couldn’t play squash every day, so I started going to different trainers, gyms, and group classes,” Goodman said. 

Despite trying many training methods, Goodman could not find what he was looking for, so he started something new. 

Each Cardio High class begins with a 10-minute dynamic warm-up – a sequence of “cat-and-dog” stretches, leg raises, and balance work – to wake up the body and prevent injury. He worked with kinesiologist Aaron Brooks to integrate corrective postural exercises into the warm-up that realign the body before the intensity ramps up.

After the warm-up, classes alternate between short cardio intervals on manual treadmills or fan bikes and strength and balance circuits. Trainers constantly modify the exercises to match each participant’s level. “We guide people to go at their own pace,” Goodman said.

For Sarah Broughel, her time with Cardio High began almost by chance, through a school auction.

“My kids were still at Williams Elementary, and I think I bid on it at the PTO auction,” she said. 

Nearly a decade later, she’s still showing up for classes. The outdoor group meets year-round, alternating between the NNHS field on Wednesdays and the wooded trails at the Cove in Auburndale on Sundays.

Even on days she arrives tired or unmotivated, she says the workouts always turn her mood around. 

Tracy Sachs said Broughel first convinced her to try Cardio High. Sachs now does three sessions each week: two outdoors and one indoor. 

“I make too many excuses if I’m going to the gym by myself,” she said. 

Goodman said the hardest part of running Cardio High now is not programming but finding trainers with the right energy. He’s been looking for a couple new trainers for the past six months. 

“It’s very easy for me to teach someone the mechanics of running a class,” Goodman said. “The hard part is finding the right personality. It takes a certain bartender personality to run a good class.”

Goodman hopes to open a second location, but he insists on maintaining the same principles rooted in Cardio High from the beginning. 

Rest and recover

These studios were built not just for exercise, but for belonging. Instructors build community and talk as much about confidence and sustainability as they do about form and injury prevention. Owners describe their work as a balancing act, keeping small businesses alive while creating environments where people actually want to stay. Regulars show that the draw is not just the workouts themselves, but the connections with people enduring beside them.