At the turn of the millennium, the U.S. fitness industry was on the cusp of a huge growth decade. Young adults in the 18–34-year-old range drove membership, helping to make it the fastest-growing job market by 2006. Large gyms, of more than 10,000 square feet, studded with endless rows of Nautilus equipment and treadmills, dotted the typical upscale suburban landscape. In recent years, however, the robust $20-billion-plus industry has undergone rapid redefinition, and the Valley is keeping pace.

Gone are the days of acquiring physical conditioning solely via stationary equipment. The trend that sustains the industry is integrated workouts. Mind-body programs such as yoga, Pilates, and personalized sessions that stress functional training are popular not only in the larger fitness centers, but in more intimate, specialized studios located across the Valley.

There’s more to Ultimate Fitness than people using exercise bikes and elliptical trainers, although the Weslaco gym contains a vast array. After all, at 21,000 square feet, the facility is warehouse-sized. But this is not a corporate gym, it’s a full-service health club that offers 15-20 different classes each month. Fitness is a holistic process for Weslaco native Jason Martinez, who founded the business in 2004. “We don’t want our members to get bored doing the same routine. We want them to try out different things, so their bodies don’t get accustomed to one workout.” Some of the specialized classes include the ever-popular Boot Camp, spinning and boxing.

Martinez has stayed ahead of the curve by catering to as many different age groups as possible, including seniors. In fact, his gym was the first in the Valley to offer Silver Sneakers, a low-impact exercise class for seniors that improves range-of-motion issues. With the addition last year of another called Silver Fit, the classes have grown “tremendously,” averaging about 30 participants, he said.

Owner/instructor Tanya Miller offers popular and highly intense 55-minute group sessions at My Body Pilates, which opened in Harlingen in 2014. “I’ve been very maxxed out,” said Miller, whose weekly clientele has more than doubled.

There’s a hunger for these types of classes in the Valley and the integrated workouts they offer, but she has noticed that proficient teaching is in short supply. “No one has really exposed all of this yet down here,” Miller said, in that Pilates isn’t a stop-in, drop-in type of exercise class. It takes commitment and time to learn how to do all the routines properly. A rehabilitation therapy that originated during World War I by Joseph Pilates, the practice integrates mind, body movement and breath with clients performing up to 34 sequences (of holds and small repetitions) that seamlessly transition from one position to another. Properly done, the sessions are intense, requiring precise body control and breathing patterns. There’s no music. “Breath sets the rhythm,” said Miller, who has just expanded her studio. “It allows you to find the rhythm of each exercise, of each movement.”

CrossFit produces “insane results,” says Ray Garcia, owner of EBT CrossFit in Brownsville, which opened in 2011. “Some of our athletes have lost over 150 pounds in nine months.” A sports and fitness program that integrates 20-minute, intense workouts consisting of a variety of exercise moves and equipment, CrossFit has descended on the Valley in the past few years. “Our members are a good mix, ages 12-63, though most are women and men in their mid-late 20s.” Garcia, a cardiovascular registered nurse, discovered the practice after attending a seminar at an MMA tournament. “I fell in love right away with it.”

Since EBT opened, it’s been nonstop for Garcia, even though he didn’t do any serious marketing. “Word of mouth just about blew it up. I started with 12 and now have about 140 members.” Along with adopting healthy eating, members must learn the proper mechanics for each exercise, which typically incorporate functional movements. The discipline is very challenging, in that it integrates sports moves, like those from gymnastics and Olympic weight lifting. But trainers tailor every workout to each member’s abilities and goals.

When Jorge Vela opened his personal training business, Explosive Fitness, in McAllen in 2003, he implemented a more proactive style of training, one less focused on building up muscles than upgrading clients’ overall medical health. Highlighted by the use of the TRX System, where the body provides resistance and becomes the main equipment needed, he has helped to improve the general mobility of numerous customers. “We don’t want lifetime clients, we want them to become self-sufficient when it comes to fitness.”

Along with challenging workouts, Vela’s sessions emphasize learning, particularly about the role of nutrition and how to incorporate regimens that exert every major muscle group through real-world activity, like lifting an object while in a bent-over position. These routines involve a lot of core work and the use of portable devices, like Physioballs. “At their jobs, people go to meetings or travel in their car. So they’re sitting all day. Why bring them to a gym where they’ll be sitting while exercising?”

“I love movement,” said Aziza Barker, owner of Laguna Madre Yoga Meditation and Dance Center on South Padre Island. “I think of my studio as a place to come in and explore movement.” Founded in 2005, Barker’s island enterprise has become more than just a yoga studio, offering ample opportunity for clients to investigate their body’s range of motion. She interconnects different disciplines, offering classes in yoga and dance, wellness-themed workshops, and massage therapy sessions. “We emphasize physical postures and breath work to align the mind, to keep oneself in balance.”

Barker, who is also a massage therapist, first started teaching yoga on the island in 1987. “There were not a lot of yoga studios in the Valley then, certainly not on the island.” When maintaining the mobile business became more challenging, she opened the studio. “We needed a home base. We were tired of moving our equipment around.”

With more and more medical professionals beginning to trust alternative therapies, Barker has become “really excited about what’s going on in the fitness industry. There’s much more communication between yoga teachers addressing physical issues with the medical profession. So there’s a dialogue happening in those worlds.”

For more information, see mybodypilatesstudio.com; ebtcrossfit.com; explosivefitness.net; lagunamadreyoga.com and ufcrgv.com for Ultimate Fitness Center.   

May 2015 cover story.