Background

Experienced fitness professionals of 20+ years, Ally and Grant Taylor had always had personal training clients alongside their other roles within the industry, which for Ally in particular had ranged from in-club teaching and management to education and presenting. 

Finally looking to blaze their own trail, for a number of years the couple had been looking for a space of their own into which they could expand their business. At the end of 2022, an opportunity presented itself. The owners of the building in which they lived – a two-storey listed property in Horsley, Surrey, dating back to 1876 – had both passed away, and while the daughter purchased the building to keep it in the family, the travel agency on the ground floor was wound down. The space was up for grabs!

Although a challenging building, with all the quirks of a centuries-old structure and a lot of renovation work required, the Taylors agreed to lease not only the first-floor flat in which they lived, but also the commercial space downstairs.

Objective

The lease agreement finally completed in summer 2023 and work on the new fitness space began: new pipework and wiring going in, tenacious wallpaper removed from ceilings and walls, replastering, decorating, and extensive repairs to the sub-floor when each layer revealed more problems, from glued-down carpet to loose joists.

What kept the Taylors going was their vision of a welcoming space that would embody their new brand – Amovida – with its roots in Latin and Spanish, ‘amor’ meaning love and ‘vida’ representing life and movement. 

“We don’t beast people and we couldn’t care less if you have a six-pack,” says Ally. “We sit firmly on the movement health side of things, with a tagline of ‘Move well, love life’. Our clientele reflects this: typically aged 40–80 years, when we do have younger members, they tend to be sports people requiring rehab. We do a lot of work with people post-surgery: knees, shoulders, backs. I also run a programme for women who’ve had a hysterectomy. 

“We wanted our space to reflect this ethos: welcoming, nurturing, all about the individuals. We wanted to create somewhere that felt like home.”

Solution

Pushing towards a tight opening date of January 2024, the couple approached Physical to help them shape and kit out three distinct spaces. 

“We’d used Physical on and off for years for ad hoc equipment purchases, alongside bits from other suppliers,” says Ally. “When it came to this bigger order, though, Physical really stood out. Both from a price perspective and the fact we could get almost everything we needed from one place, Physical was the clear choice of partner for this project.”

The main space is a 40sq m light-filled room at the front of the building, with big arched windows, room for between four and 10 people depending on the class, “and butchers hooks in the ceiling that have to stay there as part of the listed building consent!” says Ally. Yoga equipment is subtly stored in a wall recess, while a TRX hangs in each corner of the room – “the only place we can hang them,” says Ally, “so we can only have four”. 

There’s a smaller room for one-to-one stretching, yoga and movement, with the possible future addition of a foldable pilates reformer. “Across the whole club, space is the key consideration,” says Ally. “It’s very small, so we need multi-purpose equipment that can be stored away.”

Finally, there’s an 18sq m personal training room where the kitchen used to be, with a bench, a TRX and a selection of functional equipment.

From an equipment perspective, Physical supplied Amovida with TRXs, Pump sets, kettlebells, dumbbells, battle ropes, power bands and stretch mats, as well as some storage.

Physical also provided and installed the flooring throughout. There’s black rubber in the PT space, where the equipment is instantly visible “so feeling like a gym is OK”. Elsewhere – in response to a brief for the shock-absorbing functionality of gym flooring but with a welcoming, non-intimidating aesthetic – Physical installed warm wood-finish vinyl on top of 8mm rubber.

Results

Says Ally: “The space itself isn’t perfect for fitness: we have low ceiling heights, pillars where we really don’t want them and limited space. Yet our clients have followed us and new people are coming, they love it and they’re telling their friends how unscary it is. We’re attracting people who have never wanted to join a normal gym; all the new PT members we’ve signed since we’ve opened are aged over 70.

“And I think, alongside our permissive, movement-based approach, it’s because we’ve successfully created somewhere that really does feel like home, with non-typical gym flooring, homely cream and blue walls and discreet equipment storage.

“Physical has played an important part in this, and not only in terms of supplying equipment and flooring. From the word go, they’ve been incredibly helpful and flexible as timescales and budgets constantly shifted. Paul [Farrell, Physical account manager] also came to site a number of times, offering lots of creative suggestions on how to maximise the space.

“And I have to say, we’re incredibly glad we invested in using Physical’s expert flooring installer. Time and weather were both against us on this project: the floors went down in minus temperatures in December, ready for a January launch, with the new plaster still drying on the walls and heaters on at full blast in every room. Those weather conditions led to significant challenges with flooring adhesion. Had we not had an expert on-site, with Paul also on the end of the phone at all times, the flooring would quite simply not have gone down properly or on-time.”