Courtesy of Novant Health Fitness Center

Novant Health’s Prince William Medical Center in Manassas offers a public fitness center with a full gym, personal trainers and group fitness classes. On top of these typical gym offerings, Novant also gives each new member a health consultation, during which a staff member goes over past exercise history, physical limitations and blood pressure and heart rate prescreenings. Novant’s staff takes these results and creates an individualized exercise program for the new member—basically, a guide to succeeding at whatever your goals in the gym may be.

After going over the recommended exercise program, new members are also given two one-on-one sessions with staff to learn how to use the equipment. Rather than being thrown into the gym after paying a membership fee, the Novant Health Fitness Center takes a personal approach and gives members the tools necessary both to start working out and to make it a regular part of their lives, whether through personal training sessions, individual workouts or the popular group fitness classes.

According to Novant member Ann Faust, group fitness classes were her ticket to success at the gym: “When I first joined, I didn’t go to classes and visited the gym very sporadically, sometimes just once a year. But in the past five years, I’ve started taking classes, which have really helped me come to the gym more often.” Faust is also currently participating in the gym’s “Biggest Loser” weight-loss program and has lost 8 pounds.

“There is a community feel here that you don’t see at most gyms,” says Kim Golanski, Novant director of marketing & communications. “The staff builds a personal relationship with each member and makes members feel welcome and look forward to coming to the fitness center. This leaves individuals with more of a sense of accountability and motivation that you won’t find at most centers.”

(August 2015)