Posted: 3/1/06
Snap offers a workout when the mood strikes
 Pictured are (l to r): Evy Hayes, personal trainer and former champion bodybuilder, Snap Fitness owner Patrick Kiffmeyer, and office manager Karen Spike. Kiffmeyer is looking forward to offering North Branch residents a ìcommunity atmosphereî and a flexible workout schedule that is literally 24 hours, day or night. |
By Patrick Tepoorten
Snap Fitness, opened barely a month in downtown North Branch, is already seeing a great deal of interest from the community in its flexible style and next level workout opportunity.
Flexible refers to the 24-hour access members enjoy to the facility, making the tailoring of their workout to a busy schedule a simple endeavor.
How simple?
Snap uses the latest high-tech gadgetry to make sure patrons never even have to turn on a light. Any time, day or night, members need simply open the door and the lights come up, the televisions turn on and the gym is entirely at their disposal.
Video surveillance insures that even ìdead of nightî patrons feel safe and secure at Snap.
Flexible also refers to the wide range of equipment that can be found at Snap. The all brand new Cybex gear runs the gamut including free weights, treadmills, stationary bikes and arc trainers.
ìNext levelî refers to the staff at Snap, which includes Evy Hayes, a certified personal trainer and former national champion bodybuilder, and office manager Karen Spike.
This kind of personal attention has Snap just about halfway to its goal of 200 memberships already, after just a month of operation.
Still, owner Patrick Kiffmeyer, 35, of Lino Lakes, is offering new members a chance to get friends to join them at the gym and earn free stuff.
His referral program encourages members to let others know about the gym. For encouraging friends to join, members have a chance to win training sessions, gift certificates, and even $400 cash. Referred friends can even try the gym at no charge for two weeks.
Kiffmeyer likes the program because friends help friends stay in shape and make exercise fun. ìItís good to have friends at the gym. Itís a motivator and it helps create a community atmosphere that is very important here at Snap.î
While Snap encourages friends to workout together, it does not encourage long-term contracts that limit a personís ability to work out when he or she wants to.
Memberships are done on a month to month basis and can even be ìfrozenî over the warmest of the summer months, allowing people to retain their memberships when they are least likely to use them. ìEssentially, itís like getting a 12-month membership for the price of a 10-month membership,î explained Kiffmeyer on Monday.
Those memberships are also very affordable. A single plan costs $30 a month and a family plan $45 a month. Plus, Kiffmeyer is guaranteeing that rate to new members for up to five years. So, while memberships may increase as time goes by, members who sign up now will not be subject to those increases for the nest half-decade.
Kiffmeyer, a registered nurse by trade and a married father of two with one on the way, became involved with the Snap Fitness franchise for fun, because he believes in a healthy lifestyle and the small town atmosphere a small gym like Snap brings to areas like North Branch. ìI just enjoy bringing it to the community,î he said.
The recently opened Snap Fitness in Wyoming is also Kiffmeyerís, and North Branch members have full access to that facility as well.
He is certainly not alone. In the last year and a half, since Snapís inception, over 60 Snaps have opened and that number is growing every day.
Those interested in joining Snap Fitness can enroll on site. Enrollment hours are Monday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday from
2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Snap is located at 38859 7th Ave, and can be reached at (651) 674-4153.
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