Stephanie Webster of Niantic, a frequent customer at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, works out on Friday, September 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Feature)
Stephanie Webster of Niantic, a frequent customer at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, works out on Friday, September 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Feature)
Stephanie Webster of Niantic, a frequent customer at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, works out on Friday, September 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Feature)
George Norden, owner and founder of Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, helps patrons with their exercise routines on Friday, September 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Special)
Jenny Nohara, lead exercise physiologist/manager at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, helps Niantic’s Tom Webster with his exercise routine on Friday, September 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Feature)
Demi Gravel of Waterford, a regular customer at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, works out on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Gravel works out with her sister, Marcia Wenzel (not pictured), who lives in Oakdale. (Tim Martin/Today’s Special)
Marcia Wenzel of Oakdale, a regular customer at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme, works out on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. In the foreground is Ms. Wenzel’s sister, Demi Gravel of Waterford. (Tim Martin/Today’s Special)
Patrons at Joint Effort Exercise in East Lyme perform an exercise routine on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (Tim Martin/Today’s Special)
NIANTIC — Tom Webster sat on a cross trainer (part elliptical stepper, part He was riding a recumbent bike.
The Niantic newcomer was hitting the gym with his wife Stephanie as part of his three-times-a-week training regimen. He was recovering from a stroke. She was trying to maintain her figure so that she could have fun with her grandchildren while doing her heavy lifting around the house.
Across from him on a stationary bike, Colleen Reinberg of Waterford cheered him on. The triple whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic, menopause and a broken back kept the former gym rat from sitting down until the new facility opened this spring.
“Think about it, you’re rowing a boat, Tom,” she says to the seated man, moving her arms back and forth on the steering wheel, creating momentum where her feet touch the pedals. I did. Jenny Nohara, an exercise physiologist and Mystic’s manager, helped make sure the machine adjustments were working well.
Joint Effort founder George Norden, of Guildford, opened the Niantic location at 170 Flanders Road in April as part of a concept centered around personal training in a more cost-effective group format. Did. His 2,000-square-foot space in Midway Plaza at 170 Flanders Road joins his properties in Guilford, Branford and Old Saybrook.
He noted that bicycles, cross-trainers and strength-training equipment are placed throughout the room, some arranged in a circle so people can talk without looking at each other. .
“And that’s where the community is built,” he said. “Not only are they making the right moves for what they need to do, but they’re also meeting other people who are in the same boat.”
In the strength training side of the room, clients used their own body weight, dumbbells, and exercise bands to work their muscles. They stood on the half ball to improve balance. The noise in this gym came from the din of conversations, not the clanging of heavy objects.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur said about 60 of Norden’s 500 customers signed up at Niantic’s locations. The chain’s history goes back 10 years to his past, and Norden plans to start selling franchises in the coming months.
“We’re not getting 22-year-olds who want to train for a marathon or athletes who want to go into bodybuilding,” Norden said. Most of the customers are between 65 and 80 years old.
He said he came up with the business plan while working in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation at St. Raphael Hospital in New Haven. There, he saw heart and lung patients recover from physical therapy and recover with more confidence.
“We said, ‘We’ve got to keep working out,'” he recalls. “And they’ll say, ‘Where?’
Norden said traditional fitness centers are too large and offer little instruction, while one-on-one personal training sessions range from $400 to $1,000 per month.
“So this kind of encounter is somewhere in between,” he said. Prices range from $12 to $20 per session depending on frequency.
Reinberg, a self-proclaimed gym buff, said he maintains memberships at traditional gyms in the area, but limits himself to the run-of-the-mill cardio equipment they have. She does all her strength training in joint effort because she knows her trainer will correct her technique and modify the exercises as needed.
“They’re always looking,” she said. “When you hear them calling your name, you know you need to readjust.”
Exercise physiologist Nohara is one of two experts at Niantic locations who create personalized programs for each member based on their unique needs and abilities. She sets up the cardio equipment to their specifications and makes it ready for use. She intervenes on the weight training side if she notices improper form or intensity.
Nohara holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Keene State University in New Hampshire and a master’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island.
She evaluates her clients’ progress every 90 days so that they can change their exercise routines with new movements that fit where they are now, not how they were three months ago.
“It’s always nice to see their wins, big and small,” she said.
Stephanie Webster, 79, said she came to the gym with her husband after seeing a presentation Norden gave at the East Lyme Community Center.
Not used to working out, she said she had been going to a gym in Arizona for about 12 years before the couple moved to Niantic. However, it was inhuman and most of the people there were younger than her.
“And you couldn’t get personal attention and you didn’t know if you were doing something right or wrong,” she said.
Joint Effort’s Niantic facility is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Norden said, to accommodate applicants. He said he is considering extending the three-day session to after 5 p.m. Evening appointment.
