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News
Focus is good health at one-stop center
Growing studio offers massage, life coaching, nutritional consultants, Pilates, body care items.
By Alexa Stanard
Special to The Detroit News
August 31, 2006
Kelly Hale, center, 33, a former occupational therapist, trains Gia Warner and Maria Ludka, Functional Fitness and Inspired Wellness now employs 12 people, up from two when it opened in 2001.
BIRMINGHAM — Functional Fitness and Inspired Wellness wants to be your one-stop wellness center, offering everything from Pilates to massage, nutritional consultations and personalized life coaching.
The small studio with the mouthful of a name has grown steadily since former occupational therapist Kelly Hale opened it in 2001. It now employs 12 people, including eight movement professional, up from two when it opened, and Hale 33, travels the country training health professionals and giving seminars.
“We offer lot of services for a small space”, Hale said. “I envision us as a resource center.”
The 2000-square–foot facility packs in Pilates and cardio machines, two rooms for massage and other therapies, numerous colorful exercise balls, and a small retail section that sells body care products, energy snack bars and shower filters.
The center offers group and one-on-one exercise sessions, both of which are tailored for the participants. No membership is required, and clients can sign up for multi-week sessions or receive a personalized training program to practice on their own.
Hale opened Functional Fitness after stints in orthopedic and cardiac rehabilitation clinics. But she wearied of the fast pace and became disenchanted with what she called the traditional health care model.
“A holistic mind/body/spirit approach was where my heart was,” Hale said.
Hale has relied on referrals from physicians, chiropractors and current clients for her center’s growth; Functional Fitness has never advertises. The chief reason clients come through the door is debilitating pain, she said.
“People want to get some treatment and the ability to exercise,” Hale said. “We get a lot of people who have struck out elsewhere.” Ted Sylwestrzak, an attorney in Detroit, has been a Functional Fitness client for five years. His back spasms were so severe when he was referred by his chiropractor that it was difficult for him to go to work, he said.
At the center, Sylwestrzak has tried a variety of classes during his weekly sessions, including a workshop on posture, individual sessions with Hale and therapeutic massage. “It’s been tremendous, he said.” “Most days I feel fine now. The results have been dramatic in my case.”
Hale “is truly committed to helping people” he adds. “She always brings new and different things to try. I’m never bored.”
The center’s services have expanded to adapt to client’s demands, Hale said, and now include goal-setting and stress management courses and motivational seminars.
“People are coming in just for that,” she said. “I see our education arm becoming more in demand. When the economy took a downturn, that’s when my phone rang off the hook for motivational seminars. I feel grateful to have a service people turn to when times are tough.”
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