Orangetheory Fitness, a fitness franchise with several Jacksonville area studios already up and running, will open two new locations this fall: Nocatee and Jacksonville Beach.
The two new studios will be under the same ownership as the Fleming Island, Southside, Jacksonville-Hodges, Jacksonville-Mandarin and Northern St. Johns Orangetheory Fitness studios. The Nocatee facility, to be located at Nocatee Town Center, is scheduled to open in late September. The Jacksonville Beach location, at 3994 Third St., will open later in the fall.
“We are very excited to be opening two additional Orangetheory Fitness locations to complement our other five locations throughout the Greater Jacksonville area this fall,” Co-owner Leslie Baccash said. “These two new locations will provide the Beaches, Ponte Vedra and Nocatee communities with one of the ‘best full body workouts in the nation.’”
According to the Nocatee Studio Manager Karyn Knox, what makes the Orangetheory Fitness program stand out is that it takes participants’ heart rates into account.
“We are a one-hour, heart-rate-based, total-body interval program,” Knox said. “During our hour, we address endurance, power and strength, so we incorporate every facet of fitness that you need during that hour, and each participant wears a heart rate monitor during the program.”
Knox explained that Orangetheory instructors aim to manipulate members’ heart rates to keep them in what they call the “target heart rate zone” for a certain percentage of the hour.
“The coaches, if they do get you to stay in the proper heart rate zone for the proper amount of time, we achieve what’s called ‘metabolically charging the body,’” she said. “When you metabolically charge your body, you burn more fat and calories during the hour and for 36 hours after the workout.”
Knox, who has been a certified personal trainer for 20 years, said that Orangetheory impressed her with all it had to offer.
“I have owned my own business within fitness and worked for other studios and gyms in the past, but what drew me to Orangetheory was the fact that it is an overall wellness-based plan,” she said. “It works for all fitness levels, it’s a fun environment, it’s safe for everyone, and I just feel like the science behind it is why people are getting such great results and why I wanted to be a part of it.”
Since announcing their new locations, Knox – who is herself a Nocatee resident – said that the support that she and the Orangetheory Fitness team have received from the Nocatee community in particular has been overwhelming.
“It’s just phenomenal, really,” she said, “and I just want them to know how much we appreciate them already.”
