With four Family Pharmacy locations in Northwest Oklahoma, the Diel family has been in the health care business for years, but only “on the back end,” once health problems reach a point where only medication can help, founder Greg Diel said.
“This is on the front end,” he said, giving a tour of the Anytime Fitness at 3324 W. Garriott, the Diel family’s new business venture. The “front end” is where prevention can happen, where steps can be taken that make prescription help unnecessary, he said. “I would love for some of my customers to not take as many medications,” Diel said. “This gym could be an avenue for that.”
The gym is very much a family affair. Grant Diel, Greg’s son, came to him in September 2017 when he heard the previous ownership was looking to sell. They bought it within the month, Grant said. “We see an opportunity here of getting to people before they get to some of those disease states,” he said. “Let’s get to those people before they’re all on 14 medications.”
Grant co-owns and operates the gym with his recently married wife, Shannon Diel, a registered nurse. Though it’s been more than a year since the Diels took ownership, it has demanded a lot of time, energy and money to get it up to their standards, Greg Diel said.
About $50,000 has been spent on renovations alone, he said, taking out walls, opening up space, putting down turf, bringing in new equipment. On top of that, the Diels inherited a number of housekeeping issues from the previous owners that needed to be ironed out, Greg Diel said. They were based out of Texas, owned dozens of other franchises in addition to the Enid location, and it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved, he said. “It was just a numbers game to them,” Greg Diel said. “We’re taking a more hands on approach.” Through all of that, the gym kept operating. But now that all the problems are fixed and improvements made, the Diels are ready to showcase their Anytime Fitness in a bigger way, with a grand re-opening celebration March 2.
Group training classes will be offered free all day, and Chick-fil-A will be catering, Shannon Diel said. There are three different group classes offered by Anytime Fitness: Base, Burn and Build, she said. Each is specifically designed to achieve different fitness goals, she said. Base is best for those getting back to the gym after a long break or heading in for the first time. Burn is mostly high-intensity interval training, fast paced, lots of stopping and starting, uses up calories quickly. Build is for packing on muscle, meaning fewer repetitions and bigger weights, she said. Despite their differences, “they are all designed for any fitness level,” she said.
Besides the classes, all the standard gym equipment is there, from barbells to dumbbells to treadmills and more. The Diels also are working on installing a tanning suite in a closed down tanning salon directly adjacent to their gym, Grant Diel said. In the front office is an InBody machine, a useful tool for tracking fitness progress, Shannon Diel said. It not only measures an individual’s weight, but how much of that weight is muscle, fat or water, accounting for every pound. Results don’t always show in the mirror, but they will to the machine, she said. The InBody machine is just one more way gym staff can help members along their way to a fitter, healthier place, Grant Diel said. “People are tired of paying for a gym membership and not getting the attention and motivation that they thought they were getting,” he said.
Story provided by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Mitchell Willetts