By: Kory Lanphear
Photos: Bailey Sadowsky
There’s getting in shape and then there’s staying in shape. But let’s face it, nobody makes a New Year’s resolution to stay in shape. However, at Modern Fitness, owners Danielle and Cory Shafer want to help you meet both of those goals — to get in shape and stay there.
“I think the beauty of us is we have a huge array of classes — 15 to 20 a week — with six instructors, we have personal trainers, the gym has heavier weights, and modern machines,” said Danielle. “We believe in quality over quantity. On Sunday, you can come here and there’s literally only two people in the gym. Our goal is not to pack the place, we want you to feel like the machines are open and you can get in here. And our members love that.”
Both are Rapid City locals and Central High School graduates. Danielle, a health care worker, and Cory, who works in public safety, have two kids, a 10 year-old and a 12 year-old. The couple initially started their business in 2018 as a small group fitness studio. At the time, Cory was doing personal training on the side, just for the love of fitness. Their gym offered only classes at the time including cycle, boot camp, and boxing.In 2020, when COVID hit, the business actually thrived, thanks in part to their classes and a successful program that rented out gym equipment for people to use at home. In 2022, Danielle and Cory expanded into a 24-hour commercial gym. Finally, last year Modern Fitness moved into their permanent home near South Dakota Mines campus.
“We’re really fortunate. We have amazing members; they’re so welcoming, so friendly, no judgment. Whether you’re in the classes or the gym, everybody’s always saying ‘hi’ to people,” Danielle said. “Members feel comfortable; they feel that we have fun here. We’ve always worked very hard to protect that vibe.”
Independent businesses have a steep learning curve and, for parents with full time jobs, like Danielle and Cory, ironing out all of the pressing issues of starting a new business can be difficult to manage, especially when you consider that the larger, corporate gyms usually have a person, or even many people, whose sole job it is to deal with all the red tape.
“We love our jobs, but this is fun for us. We get to see our friends, we get to meet new people. It’s not for the faint of heart, though. Between construction and dealing with all the regulations and all the codes, it’s challenging at times,” said Danielle. “And, as a gym, you’re not really in it to make a ton of money. We are very proud that we never raised our rates. That’s our mission: we want quality members and quality fitness. You shouldn’t have to go broke just to work out.”
If you are new to working out or to the gym scene, Danielle encourages you to join up and start with classes because there will be an instructor to help you along. Or, you can sign up for one-on-one personal training.
“One of our personal trainers, Jen, does a Learn to Lift program. We have Raynor, who is an excellent, one-on-one personal trainer. Sometimes you maybe only do a month with them, feel comfortable, and then continue on your own. It’s just a matter of finding a point to get started. And these are just some features to kind of help you with that accountability.”
For the New Year, Modern Fitness plans on introducing some new, fun, and exciting classes to help gym-goers train new muscle memory and grow into different areas of fitness. It also mixes up the schedule and keeps the class schedule fresh. In the past, for example, they’ve added Zumba dance classes and floor Pilates.
“The thing about fitness is that it’s personal and it’s individualized,” said Danielle. “If you try to put everybody in one big square, that will never work, because each person is different in their needs, their skills, their prior injuries and what they can do.
No matter where you’re at in your journey, you can pretty much do any kind of fitness here.”
Original Article available in the December edition of Elevate Magazine
