Blake Wise took a moment on Monday outside the Peak Strength gym to look at the sign hanging above the door of the facility that he will open this month on the west side of Steamboat Springs.
“My whole goal was basically to build the gym that I wish existed,” said Wise, who co-owns the gym with another partner. “We have good gyms, but they’re on the other side of town, and they are very busy. I wanted something on this side of town, and with all the top-of-the-line equipment, but at a price that people can afford.”
Wise recently transformed a former auto parts store at 2400 Lincoln Ave., filling 5,000 square feet with the latest equipment from Life Fitness and Hammer Strength and covering the concrete flooring with wall-to-wall rubber flooring. An additional 700-square-foot space will house two bathrooms with shower areas and a recovery room featuring a three-person sauna.
“I tried to design affordability into it, but not compromise on the equipment and the experience — I wanted to offer a price that locals can actually afford,” Wise said.
The owner on Monday was wrapping up a few final details and said once the gym has been tidied up following construction, his hope is to be open for business by mid-February.
The gym is focused on strength training, with Life Fitness and Hammer Strength pin- and plate-loaded machines, half-racks with full lifting setups, belt squat and hack squat machines. There will also be dumbbells, kettlebells, benches and cable stations, as well as TRX and functional training tools and a turf area for warmups and movement.
For those looking for a place to expand their cardiovascular fitness there are treadmills, bikes, rowers, SkiErgs and PowerMill steppers. Peak Strength will also offer a dedicated recovery space that includes an infrared sauna and Normatec compression boots all set in a quiet temperature-controlled room.
Layout of the new Peak Strength gym, expected to open later this month on the west side of Steamboat Springs.Peak Strength/Courtesy photo
“I tried to get all the machines and the weightlifting equipment that anyone — from novice to serious weightlifter — might need,” Wise said. “Everything that you need is here, and then I have some space open by design — if there’s stuff that people request, we can bring it in,” Wise said.
Wise moved to the Steamboat Springs area from Boulder a couple of years ago because he wanted to live in a mountain town. He worked in the biotech industry for years and was ready for a change.
“I spent my whole career in biotech,” Wise said. “I want to do something different, and I’ve always wanted to have my own business.”
After making the decision to move to the mountains, Wise said he checked out several mountain towns across Colorado before landing in Steamboat Springs. In opening the gym, he set out to create a space similar to the one he liked in Durango. He contacted the owner of that facility and asked if he would advise him on equipment, layout and the things that his members might want in a gym.
“I saw these gyms that some of the other towns have and there’s one like this in Durango that I liked, so I called the owner,” Wise said. “I said, ‘This is the first time I’m opening a gym, and would you be willing to help and share?’”
He said, ‘I’m a consultant, and I’ll tell you everything, so he helped me design the whole thing, lay it out and gave me information about what equipment to get, which was super helpful.”
John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.