After spending over a decade in pharmaceutical advertising in New York City, coupled with a pregnancy, Alli Schwartz decided a change was in order. Wanting to be closer to her family, she returned to Pennsylvania and thought about what would make her happiest. The answer became increasingly clear: women’s fitness.
An athlete and sports trainer earlier in life, it was a natural fit. “I felt like there’d been something missing with any kind of women’s gym, even classes,” Schwartz says. “Some of them were watered down or just real quick, and there wasn’t very much time for girls to chat.”
The result was GFit Women, exclusively by and for women. She opened her first studio in 2012 in Huntingdon Valley and has since grown to three studios, with locations in Dresher and Media. Combined, they have over 500 members.
The high-intensity interval training classes change daily and empower women in an environment they might not have been comfortable in otherwise. Participants go through a warm-up and then a trainer-supervised 35-minute workout. “The goal was to give women a real workout in a supportive community,” Schwartz says.
