Posted: Nov 15, 2010 at 6:00 AM [Nov 15, 2010]

Those on the south side of Ann Arbor or Saline who eat a bit too many trimmings with their turkey this holiday have a new place to work off those calories.

BalancePoint Fitness, a new fitness studio offering personal training and fitness classes, has opened on Plaza Drive near the Ann Arbor Airport.

Lynda Gronlund, a certified personal trainer since 2008, opened the studio as the next step in her goal to provide affordable and effective fitness training.

“I started BalancePoint Fitness a few years ago as a solo personal trainer, traveling to people’s homes as well as working at the Washtenaw Rec Center training people and teaching classes like kickboxing,” Gronlund explains.

She was also teaching at PKSA Karate Ann Arbor, where she was beginning to run a few personal training groups, when the owners of the karate school moved to a new space across the business plaza.

“they ended up with a couple of extra rooms so they let me set up in there,” she says.

The studio offers a private personal training room with a full set of weight training and cardio equipment as well as a larger room for fitness classes. Classes include cardio kickboxing, cardio dance, body sculpting, boot camp, “yogalates” — a combination of yoga and pilates —as well as “aerotone” — a combination of aerobics and toning. the studio hopes to offer other classes such as Zumba and yoga soon.

Lynda Gronlund, owner of BalancePoint Fitness, said she believes in supporting small steps to make fitness a part of clients’ lives.

Laura Blodgett | for AnnArbor.com

Gronlund says her personal training philosophy is to be supportive of the small steps people can take to make fitness a part of their lives.

“Most people who go to a trainer are really excited and ready to do everything right for about a week,” she says. “After that they think ‘I can’t do this anymore!’ and end up stopping everything. I build small steps so people don’t collapse.”

She explains that personal trainers can make a difference to people who have never exercised before, to make sure they don’t hurt themselves, as well as people who need guidance on the amount and type of exercise needed to get their desired results.

“Trainers can really guide them on how to build exercise into their specific schedule,” says Gronlund, who currently trains around 20 clients.

Although she works with people of all ages, Gronlund says her target audience for the studio space is mainly young professionals “who are really busy but want to stay in shape and need encouragement but don’t want to spend a million dollars.”

In fact, a key part of Gronlund’s business strategy is to keep her rates affordable. Rates are $45 an hour for personal training as well as deals like Buy 12 Sessions Up Front, Get One Free.

At her studio, she offers the first class free, and then the drop-in fee for classes is $8. A 1- class session works out to $66, and an eight-class punch card for any class is $48. she also offers as unlimited class deal for $60 month.

BalancePoint Fitness is located at 3770 Plaza Drive, Suite 1, in Ann Arbor. the business can be reached at 248-739-0841 or BalancePoint.Fitness@gmail.com. A schedule of classes is available at bp-fit.com.

Laura Blodgett is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com.