St. Petersburg may be known for its art scene or beaches, but its local entrepreneurs are looking to put its innovative fitness scene on the map.
Tampa Bay Inno recently spent the day with The Exercise Coach, a gym that forgoes weights and uses data instead and Centrifuge, a spin studio which uses the energy from the bikes to cut down on carbon emissions.
Centrifuge
After passing a wind farm on her birthday two years ago, Emma Baiz wondered if the same could be done with bicycles.
She opened her own LLC two days later and two years later, opened Centrifuge, her own spin studio, which is named after the device that spins blood and plasma.
"It's spinning plasma and I wanted to spin energy," she said. "It's a complete cycle."
Baiz opened her studio on Dec. 6, which uses 25 SportsArt Eco-Power bikes to convert the energy through micro-inverters, run it through a circuit and up a wall Baiz constructed, to lead back to a main conduit which converts the energy into electricity.
The process cuts down on carbon emissions and users can see how many electric fans powered, CO2 emission cut, gasoline saved and electric bulbs were powered at the end of every ride.
"When you present a green solution, people light up," she said. "We want to create a community of people to better themselves, but also have the opportunity to participate in the community."
Baiz also hopes the studio will help the community at large by hosting and participating events that help with the city's beach and environmental cleanup.
"A lot of people want to get involved but don't know how," she said. "We will do that research and people can post their eco-friendly events, like beach clean ups as well."
The Exercise Coach
The Exercise Coach machines look similar to what you would find in a similar gym — until you take a closer look and realize screens are attached to each machine, versus weights.
The St. Petersburg location, run by Jak and Nicole Plihal, was roughly the 60th location to open for the Lake Zurich, Illinois-based chain which uses artificial intelligence and adoptive resistance technology versus weights.
Plihal believes the technology will help with a slew of issues for gym-goers: cutting down on injuries from overexerting or using the wrong amount of weights and using time efficiently.
"It's the safest and most safely intense workout," Jak said. "With weights there is still a lot of guess work — the person has to control their own range of motions and when you have weight and gravity, that's when tears begin to happen."
The way it works is relatively simple: a coach will stand alongside the user and an engine will push down the piece of equipment on the user (say, a platform that moves us and down against flat feet). The user will exert the most effort they can as the platform moves up and down, versus having to guess the amount of weight to try and use.
The engine measures the amount of force exerted and a computer screen shows the user the proper range to stay within while exerting force.
"I'm a former consultant so I'm all about finding the right fit," he said. "This is a different environment, a different experience. It's not an incremental step in the fitness world; it's a leap for strength training. Throwing tires is awesome, but this is for people who say 'I need to safely do that level of exertion."
