Peters business owners team up after pandemic-related closure of fitness studio
Conducting spin classes outdoors may work fine on summer sunny days, but this is Western Pennsylvania.
Thanks to a friend and fellow business owner, certified group fitness instructor Tammy Stocker can offer programs during disagreeable weather within a warm, cozy space.
“I saw Tammy teaching class at Bombash & Earley in the parking lot, and I had heard that she closed Pulse,” Ashley Cramer-McClintock said about Stocker’s previous business, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. “So I called her to see if she needed a home.”
Cramer-McClintock owns Sanctuary Wellness Spa in Peters Township, where a back room was available for productive use. Stocker took her up on the offer, and on Feb. 12, she celebrated the grand opening of the new location for her latest venture, JackHammer Fit LLC.
“It’s great for me. It’s great for her. But it’s also good for our clients. Now we can offer them more services,” Stocker said. “They can spin and then sit in the sauna.”
Sanctuary offers full-spectrum infrared sauna therapy and dry-salt therapy, or halotherapy. Stocker and the other certified members of her training staff conduct cycling, kettlebell and strength classes, online and in the studio.
“The space was big enough for our 10 bikes, which is what I kept from my previous studio,” Stocker said.
She and her husband, Chris, decided to close Pulse – which was on Route 19, near the Sanctuary-Jackhammer location in Lakeview Square – because of the pandemic’s negative impact.
But she wanted to continue to help people pursue fitness, and her friends Danielle and Tim Bombash, whose business is on East McMurray Road, offered to help by providing space for her to store the stationary cycles and plenty of room outside for classes.
Now that she is back inside, Stocker is doing her best to ensure against the spread of COVID-19: Everyone must wear a mask, and the bikes are distanced sufficiently from one another. Plus she purchased an AIRBOX commercial-grade purification system for the studio.
“It cleans the air six times in a 45-minute session, of allergens, viruses and bacteria,” she said. “We keep everything clean. We sanitize it after every single class.”
The Jackhammer Fit opening event, organized by the Peters Township Chamber of Commerce and featuring a ribbon cutting, was part of a “Galentine’s Day” gathering of local female-owned businesses and their products.
“It is a win-win for everyone,” Stocker said. “We will continue to help each other and assist our clients to move forward happily, healthy and feeling fabulous.”
For her part, Cramer-McClintock welcomes the opportunity to work closely with Stocker, who also is a registered nurse and certified personal trainer.
“She’s a go-getter, has amazing energy and is good to be around,” Cramer-McClintock said. “She brings a lot.”
Stocker likes the arrangement, too.
“Classes fill,” she said. “The saunas fill. You can’t beat it.”