What is Performance and Recovery and why are there always dogs in the gym?

Hi Guys! I realized that I have written many blogs and articles and made videos and even written a book, but have never formally introduced myself or my business.

My name is Sarah Apold and I am the owner and founder of Performance and Recovery alongside my dog Remy. We are a dog friendly, boutique, personal training gym located in Brighton, MA. My dog Remy is always on hand to lend some emotional support by standing in front of you so you don't have to finish your last rep or distract you from what you are doing when he lays on your head when you are doing anything on the floor. At any given time there are usually a few other dogs at the gym weather they are clients dogs or even some dogs I watch on the side. I believe fitness should be fun and what better way than to combine fitness with dogs. (P.S. All Personal training client may bring their dog to play with Remy while training, cause who wants to have to go home to walk your dog after you just worked out).

At Performance and Recovery I offer personal training in my gym, virtually, and in home. On top of our personal training packages, we also offer memberships, which is unique to us. The memberships are based on how many times a week you want to train and then its up to you as to how many days you come in. For example, our standard membership gets you up to 4 days a week to train per month. One week you might come 2 times, the next you might come all 4, the next week you might come 3. Everyone's schedule are different and this allows some flexibility without have to count how many sessions you have left and allows you to budget better with just one monthly fee reoccurring.

Besides personal training we also offer programming packages so you can still get a personalized training program, but can do it anywhere at anytime. We also offer In-Body Scale assessments where you can use the Inbody scale and get your body measurements done.

If personal training is not your thing, we also offer small group classes. All classes are capped at 8 people and are small and guaranteed more guidance and attention from the instructor and build a relationship with other people in the class. I teach strength and spin classes and our yoga instructor, Katie, comes in 3 days a week to teach yoga. She also teaches our summer series which is located by the Charles River.

After all that working out, you might be a little sore or beat up, so we also offer some recovery sessions. We offer NormaTec Compression Boots which is great after a tough leg day or any of our marathon runners. Then we have cupping. I usually start each session by using the massage gun to get a little massage before hand and work out some knots or soreness and then I will start the cupping. The last thing we offer is hydrotherapy. We have Epsom Salt baths and Hot/Cold Contrast tubs.

Performance and Recovery has been around for 3 years and will be celebrating our 4 year anniversary in July. I originally opened in July 2019 in a small 500 sf space in Allston. We were at that location for 2 years where we weathered the covid storm and learned about our community and the other tenants in our building and started making connections around town. Most of my clients were so close that they walked to their appointments. I really enjoyed our little spot, but it was time to get some more space, and there just happen to be an opening in the same building on the second floor.

So we moved up to the second floor and made a bunch of modifications to the space and updated our equipment. The space was a mess and when we were done, there wasn't a wall, floor or celling that we didn't touch. My parents even came out to help and my dad installed all the flooring. It was a great new space for us and I had planned on making it into a wellness center where we could have a chiropractor, physical therapist and massage therapist all in the same spot, but quickly found out that might not be feasible. With covid, not a lot of people wanted to venture out and physical therapy could still be held online, so we were not able to fill our space with the tenants we were expecting and the rent became to much. Then we found out that our landlord had sold all of his buildings, expect the one we were in, to an investor and they were going to start tearing down pretty much every building around us. As much as we loved our space and the location of the building, with the upcoming construction mess and the steep rent prices, I decided to start looking for another place for us to relocate.

That is when I found the space here at 317 Washington Street. It was smaller than I was use to and didn't meet all of my requirements, but as soon as I saw the storefront area with open windows and could picture my dog sitting in the windowsill greeting all of our clients, I knew this was the place. We moved here in October and held our Grand Re-Opening the first week in January.

Now that you know a little bit more about my business, I'll introduce myself in part 2.