Fitness-Loving Altadena Residents Taking Hobby Professional

New business owners Peter Danenberg and Tom Scoble have a modest goal for their gym: they want to make enough money to break even.  And if they can do better, then they can make it their full time livelihood.

Danenberg and Scoble, both Altadena residents, just opened a local branch of the CrossFit franchise last week.  CrossFit is a gym craze that has participants switching quickly from one activity to another in a pre-set list while timing themselves and competing with others.  Danenberg and Scoble were both big fans of Crossfit and met while working out at the Monrovia franchise, the most convenient CrossFit location for them to attend.

While there is also a CrossFit location in Old Pasadena, the parking there is difficult and the cost is high, according to Danenberg.  He said they felt there would be community interest both in Altadena and East Pasadena in a closer location.

So while they'd like to make a real go of it in the CrossFit business, at the very least, if they can break even they have a closer place to work out while they continue to work their other jobs.  If they succeed, they can do something they love for a living.

"We're just hoping to pay the rent," Danenberg said. "We'll see if it grows organically."

It's a promising business possibility and a good community asset that very well could have ended up in Altadena - the pair tried to find a workable location, but ultimately ended up on a quiet side street of Allen Avenue, just south of the 210 Freeway in Pasadena.

Why Not Altadena?

Scoble's other business, called Mother Magnolia, is a pool, spa, and patio construction trade that he formerly operated on Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena.

The crime in the area and general appearance of his business location was not ideal, he said, and as he began to search for a home for the CrossFit gym, he also was looking for a place to relocate his other business.

Mother Magnolia now operates alongside the gym at 1830 Locust Avenue in Pasadena.  And in a larger space in a beautiful brick building on a quiet side street, the rent for the two is cheaper than what Scoble would have paid keeping his business on Fair Oaks and finding another location in Altadena for the gym.

Scoble said he and Danenberg approached the owner of the property , a lot which has now been vacant for over a year.  They thought an indoor/outdoor facility there would be perfect, but the cost would have been significantly higher than where they ended up.

In Scoble's words, the property owners was "woefully unrealistic" about what rent on the facility was worth.

They also looked at a spot in the commercial plaza at the corner of Altadena and Lake, where Bulgarini's Gelato is located, but again found the rent high and the facility not as good as the Pasadena location.

What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is a nationally trademarked form of working out that licenses local business owners to start their own franchises, allowing for their own workout variations and pricing models.

The idea behind the workout system is to vary what you are doing and to keep moving throughout the workout.  Participants do standard weightlifting and traditional exercises like pull-ups and push-ups, but also some gymnastics and nontraditional exercises.

The idea is to never slow down, so that in addition to body conditioning, people are also getting a cardiovascular work-out.  Getting through the workout takes some strategy, Danenberg said.  Because the workouts are so intense, participants need to figure out which exercises they are stronger at and need to find ones where they can slow down a bit and regain strength, and find which ones they can get through quickly.

People tend to excel with different exercises depending on their body types, Scoble said, so there is no single best strategy for getting through the workout quickly.

At Danenberg and Scoble's gym there is a big board with a planned workout for each day of the week as well as times that each participant takes to get through it.

The times serve as a motivator for friendly competitions, which is a key reason people show up to the gym to do it rather than try to do it at home.

"There's a social aspect to it that you can't get out of it with a home workout," Danenberg said.

The sense of competition becomes addictive, Scoble said.

Unlike traditional gyms, there is not a lot of equipment clogging up the gym: since people do planned workouts, there is no need for rows and rows of weight sets and treadmills. 

Business Competition

Danenberg and Scoble are hoping to get people coming to them by charging a lot less than other CrossFit gyms - they charge $125 for unlimited monthly access to the gym.  It includes a guarantee that there will be someone there to run the workout- it's almost a cross between a gym membership and having a trainer.

Other CrossFit locations tend to charge about twice as much, Danenberg said, and some go even higher.

If the location does well, expansion is always a possibility, he added.  Neither man has given up on the idea of starting a gym in Altadena - they actually have already purchased rights to the crossfitaltadena.com website url.

Danenberg said they will evaluate where they are at in the next year or two and see if it is a possibility.

For the moment, the gym is picking up members by word of mouth, foot traffic from a local coffee place next door, and their personal Facebook pages.