For Lynnfield resident Dina Whalen, fitness isn’t just a hobby or another hurdle throughout the day — it’s about a lifestyle and standing together as a community to better yourself.
Fitness Together is a national franchise, and Whalen has been with it since 2001, she said.
After going to school for Sports Medicine, she did six months of Physical Therapy work before getting a job as a personal trainer at a gym in downtown Lynnfield. She was there for a couple of years before going on to purchase her own Fitness Together studio. “Then I got my second location, and coming back to Lynnfield was always my destination and goal,” Whalen said. “I grew up here.
“I first had a location in Westwood, and then in 2005 I opened up our Lynnfield location, and we were on Main Street for five years before we moved over to Post Office Square,” she said. “For the past 20 years we’ve been doing personal training, one-on-one training sessions, with clients that range from teenagers to people in their late 80s.”
She added that a private room within the gym helps the staff tailor the experience to the needs of the clients, whichever age range they may fall into.
“Because of the private room, we’re really able to adapt and meet everybody’s individual needs,” Whalen said. “Everything is completely customized for the individual, from their moving patterns, goals, all the way to nutrition.”
In September of last year, the building in Post Office Square was “completely destroyed by a fire,” according to Whalen.
She took a moment to recall her memories of that day.
“I had just sat down for the evening to relax, and I got a text from a client asking if everybody was okay. … At first, I had no idea what she was talking about — so I went on Facebook and saw all the posts — and then I opened my house door (she noted that she lived down the street from the gym), and I could actually smell the smoke,” Whalen said.
She said that after getting as close as she could to the area, she spoke with a police officer on the scene and informed him she was the owner of the business. “He just said to me that ‘it was gone’ … and then, a few hours later, we were able to get closer, and I could physically see what happened. The building was destroyed.”
She then spoke with the owner of the building, and knowing that he had space available in other buildings, asked if they could occupy one while the main building was being rebuilt.
Whalen elaborated on the process of rebuilding the studio after the fire. “I know that the building’s been knocked down; the basement has been filled in … I hear they’re in the final stages of architectural designs and getting things passed with the town, but I don’t have any hard facts yet.”
She said the way the clients responded in the aftermath of the tragedy was “just amazing.
“We’ve had clients that were with us from the beginning, and they were all very sympathetic, making sure everyone was okay. … It took us about six weeks to secure the lease on the temporary space and move equipment, and we switched to virtual sessions for the time being, and we made it work,” Whalen said. “It was such a family feeling.”
Working with clients with a wide range of struggles is no problem for the studio. Like Whalen said: It’s adaptive.
“There’s so many different types of people — some people are recovering from Breast Cancer, or major surgeries have them so limited in their ability that even hanging their coats up became difficult — and to see them the first time they can come in and do more things, it’s amazing,” she said.
For Whalen, the biggest impacts in her clients’ lives come from the simple moments. “With the seniors we work with, they’re able to walk up and down stairs easier, or get off the ground with their grandkids; they’re able to go out and throw the ball around … just their general endurance of being able to keep up.
“It’s really all about the little things … being able to enjoy what they’ve worked so hard for all their lives and having a more fulfilling retirement,” she said.
She noted that she also had a fire in her Westwood location three months after opening. “It wasn’t the first time this happened, but after all this is done, I can look back and realize that it’s going to be bigger and better,” she said.
According to Whalen, it will be a brand new building with more space and more attractions for consumers to come down. “Once they start on the building, I think there will be a lot of curiosity and foot-traffic,” she said. “I know that it’s going to be better, and that we’ll end up on top.”
