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FLORENCE - Brian Dzubinski has turned his passion for staying in shape into his livelihood.
Dzubinski, 29, has invested roughly $175,000 to open BEAT Personal Training along U.S. 42, making his the first franchise of the Madisonville-based company to expand into Kentucky.
Before opening the training center, Dzubinski worked in BEAT's corporate center as a trainer for a year. He paid a $50,000 fee to become a franchisee.
"I've been involved in the fitness industry all my life," he said, recalling the days when he was an eighth-grader training people in the basement of his parents' home in Pittsburgh.
Dzubinski, who moved to Cincinnati about two years ago, has a bachelor's degree in exercise from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. He's certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a strength and conditioning coach.
He said he opened the training center in the Florence/Union area because of its growing population, high traffic count and number of residents with high disposable incomes.
BEAT has six training centers in Ohio, including five in Greater Cincinnati. BEAT, which stands for Baker Enhanced Athletic Training, also has plans for training centers in Maineville, Liberty Township and Montgomery, according to its Web site.
Dzubinski said BEAT caters to people who want to lose weight, improve athletic performance and recover from injuries.
Training sessions run $39 to $90 per session per person.
Contact: 513-319-0188
GINA DAUGHERTY | CIN WEEKLY
Twins Paul and Patrick Baker, both very tan and very buff chiropractors, have spent the last three years developing BEAT, Baker Enhanced Athletic Training. It's personal training without treadmills, stair-climbers or Cybex machines. The concept is not entirely unique in the world of personal training, but the contraptions their clients find themselves on instead certainly are.Like the treadsled. Pat Baker calls it "the equalizer." Kelly Julien, who lost 60 pounds using BEAT, calls it hell. "I hated it the most," says the 41-year-old mother of two. "It's a treadmill, but you have to make it go yourself, and they put rubber bands on your ankles. Nobody likes the treadsled."The contraption was brought in by Matt Wiedemer, a former trainer for the Cleveland Browns who helps run BEAT with the Bakers. He says ordinary treadmills are virtually useless for training. But forcing clients to generate their own power; that's something else."Anybody can walk on a treadmill," he says. "Look at how many people are out of shape on treadmills."IN THE BEGINNINGThe BEAT program starts with an hour-long consultation that can stretch into an entire day for some. It includes body composition testing, measurements, strength and conditioning testing, blood work and a "before" picture. It was the picture that helped get Heather Sapp's attention."I felt like I had reached rock bottom," says the 25-year-old West Chester resident. "I had been working out for a year on my own and nothing. I'd lose 10 pounds, gain 20. It was a roller coaster."Now Sapp's face graces BEAT's promotional materials as one of its greatest success stories: She has lost 70 pounds and is working toward losing 30 more.SUCCESSJulien had a similar "rock bottom" moment. Hers came while she was doing homework at the kitchen table. "I could feel my stomach hanging between my legs," she says. When she went in for her BEAT consultation, she could barely do anything, yet she had run the entire Flying Pig Marathon in 1999. Three workouts a week and a better diet, and Julien had lost 60 pounds in nine months.One of the greatest things about BEAT for Julien is that, even though the Bakers and Wiedemer are all in great shape, they never made her feel fat or unattractive. "They pump you up," she says.
Baker Enhanced Athletic Training opens new location in Parrillo Performance Headquarters
Marty Gallagher
To learn more about BEATS newest location click here for the PDF article.
Aligning their goals Chiropractors have big growth plans with fitness centers
Karen Bells
Courier Senior Editor
Pat Baker and Paul Baker, chiropractors and twin brothers, say they take a dynamic approach to their business and lives, tweaking and re-examining everything they do to see where they can make improvements. They've taken aggressive steps in recent years to grow their business, including publishing several books; patenting a healing technique they created; advertising heavily on television; and lecturing around the country to other chiropractors looking to build their business, through their Elite Consulting Group.
The latest change is a stepped-up focus on growing their Baker Enhanced Athletic Training (BEAT) centers, which offer personal training for athletes and non-athletes and round out the Bakers' plan to offer comprehensive care that goes beyond chiropractic services. They built the first BEAT center next door to their Red Bank Road chiropractic office in Cincinnati in January 2003. Another followed in Mason in April of 2004, and a third will open in February or March at Union Centre Boulevard in West Chester.
Patients' spines aren't the only things getting an adjustment at Baker Family Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic. They created their BEAT centers to stand out in a crowded field of gyms, said Paul Baker. The workout programs are designed by the chiropractors with overall wellness in mind.
"All our trainers are certified personal trainers, and we require that they have at least a four-year college degree (typically in exercise physiology or sports medicine) to work here," he said.
Along with the West Chester BEAT center opening in 2005, they will open a chiropractic office next year in Mason. That office joins the Cincinnati, Fairfield and Loveland chiropractic offices.
"Our goal is to have 10 chiropractic offices and 10 BEAT centers in the Greater Cincinnati area within the next several years," said Pat Baker, with as many as possible located next to each other.
Beyond the 10 corporate-owned BEAT centers, the Bakers want to sell franchises, with the goal of having 100 franchisees. Earlier this year, they trademarked the BEAT concept and filed a Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC). Pat Baker said they have potential franchisees in Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., though neither has signed a contract yet.
The local BEAT centers drive patients to the chiropractic offices, and vice versa, said Paul Baker. The arrangement makes sense, said Rik Battaglia, president-elect of the Ohio State Chiropractic Association. "I think in Ohio this is probably a new type of concept," Battaglia said. "It seems like a great marriage." Paul Baker said a big reason they're able to keep growing, in both the chiropractic and BEAT centers, is their strict belief in having a system or protocol in place for everything they do -- from clinical performance to administrative chores.
"We're huge into systems," he said. "Literally, anything from how to answer the phone to how to clean the office."
Those protocols are essential to the operation of BEAT, said Matt Wiedemer, head trainer and a co-owner of the centers. For example, every new client receives a welcome letter, each receives a phone call after their first workout, machines are cleaned and operated the same way by each employee, clients are given the same answer from any employee when they ask about a specific exercise.
"There's no confusion between management and employees, and there are no loopholes, so every client is treated the same," Wiedemer said. "We're systematized in everything we do and can train every employee in the way we do them."
Wiedemer, a former strengthening consultant for the Cleveland Browns, first met Paul Baker as a patient. "They're always on the cutting edge, whether with cold-laser therapy or MIRT (Muscle Injury Release Technique)," the patented technique they've used on former Bengal Corey Dillon and other athletes, said Wiedemer. "But the biggest thing I liked about them is that they're very purpose-driven and passionate." That sense of purpose has been with the Bakers since they were 8 and decided they wanted to be chiropractors, said Paul Baker. Though their stepfather is a family physician, it was their older cousin -- a chiropractor and competitive bodybuilder -- who influenced their career path. They started getting chiropractic adjustments and learning about nutrition and fitness at 8, and "we've pretty much been on a mission since," Paul Baker said.
Both men are former award-winning bodybuilders and judges for the National Physique Committee, and they apply the systematized approach used in business to their personal health. They follow strict exercise and nutrition regimens, receive weekly massages and adjustments, and work to manage stress.
"The reason we're able to be so energetic is because we ... practice what we preach," said Pat Baker. "Most people are not as productive as they could be -- they're tired, in pain, under stress."
Their comprehensive approach to wellness includes offering nutrition and fitness counseling at their chiropractic offices, as well as selling supplements and having 13 massage therapists on staff between the three offices. Each man also has 500 or more hours of post-graduate education in nutrition. "Having all those things under one roof makes great sense, because it all plays a big part in improving health naturally," said Battaglia. "These guys might be ahead of their time."
© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc. Dr. Patrick Baker
