Meet your Merchant: Snowmass Fitness Room

Walk too fast and you just might miss it: Tucked into the lower level of the Snowmass Mall just above the Daly Lane bus stop, the Snowmass Fitness Room aims to offer a workout experience catered to a wide variety of different — but all specific — approaches to getting in shape.

It’s not a place for people who want to just lift weights or take laps in the pool, and it isn’t intended to be, said Christine Newcomb, who is part of the Snowmass Fitness Room team with Charlie Burrows, Christina Smith and Rae Raymond.

Think more “boutique” experience, less big-box gym, Newcomb said.

“​That’s kind of a hurdle that we’re facing now, is how do we get our name out there to people that are looking for this specific type (of experience and) … are looking for something more streamlined?” she said.

For an upstart studio, Snowmass Fitness offers quite a few of those specific experiences. Newcomb specializes in high-intensity interval training (often referred to as HIIT) and “Core Crunch” sessions and dance; Burrows teaches jiu-jitsu; Smith and Raymond are both yoga instructors.

“We do aim to be a multi-faceted kind of fitness, and that’s why it’s ‘Fitness Room’ and not ‘Dance Room’ or … ‘Jiu-jitsu Room,'” Burrows said, “because we want to be able to offer (classes) to not only to the locals but people will come in and travel; maybe they do a HIIT class in their hometown, but they can come in and get one here.”

Fitness, for Burrows and Newcomb, goes beyond the hour or two spent in the studio.

“I just really love it — it has definitely become part of my lifestyle, and I just want to be able to share that because it’s a natural high, every time you exercise, you get a release of endorphins,” Newcomb said. “I think, especially in this valley, if you really want to get obsessed with something, that’s something that’s a great thing, and I just want to be able to share that with everybody else.”

For Burrows, “Fitness is more than just working out; it’s got to be a mindset,” he said. “You have to feed your mind and your body. … If it’s good in, then it’s good out.”

It’s also a method for self-protection, he noted; Burrows first got involved with the jiu-itsu practice with a desire to learn self-defense after he and his girlfriend were jumped and had to go to the hospital.

“I truly believe that you should know how to defend yourself, where you should be in shape to run away if you need to, because for me — these are maybe some harsh words — there’s a difference between being able to choose to be peaceful and not (having) a choice,” Burrows said.

It can be a humbling experience out there on the mats, and one that might be intimidating for those who aren’t yet used to the close contact that’s part of the jiu-jitsu experience.

But “once you get past that, it’s just a whole new world,” he said.

Burrows said Snowmass Fitness offers a “quality product” — one that, yes, will help clients get in shape, but also one that comes with the support for each individual to reach their goals.

“There’s a true belief in what we’re doing. … We’re going to not be hard on you, but we’re going to help you get there,” he said. “We’re not just gonna go, ‘Oh, you don’t want to do it, see you later.’ We actually want you to feel something, we want you to get something out of it.”

For a full list of classes and more information, visit snowmassfitnessroom.com.