By Max Sullivan

Hampton Union, January 22, 2016

[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]

Rachel and Will Gonzalez are opening Snap Fitness this March at 845 Lafayette Road,
the same plaza as the Community Oven. [Max Sullivan photo]

HAMPTON — A new gym is coming to Hampton this year, one that will offer 24-hour access, personal fitness instruction and a touch of community involvement.

Snap Fitness will open this March at the former location of Route 1 Kettlebell at 845 Lafayette Road, part of the same plaza as the Community Oven. The owners, Rachel and Will Gonzalez, said the gym will be available for members to access using a key card swipe. They said they’ll also be on-hand to manage the gym and help clients from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The gym’s opening is currently set for March 14.

The goal of Snap Fitness, they said, is to welcome people from all fitness backgrounds and to be personally available for their clients. They said they hope to become a fixture in the Seacoast community.

“We’re fitness motivators,” said Will. “We’re in the business of changing people’s lives.”

Snap Fitness is the couple’s first attempt at owning a gym. Will spent 20 years working as an accountant for Deloitte and Bacardi. When he and Rachel got married three years ago while living in Bermuda, Will decided to get out of the field, as the long hours were too taxing on their marriage. Both passionate about fitness, they decided to look into opening a gym.

“I just always looked around and said, ‘I have an entrepreneurial side to me,’” Will said. “I thought, ‘I could run one of these.’”

Will and Rachel said they received a lot of feedback about what people want in a local gym, and one of those needs was personal training classes. They said some local gyms that are 24-hour access never have trainers available, leaving clients to work out by themselves. That’s an approach Will and Rachel said they want to avoid with their gym.

“When people walk into the gym, we want them to feel like they’re part of the gym,” Rachel said. “Feel comfortable with us, feel like a family environment.”

Will said he and Rachel are also inspired to help locals get away from sedentary lifestyles, something he said is a problem for many in the country today. He hopes Snap Fitness is a catalyst for people with sedentary lives to finally get moving.

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