Skye's The Limit Fitness - A Love Story

It all started because Jen Andrews got into fitness about a dozen years ago.

She had been working, along with her husband Kyle, on their home-based house cleaning business, Hubby's House, while raising their daughter August Skye.

She found getting fit brought her new energy.

“I fell in love with it. My body felt great, and I eventually wanted to share that experience and passion with others,” she said.

Jen ended up taking a personal training course and other certifications, building up a clientele and holding classes for seniors at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team,

She even opened a small gym in the garage at their home in Tichborne.

By this time, Hubby's House had morphed into a renovation company, which kept Kyle busy.

“People started asking me if they could use the gym on their own, but it is a pretty small space and I was using it as a space for the personal training much of the time,”

Jen and Kyle had looked for a rental space in Sharbot Lake and had not found anything quite affordable or suitable. Eventually, they took a close look at the building that used to house the Dollar Store, and decided it could be renovated for their purposes, and took the plunge.

Skye’s The Limit Fitness, a bright, shiny, newly renovated gym, is the result.

“It was a big leap for us,” said Kyle, who applied his constructions skills and the connections he had built with other trades to transforming the building into a welcoming space for fitness enthusiasts from around the region.

As is often the case, the construction project took a lot longer than planned.

The Skyes the Limit sign went into the window late last summer.

“I thought we would be open by October,” said Jen, “but a lot more work had to be done than we thought.”

“Once you start tearing things down, you find a lot more than you expect,” said Kyle.

The floors needed reinforcing, and some other structural work was necessary as well, and there was electrical and plumbing work to be done, and new walls to be put in. It became clear that October was not going to happen, and soon it was close to Christmas. By early February, the space had been transformed.

Not only does STL Fitness have a fully equipped gym, with all the cardio and weight training equipment in place and well-designed space in between, there is a separate 400 square foot room for fitness classes and personal training, a smoothie/coffee bar, and a desk space/admin area, there are extras as well.

An infrared sauna, with space for two, is also available, as well as a red-light therapy room. The gym is accessible 24 hours a day through a secure door lock system for members, and there are several classes and other features coming on stream quickly.

All of this has come about in the month since the gym opened at the end of February. Fitness classes with Jen Farnum, Zumba classes with Heather Kelly, 60+Seniors Classes, and Circuit Classes with Jen Andrews, and footcare and Splay time classes by Juana Gramajo are all available on a weekly basis. Yoga begins in April with Laina Lees.

A front patio and backyard outdoor space will follow as time, and money, permit.

The goal for Jen and Kyle is to bring the community together through fitness and wellbeing. Memberships are for full access 24/7 at $55 per month. With drop in, senior, student and first responder rates available as well.

“There already is a fitness community in the area, which is our base, and we are hoping to extend that to new people in the area, and people new to fitness, who are looking for something local, “said Kyle.

Tying in with other businesses, old and new, in Sharbot Lake, has been a real help.

“We see businesses like the Kick and Push, Cardinal Cafe, Sharbot Lake Chiropractic, Lehlewa Lakeside Retreat, Seed to Sausage, and ourselves as bringing new energy to Sharbot Lake, and the business group has been a big help,” said Jen.

There is a long list of people and businesses that stepped up to get STL Fitness up and running, but first it took Jen and Kyle to take the leap, and the risk, to invest in a building, renovation and all the equipment.

“We have been working for ourselves all of our working lives, and this is another step in that, a big one,” said Kyle. “Jen had the dream of building this, and we talked about it and planned it, and we are all in”

” Kyle worked endlessly getting this place built,” said Jen. “It is a team effort.”