All-women gym is closing its doors in SLO after nearly 20 years: ‘We have mixed emotions’
An all-women gym in San Luis Obispo will close its doors at the end of the month after nearly 20 years.
Equilibrium Fitness for Women will shut permanently at 3930 Broad St. on Oct. 31, co-owner David Pomfret wrote in a Sept. 30 post on the business’s Facebook page.
The gym reached the end of its lease and had not been given the opportunity to extend it, Pomfret said.
“We have bittersweet and mixed emotions of this chapter of our lives,” Pomfret said in the post.
Equlibrium Fitness for Women was founded in 2004 as The Studio Fitness for Women, but rebranded when Pomfret bought it in 2006.
“This is where Brittany and I first met, fell in love, and raised our babies,” David Pomfret said, referencing his wife and business partner, Brittany Pomfret. “This is where we shared so many major life moments with members and staff alike.”
“The past three and a half years have been the most financially and emotionally challenging years of our lives,” David Pomfret added, due to closures restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as “very expensive operating costs and ever-rising expenses.”
Moving forward, Pomfret and another personal trainer from Equilibrium Fitness for Women will offer services at Fitness Edge, 795 Buckley Road in San Luis Obispo.
Meanwhile, Brittany Pomfret is launching her own business, Kismet Fitness, at San Luis Obispo Public Market. She will be sharing space with Nexus ballroom dance studio.
According to the Facebook post, Kismet Fitness will offer a variety of whole-body exercise classes specifically for women and non-binary people. The classes offered will utilize “weights, steps, balls and bands” to improve cardiovascular health.
Kismet Fitness will also offer prenatal and postpartum specific classes.
There was an outpouring of supportive comments in response to the announcement of the gym’s closure, with many highlighting the gym’s safe and welcoming atmosphere.
“EQ was the first place where I learned to love fitness programs,” Facebook commenter Alicia Stefani wrote about her former gym. “I felt safe, accepted and welcomed in such a wonderful environment.”
Another Facebook user, Ann Duggan, said that her membership at Equilibrium Fitness “brought such a positive change in my life.”
“I never liked exercise classes until EQ,” she added.
As of Thursday afernoon, Equilibrium Fitness for Women had not responded for requests for comment on the closure.
