An area fitness trainer is bringing a new concept to St. Louis—based on a surfboard.
Cari Allen, 38, discovered SurfSet boards at a yoga studio in Costa Rica this summer. She went once, then five more times, and ordered one for herself when she got home.
“I started practicing in my basement with my fitness instructor friends. The more I saw them get excited, I thought, OK, I think this is something St. Louis would really find cool.”
It’s a surfboard raised off the ground about eight inches, sitting on stability balls.
“It makes all the stabilizer muscles, your core, everything work on overdrive,” she said. “And it’s fun because you can do surf-inspired movements, you can do your standard high-intensity work, you can do pretty much anything you can do on the ground on this board, and it amps it up a notch.”
Allen has leased a 2,500 square foot space at 1244 Hanley Industrial Court to open a studio with the SurfSet boards, RealRyder bikes, and TRX suspension training. She said the three pieces “really blasts your core.”
The studio will be called Core 3, and she’s aiming for a mid-January grand opening.
She knows she’s moving into an area with several other fitness studios nearby.
“It’s such a great location—so central,” Allen said. “Everybody brings their own flavor to fitness. I don’t think any of the operators there are stepping on toes.”
Allen said fitness has been a passion of hers since she started teaching step aerobics before class when she was in high school.