Walking into StudioFit, a digital sign encourages guests to “Win the Hour”—a phrase members utter to each other throughout sessions. To the right, I see a group exercise room, where we’ll spend the next hour. To the left, a private training room. Most gyms host one-on-ones in the same area others are working out. Here, the separation provides intimacy. Personal training clients get a team of instructors, all onboarded to execute Zach Rochette’s hallmark approach to low-intensity strength training. This ensures consistency and no disruptions to a routine if a trainer is sick or on vacation.
Group classes, which are capped at 30 people, utilize the same functional training approach, with free weights and high-quality machines. The studio also offers periodic open-gym sessions for members. Zach and his wife, Nicole, enlisted local designer Jeremy Jones to design the space. The equipment is sleek black, down to the spray bottles Zach asks members to use to wipe down shared yoga mats. Dark wood lockers and a white-oak welcome desk provide warmth against concrete floors. Yellow TRX suspension trainers, blue BOSU balls and colored resistance bands provide the only pops
of color. The minimalistic design calms—it’s intentional.
StudioFit soft-launched in April, but its members are already fast friends. After greetings, Zach explains the day’s stations and we get started. The class has the high energy of a late-night club—Lil Jon and Jay-Z tunes amp up the crowd. “No glutes, no glory!” Zach tells the group of three walking laterally with a Halo band around their thighs. “You can ski even here in Southwest Florida!” he says to the others at the Concept2 SkiErgs. “The faster you go, the more breeze you get!” he says, with a laugh, to those on the Rogue air bikes, which engage the arms and legs and makes one minute feel like 10.
While the convivial, high-energy atmosphere might recall a Crossfit gym, you won’t see any hang cleans or snatches here. Zach’s low-intensity weight training focuses on controlled movement, like planks, squats with dumbbells, one-legged kettlebell rows and horizontal pull-ups on parallette bars. While high-intensity, cardio-based classes and low-impact mindfulness sessions dominate the group exercise scene, at StudioFit, Zach has members take their time as they work through each move.
The 27-year-old developed his style after earning a degree in exercise science at the University of Central Florida and working with Florida State University’s Division 1 Olympics strength and conditioning team. (If Nicole had stayed on FSU’s cheer team one more year, Zach would’ve trained her. The two met later at an Orlando gym.) Zach blends key components he learned from coaching and observing researchers in the human performance and strength labs to design low-intensity supersets and tri-sets (exercises completed in quick succession), so clients don’t need to supplement with additional cardio. “Our members are really killing two birds with one stone—they’re getting their strength component in, but they also keep their heart rate up,” Zach says.
Workouts are geared toward longevity and accessibility, and Zach designs the week’s group class schedule so members can come daily without fatiguing. Classes alternate from day to day between stations work, interval training or mobility, with a focus on lower, upper or full-body work, depending on the day. It’s not uncommon to see a 71-year-old new to strength training exercising alongside a 28-year-old IRONMAN athlete—each moving at their rhythm and ability. “They’re doing their version of a squat next to each other and then giving high-fives—that’s pretty cool,” Zach says. The challenging, timed exercises ensure focus on self, while the group setting and trainer doling out fist-bumps and affirmations provide togetherness. There’s no competition here—the Rochettes are building community.
“This isn’t just a gym where you sign up and work out—it’s really a whole lifestyle. A lot of people, especially in Naples, aren’t necessarily training for something but want to feel healthier,” Nicole, a Cape Coral native, says. The team creates plenty of opportunities for members to get together socially—summer trips to the beach, pickleball sessions, fall running groups and spontaneous brunch outings—and the couple is looking to transform their gathering room into an educational hub with seminars. Members can use the space to hang out and pursue other interests. Partnerships with local vendors ensure StudioFit is grounded in Naples. Zach and Nicole collaborated with Celebration Park, so after a workout, members got a discount to the food trucks. The studio’s stocked products have Neapolitan ties, too, like the athlete-favorite LMNT electrolyte packets at the front desk.
After class, members flood the gathering room to grab a eucalyptus-infused towel out of the refrigerator (a nice touch you’d find at luxury gyms like big city-favorite Equinox). “It’s a moment we created—everybody gets their towel, and they’re cooling off, and you just get to know each other. I think that’s equally as important as our programming,” Zach says.
