MY NEW YORK STORY

By Andrea Fornarola Hunsberger | photos courtesy of Elements Fitness Studio

I have always had a love of dance and movement. I began at three years old and have been putting movement patterns together into a fluid motion ever since. I studied dance professionally at the University of Buffalo and graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance. Then I began to pursue dance professionally and was immediately attracted to Barre because of its foundation in ballet and functional movement.

As a professional dancer, I had a strong love of fitness and began teaching in Manhattan as a survival job between professional dance gigs. Soon I was a founding trainer at a very popular boutique fitness studio and noticed how important community, client experience, and fitness was to all the class attendees. In fact, I have always felt that boutique fitness should have an atmosphere that brings people together for the people as much as the workout. This is the reason I’ve always felt seeing a client’s body and life change for the better, working with my highly motivated staff and trainers, and the excitement of creating and growing my business makes this my dream job.

OPENING THE FIRST STUDIO
Because I was focused on the client experience and felt that it was lacking led to the idea of opening my own studio. The idea behind the business and the brand was to give trainers, like myself, an open forum to teach and reach clients. I also wanted to make it a mission to offer smaller classes that are 100 percent experience focused. The first step was writing the teaching manual and getting it copyrighted in early 2010. I organically grew my following through private sessions and launched a group fitness series in Tribeca in 2013. From there, one of my clients urged me to check out the Hamptons. One weekend I was in East Hampton and stumbled upon my first studio. I launched the studio in May 2014, and it quickly grew as we amassed a following. We have been in “go mode” ever since.

IMPROVING HEALTH & FITNESS
Elements Fitness Studio has developed training programs to offer a mix of techniques and methods to help improve health and fitness.

AF™ SERIES
Spend 25 minutes to tone and stretch which achieves results in no time.

Faster than an express pedicure and a millennial favorite! Available in four exercise routines.

SIGNATURE CLASSES
Head-to-Glow barre-based fitness workouts. A results-driven luxury experience. Go ahead, work up that luxury sweat!

Signature Classes combine barre, dance, and total-body fitness conditioning that gets results fast! Check out our highly-successful workouts and sign up now!

Toned By Elements™ This barre/Pilates inspired class fuses ULTRA isometric exercises and interval training with the principles of yoga, strength conditioning, and Pilates core work. Based on Elements™ signature formula, all exercises are sequenced together to achieve increased strength and conditioning. Resistance bands, blocks, and mats are utilized during this class.

Sweat By Elements™ A higher intensity formula pairing our signature toned class formula with non-stop cardio, strengthening, and conditioning sequences. This class includes work on and off the barre and is more challenging than our open level toned class.

Dance By Elements™ A high-energy 60-minute group fitness class that focuses on cardio-based interval training utilizing a choreographed warm-up, isometric floor work, and core building exercises. This class features high-intensity dance choreography, body sculpting, and core strengthening exercises to create a power-packed fitness experience.

Stretch By Elements™ This is a 55-minute stretching and strengthening class focused on lengthening and stretching. Utilizing resistance bands and the barre, we focus on elongating the major muscle groups and stretching the accessory/stabilizing muscles to achieve a long and lean physique. This class pairs well with our signature and advanced barre formats.

A TYPICAL DAY
On any given day at Elements, you’ll find clients and staff sweating it out at the studio. I always connect with new clients and discuss their goals, inquire about their fitness history, ask what their main area of focus is and find out if they have had or currently have any injuries. Our method is easily modified and can be tailored to all of our clients’ needs, especially in private sessions. I create a bond to make them feel like family.

Elements runs flawlessly due to our dedicated staff, top-notch trainers and our incredible clients that stand behind us and propel us forward. We also partner with major corporations including WebMD, One World Trade, The Forge in Long Island City, as well as multiple tech companies and co-working spaces where we offer classes, private training and wellness activations. With these partnerships, Elements works to integrate into the culture of the businesses and residential buildings by offering yoga, lunch and learns, and outdoor run clubs. We see high levels of engagement and a heightened sense of community in all of our partnering organizations.

All of our work is based on our Signature Class and Express Class programs. In the next five years we plan to open our Upper East Side locations and multiple locations across the tristate area. This, of course, will include scaling our corporate wellness programming to reach companies in New York City and beyond—both in office and live streaming content to sweat anytime, anywhere making Elements a global brand.

For more information on Elements Fitness Studio, visit elementsfitnessstudio.com.