May 16, 2017

Meet George Solomos of HIT 180 Fitness in Northfield and Winnetka

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to George Solomos.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Sports and Fitness have always been a passion of mine ever since I was a young. As a kid I played almost every sport imaginable but focusing my main attention on soccer. As a teenager I started to get into weight lifting as one of my high school teachers inspired me and told me I had the potential to be an all-around athlete who is fit year round. After graduating from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management I started a small soccer academy with a partner that teaches the fundamentals of soccer to boys and girls ages 2 through 8 years old. As I was starting this business I also started to work as a personal trainer working out of a private personal training studio in Glenview. I used my business degree marketing skills to market myself all over the Northshore. As my clientele grew and their results spread by word of mouth I knew I could take this to the next level. In 2012 we moved to a 15,000 square foot facility in Northfield which was still a private personal training studio. As my schedule grew heavier and heavier with more clients I knew it was time to hire trainers who would work under myself and use my techniques and philosophy on our clients. I also started to see the trend of group classes really start taking off. I attended a class at Orange Theory and Shred 415 to see what the craze was about. These classes were great but I saw an opportunity to take advance of which these classes weren’t offering. The first opportunity was the fact that all the group class studios only really have one type of class (full body) and they were all high intensity and high impact. Well having our studio located in the Northshore I wanted to offer two things. 1. Unique variety of classes and also 2. To focus in on high intensity and low impact to prevent any injuries. I have seen too many people get injured while working out or taking classes from either poor form or high impact workouts. That is when I decided to open up HIT 180 Fitness which offers Personal Training, Small Group Training, Classes, In Home Training, Sports Specific Training and More. Each personal trainer was hired by myself and trained by me in order to ensure everyone gets the best and most out of their workouts. With the classes we offer a variety of classes (HIT 180 class, Cardio Boxing, Legs, butt, & core, Tabata, Cardio Kickboxing), and with these classes anyone who purchases a package to the classes can take any of the classes that we offer. We make sure we are constantly switching up the classes so that nothing becomes repetitive and there is always new workouts to keep everyone motivated.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Opening up a new business is never an easy task and there are always struggles along the way. Our biggest obstacle is that we do not have any street visibility so when we started everything was heavy marketing and a lot of word of mouth. We are located in a warehouse district where most people never drive through unless they are coming to the gym.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with HIT 180 Fitness – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
HIT 180 Fitness offers Personal Training, Small Group Training, Variety of Classes, Sports Specific Training, In Home Training, Boxing Training and also Kids Fitness Training. Our trainers are hand selected by myself to ensure we have the best and brightest trainers in the market. You know a trainer is good when they can branch off on their own and don’t need a big gym/corporation to just hand them clients after clients. A good trainer will hold on to a client for a long time because that client gets the results that they want while forming a bond with the trainer.

The way our classes set us apart from everyone else is that we offer a variety of different classes so nobody ever gets board. One day you can take a Cardio boxing class, the next you can take our HIT 180 class, the next you can take Tabata and so on.

Our HIT 180 class is designed to be high intensity and low impact meaning we don’t have people jumping high on boxes or running on a treadmill at an incline. Instead for our cardio part of the class we use Versa Climbers and Rowers. So we set up four stations in the class which are Cardio, Upper body strength, Lower Body Strength and Dynamic stations. Within each station people will rotate through the exercises (which are switched up daily) and everyone will leave feeling that they got an amazing workout. We have designed this class to be just as challenging for everyone so you can be super fit or just a beginner and the instructor will push you to your limit depending on your level and everyone will leave feeling the same great workout.

The best part is nobody gets injured as we do not do any exercises that can put too much pressure on your knees joints and ligaments.

Our Cardio Boxing class is our fastest growing class as this class is 30 minutes of intense exercises and 30 minutes of boxing (punching a heavy bag or the instructor’s mitts).

I am so proud of our amazing staff of instructors who keep surprising everyone in how great they are first as a person and second as a trainer. I couldn’t ask for a better staff.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plan is to grow this business to its full potential in the Northshore and then branch out and open another HIT 180 Fitness in another area and keep growing the business while still focusing in on quality. I do not want to just go open up everywhere and hire just anyone. I am very specific about who I hire and how things are run. I think the biggest mistake business make are trying to grow too fast because then you lose the quality that brought you here in the first place. Fitness is my passion and I love what I do, I work 14 to 16 hour days to make sure everything is working the way its suppose to and at the end of the day I can rest with ease knowing what I have developed.

Pricing:

Personal Training Prices are determined by packages and the trainer
Class pricing is single class $25, package of 12 classes $20 per class, package of 16 classes $19.50 per class
Package of $24 classes $19 per class. and 12 classes in 30 days $15 per class.

Contact Info: