ASHLAND Area women now have a place they call all their own when it comes to exercising and getting personal fitness training.The Basement by Barbells & Bombshellz has opened downtown at 1510 Winchester Ave. The aptly named fitness center open to women only in the basement below LEO Health & Wellness, owned by The Basement co-owner Jodelle Yount.The new location is an offshoot of Barbells and Bombshellz at 7707 U.S. 60 in Meads which opened last year under the ownership of chiropractor Alicia Eldridge.Right in the thick of the operation of both locations is longtime trainer Eden Roach. Roach brings her 14 years of experience downtown because she said several people have the perception that they are way out in Boyd County and it is too far to go.A native of Ohio and a graduate of Symmes Valley High School, Roach said she now lives in Boyd County but has several clients making the drive from Ohio.“The whole reason for me with starting this with her (Yount), she had been training with me last two years, and I had been calling people from the Ohio area along the river but it got to the point of where a lot of people wanted something a little bit closer,” Roach said.“I had spent the last eight months trying to find a trainer, and I couldn’t really think about anybody; then, of all things, I had dreamt of Brittany Stallo, the trainer that will be operating all of my training (downtown). It was the strangest thing because I hadn’t seen her since college,” said Roach.Roach said the two used to train together and went to college together at Ohio University Southern in Ironton. She said they had a lot of classes together and even formed a 5K run together in Ironton.“I shot her a message and she almost immediately replied back within the hour,” Roach said. “It was almost meant to be. It just came together. We were excited about it. We got her involved. I knew what kind of person she was, and I knew that she would be perfect. It just happened, and it kind of gives me chills when I think about it.”A Buckeye herself, Stallo was on the track and field team at Fairland High School in Proctorville. She later took up weight training and became a licensed trainer, and has several years of experience.“I actually met Eden in a running class at OUS Ironton. We hit it off right away. We both had such a love for fitness,” Stallo said.She became interested in fitness training as a teenager.“My interest for training started when my dad bought me a Y membership when I was 16. I was always skinny but when I started to lift I noticed I could change the shape of my body with weights.”Stallo said that when that happened, she became hooked, and decided to be a personal trainer.“I wanted to be a personal trainer and help others change their bodies, and achieve their fitness goals,” she said.Yount said members get to have two free classes with Stallo.Yount said she has the podcast “Feed Your Lion,” which is available on Spotify and Apple.The Basement will open on Friday, Nov. 10, at 10 a.m. with an introductory boot camp. It will likely be open seven days weekly, but Yount said it may be closed Sunday or offer limited hours then.She said there will be an entrance that members will be able to activate — any time of the day or night that they want to work out.
https://www.dailyindependent.com/news/womens-fitness-center-set-to-open/article_3109444a-799b-11ee-9778-bbbd692c251a.html
