“ "I have been a member at Fitness 1 Express since their first year in business. The owners, staff and trainers have always been both knowledgeable and friendly. I enjoy the causal, no-pressure attitude where both those in perfect shape and the "rest of us" can workout without anyone feeling out of place. Everyone who works here has always taken the time to offer me advice in order to achieve my fitness goals. That advice has helped me lose 40 pounds in a matter of a few months. You really cannot find this kind of atmosphere at other gyms. It is simply better service at a much lower price." ”
Mission Statement: Our mission is to provide a quality, functional, inviting and neighborhood friendly gym at a low cost.
Fitness 1 Express began in 2004 with three friends – Karen Klaess, Jody Marsten, and Elisa Rader. This concept design was developed by Karen while the operations were developed by Jody and the sales strategy by Elisa. The three came together to overcome the odds of building an independent club in a saturated market and has attracted the friendliest members and staff in the area. It is a neighborhood fitness center. Fitness 1 has endured against heavy weight competition such as 24 Hour Fitness and LA Fitness and the City of Brea non-taxed membership community center gym to become a strong community partner in the fight against obesity and heart disease.
The vision of these women has been to bring a comfortable, quality and friendly health club to local neighborhoods with low cost memberships and training. They not only understand the need for good health, they lead by example and their services focus on the individual by offering a wide variety of equipment and training classes for every fitness level and age.
The outstanding personal training team offers members and non-members the best advantage for achieving their optimal health goals. These trainers are professionals with many holding bachelor degrees in Kinesiology in addition to national certifications. The knowledge provided by this team is unmatched in other health clubs. Fitness 1 Express’s winning independent training formula is a win-win combination for attracting the best in the business and building a strong professional team.
The future plans of Fitness 1 are to continue to grow their current concept model and add more locations in the Orange County area.
Karen Klaess
Karen Klaess has been in the fitness industry for over 20 years. Her educational background includes kinesiology from the University of North Texas, a bachelor in business management from Pepperdine University and is currently a candidate for a MBA in Finance with Pepperdine. Her career began in Texas working as a sales and training specialist for President’s Health Club, an operator of 40 health clubs, which was later purchased by Bally’s Total Fitness. In 1990, Karen began working for Ray Wilson’s Family Fitness Centers and eventually became the General Manager of a 30,000 square foot club with over 35 staff members. In this role, Karen was instrumental in creating and implementing sales, marketing and customer service support programs which delivered more than $2.8 million in annual revenue for the club and participated in the Family Fitness/24 Hour merger as a minority shareholder. In 1997, Karen was recruited to Total Woman Gym & Day Spa with the specific challenge of building and executing a turn-around strategy for two failing women’s clubs operational systems, creating an aggressive marketing campaign, plus implementing staff training programs to enhance the overall effectiveness of the organization and improve customer satisfaction. Within 6 months, she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer where she was able to increase the company’s overall revenue from less than $1M in 1997 to over $14M in 2003. After leaving Total Woman in 2004, she began Fitness 1 Express.
