Body Shop Movement Studio builds community through group fitness

When Kim and Jason Frueh opened Body Shop Movement Studio in San Marcos, they aimed to build a community and be more than a fitness studio. Almost four years later, they continue to look for ways to grow in San Marcos.

How it started

The couple met in 2000 at a Dallas health club where Jason Frueh was a member and Kim Frueh worked the front desk. They moved to Austin in 2004 and joined Gold’s Gym a few months before their wedding. They said that’s where they started to develop a fitness routine.

“I don’t know that there’s even been a week where we haven’t done something since then…” Jason Frueh said. “[Fitness] has been a part of our lives for so long, and it’s something we were always interested in doing.”

Body Shop Movement Studio opened in October 2020 in what was previously Red Dawg Hot Yoga, San Marcos’ only hot yoga studio at that time. Kim Frueh had begun yoga classes there when they moved and, rather than closing the studio during the pandemic, Red Dawg’s owners approached the Fruehs about buying the business.

What they offer

Body Shop Movement Studio offers group fitness classes such as barre, cardio dance and various yoga classes like Buti, Hatha, Yin, Hot Vinyasa and more. Kim Frueh said the hot yoga classes are the most popular. During these, the studio is warmed up to between 85 and 105 degrees.

The Fruehs both enjoy practicing yoga, although Jason Frueh said he uses it to supplement his other high-intensity interval training, or HIIT-style workouts, like cycling or weight lifting.

They have different workout styles, so they want to offer something for everyone at the studio.

“A lot of yoga classes, a lot of movement classes, but also just a variation here…” Kim Frueh said. “If yoga isn’t your jam, if that is not your thing, then we can find something else for you. There will be something else that might sit with you a little bit different.”

The Fruehs continue to explore different fitness classes for Body Shop Movement Studio like roller skating and kickboxing.

Get involved

Body Shop Movement Studio offers individual class signups for $18 each and monthly memberships starting at $95. Other class subscriptions are also available.

The Fruehs said their goal has always been to bring people together through fitness, and a big part of that is community feedback. A chalkboard wall in the Body Shop studio is filled with answers to monthly questions “what’s your motto?” and “what are you grateful for?”

The couple wants to create a “safe space,” they said.

“Group fitness, you’re [held] accountable, and you fall in love and make friends with the people that show up every day in the same room sweating it out with you,” Kim Frueh said. “There’s something about that same person, that nine o’clock group where you’re like, ‘how was that thing you were talking about yesterday?’ Then you go back and see them again. It’s the community and the friendships.”