Macclesfield's Carla Gilder Fitness celebrates a decade in business
By Alex Greensmith
19th Mar 2024 | Local News
A Macclesfield fitness business has just celebrated their tenth birthday.
Carla Gilder Fitness is a female-focused fitness centre inside Brook Street Mill on Parker Street.
The pink-clad gymnasium is bright, positive and prosperous, something of which their clients aspire for.
Macclesfield Nub News was invited down for a chat to reflect on the past decade, with owner Carla Gilder.
"I've been a personal trainer for 22 years, but in 2013 I had experienced burnout," recalled Carla.
"So in that time, I started to get a few girls on board that were really reliable in my classes and showing an interest in fitness.
"I asked them if I wanted to become instructors, and in early 2014 Carla Gilder Fitness opened.
"We had five instructors, including myself, and we decided to launch our own membership of group exercise classes.
"We still have the original five with me today. So the tenth anniversary means as much to them as it does it me."
The business started out at the Bollington Scout Hut, as Carla is a Bollingtonian. Now they have a state-of-the-art gym on Parker Street, but Carla also continues to teach at Bolly's Scout Hut, in recognition of the pivotal part it played in kickstarting her business.
Their timetabled classes are across the five weekdays, but they host weekend events like fitness festivals and socials.
In 2014, the most popular class was Zumba. Whereas today, four spin classes dominate the weekly schedule.
In recent times, Carla has added new classes like yoga, as she recently qualified to teach it.
"The focus has always been building a community, that is our number one thing," said Carla.
"We've started offering fitness holidays, where we do a city break which entails us hiring other fitness centres in the day and an evening out at night.
"It is important for us to do that, as lots of people have made lifelong friends here. It is one of my favourite parts of the job the fitness holidays.
"The holiday gives people a focus, they want to work towards a fitness goal for it so they can get the most out of it."
Another USP of the gym is their six-to-12 week fitness programmes, one focused on strength and the other on body confidence.
Over the years, the business has raised over £20,000 for charity, with about half of that going to Macclesfield's East Cheshire Hospice.
One of their employees is currently training for a London Marathon to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young.
"It feels great to have reached ten years," added Carla.
"This is my passion. I love it. It doesn't feel like I am coming to work.
"I'm immensely proud of the team, and I am proudest of the community. Everyone is so lovely, it is not an intimidating place to work out, it is a safe place to get fit and feel good about themselves.
"I think we have had a big impact on a lot of people's lives over the ten years."
"But I would like to say that members and clients never realise the impact they have on us, so thank you to them. They lift us up as much as we do.
"They have been incredible, they have supported us a lot over every experience we have had over those ten years. COVID was a big thing, with everyone staying as members doing classes online during the first year of COVID."
Carla is champion of group fitness, and a cheerleader for Macclesfield itself.
"I love Macc, from a social and community aspect I think it is growing massively," she proclaimed.
"There are a lot of gyms, but I think everyone does everything different."
Click HERE to find more about Carla Gilder Fitness on their website.
Macclesfield: You can also follow them on Facebook.
They share a building with new osteopath business First Osteopathy.
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