s Body Renew Alaska evolves into its next chapter under incoming owner Aaron Miller, its focus is less on expansion for expansion’s sake. Rather, the fitness franchise’s focus is on returning to what made it successful in the first place. That means continual grounding in a specialized business model that can be difficult to maintain but essential to successful outcomes: a personal connection with clients and their unique fitness goals and journeys.

“At one point there were five Body Renew locations,” says Miller, who grew up in Anchorage. “Body Renew started really small. It was really a personal training studio that happened to sell memberships, and that’s really what their core was. Over time they expanded, they got bigger, they introduced more premium locations, and it transitioned to where it was just another gym, and it lost that personal touch.”

Today, Body Renew is intentionally recalibrating—blending the amenities and accessibility of a traditional gym with the individualized support of a training studio. The shift reflects both lessons learned from growth and a broader evolution in how fitness businesses define value.

Miller’s perspective on the business is shaped by his own path, one that began not in management but on the gym floor and the baseball diamond. He graduated from Service High School before heading to the Lower 48 for college, where he continued playing baseball. Fitness, he says, was always a constant, and easy to fit into the life of a young athlete.

“Working out was a part of my life for as long as I could remember,” Miller says. “The reason I came on as a trainer at Body Renew was I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I liked the gym, that it was somewhere I liked to be. The plan wasn’t to be here forever, but that’s where life took me.”

That transition from athlete to trainer wasn’t without its challenges. Miller saw early on that one major obstacle to overcome is that new gym clients weren’t always coming in with his own lifelong love of workouts.

“In the athletic world, everyone typically liked the workout, and it was natural to build it as part of your lifestyle, to stay consistent,” he says. “But as you get older, fitting fitness into your lifestyle isn’t as easy as it used to be. When you’re younger you have so much time on your hands. As an adult, you feel like you have to fit activity into your life.”

Understanding the difficulty of establishing consistency now sits at the center of Body Renew’s approach to supporting its clients. At first glance, it resembles your average gym—there are free weights, weight machines, aerobic spaces, and saunas. But at its core, Body Renew is moving away from a traditional gym—where members pay dues, show up, and do their own thing—to a space defined by personalized plans and proven results. Its website is loaded with inspirational before-and-after photos of members who have reached their goals.

“You know, a lot of gyms feel pretty transactional,” Miller says. “You sign up, you check in, you come when you’re motivated. We want to be more present than that. We want to make members feel like they’re a part of our community. We want them to know we’re going to reach out to them, not because a payment failed but because they haven’t checked in in a while. We want them to know we’re there when they need us.”

That shift is reflected in how the company now defines success. Outreach and communication with its membership is foundational to Body Renew’s customer service. Instead of focusing primarily on membership numbers, the Body Renew team tracks engagement metrics and outcomes: how often members show up, how they progress, and whether they achieve the goals that brought them in.

“We have a variety of metrics we look at,” Miller says. “Number one is pure member feedback. We check in with members to get their feedback about how their experience was in the gym. We track check-ins per member to make sure they aren’t dropping off.”

If there’s a single window that defines success at Body Renew, it’s the first month.

“We’ve found the first thirty days is super crucial,” Miller says. “Members who make it to the gym eight times in their first month, their success rate skyrockets. It’s all about building that initial routine. That’s our main point of emphasis: building something that you can consistently do. And we really go hard on that in the first thirty days.”

To support that effort, every new member is introduced to what Body Renew calls its “Starting Point” program, a structured onboarding process designed to remove uncertainty and create momentum. The staff conducts a body scan that measures body fat percentage, including breaking it down by segments of the body “so we know what areas of the body to work on,” Miller says. “We figure out what your fitness background is and what your goals are so we can design a program and a routine that’s going to match what your goal is.”

That personalization is key because no two members are the same. While one person may want to bulk up, another may wish to slim down. “So we’ll break down what their goals are and we’ll take into account their lifestyle, which I think is one of the most unique things we do,” Miller says. “We don’t look at it in terms of ‘how to add this to your routine’ but how to build this into your routine.”

That distinction—building fitness into a routine rather than layering it on top—is central to Body Renew’s philosophy. The gym helps craft programs and goals that are achievable and realistic but also require individual commitment to reach that sweet spot of an established routine.

“People will overcommit and say, ‘I’m going to come in five days a week,’ and it sounds good, but for a lot of people that’s not realistic, long term,” Miller says. “So we’ll look at it in terms of, how can we break this down so it’s something you can do every week no matter what? Consistency is one of the most important things we talk about because if you’re consistent you’re going to make progress. Our ultimate goal is helping people build something that they can do consistently. Everyone has a different starting point, and we want to meet you where you’re at.”

For many members, that means starting from scratch. Many new members aren’t consistently working out, Miller says, so the goal is to create a plan that “eliminates the start/stop, start/stop, and make a plan that’s reliable where, if you’re following the plan you’re given, you’ll hit the goals you want to achieve.”

Body Renew’s membership structure is designed to support a range of needs. Memberships are available for purchase in two-week increments and at three different levels. The most minimal provides basic gym access during most hours of the day; the most comprehensive level allows for coaching, customized programming, and progress tracking.

This tiered approach acknowledges that most clients need something in the middle, Miller says: a full gym with coaching support and guidance, structure, and check-ins as they work toward defined goals.

“They need a plan, someone to help keep them accountable, and that’s what we strive for, especially with our signature membership. We provide all the answers you need. You just need to do it,” he explains.

One of the challenges in building a coaching-focused model is striking the right balance between support and autonomy: “Trying to support as much or as little as the member needs, because everyone’s different,” Miller says. “Our goal is a fine line where we don’t want to bug you. We know there are other things in life, but we want to find those sweet spots. We know you, and we know how your life works.”

Miller acknowledges that Alaska presents its own challenges when it comes to maintaining a fitness routine. Intense weather swings can prove discouraging. Glorious summer days may make going to the gym less desirable. Inclement road conditions during long, dark winters are literal barriers.

“It’s really tough to stay consistent, even for the most motivated people,” Miller says. “Our main goal is to take motivation out of the equation.”

This includes discussions and planning around how to maintain activity and workouts when reaching the gym isn’t an option. “We do have a lot of Slope workers and people who have irregular schedules,” Miller says. “Our goal is to support them even when they’re not physically in the gym. Let’s try to not go backward during those two weeks so we can keep making progress.”

Today, Body Renew operates two locations in Anchorage: a southside location on Old Seward Highway near O’Malley Road and a gym on East Northern Lights Boulevard at Muldoon Road. While smaller than its previous five-store footprint, the company sees that as an opportunity to refocus.

“We really wanted to bring that personal touch back,” Miller says. “Our biggest focus right now is continuously improving the member experience.”

Growth remains part of the long-term vision, particularly within the Anchorage market. The company is exploring potentially returning to Midtown, where a previous location once operated and remains missed by members.

Location, Miller notes, plays a critical role in member behavior: “The closer to home, the more likely you are to go. Sometimes five minutes versus ten minutes is the difference between going and not going to the gym.”

At the same time, the company is investing in its team. With a staff of approximately eighteen employees, Body Renew is focused on building a culture that supports both members and careers.

“We always want people who genuinely want to help,” Miller says. “That’s not super hard to find in the fitness world. A lot of people who come in, that’s what their goal is. One of my personal goals is to create a place where people can have a career in the fitness world. I’m looking for a team that will be here for a long haul.”