Today we’d like to introduce you to Cory Ferris
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I toured full time in a rock band in my 20’s. That life style brought about a lot of bad habits such as fast food, over indulgence of alcohol, and cigarettes. When I quit touring, I dabbled in fitness in the attempts to be a bit healthier.
As fitness does for most, it came in spurts of motivation. After years of hopping on and off the horse I finally dedicated my time to my health. I went back to school to learn more about fitness and overall health and wellness. I was working at Marriott and lost my job in March of 2020. I went through a couple of months of boredom and old habits started creeping their way back in.
I knew there had to be a change in the direction of my life. I started offering online training free of charge as I knew others were struggling during this time. In January 2021 I launched Ferris Fitness.
My business started as fully remote and doing a couple of training sessions here and there at my apartment gym. I took a part time job later in 2021 to help pay the bills. My business was growing, and I decided to take it full time in February 2022. Since then, I have had the honor of helping thousands of people conquer their health goals.
As the business grew, I knew it was time to keep growing and expanding our reach to the Atlanta area. I opened Ferris Fitness’ first gym in January 2024. Since then, our business has grown significantly and we have grown into the premier gym in Duluth GA.
We offer so many more services than the traditional gym and have adopted a truly unique experience to fitness for all of our members. We offer services that range from 1-1 personal training, Semi-private training, group classes, nutrition coaching, meal plans, online training and 3D Body Scanning.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been an insanely bumpy ride, as most businesses. Luckily, I have the privealedge of doing what I Iove and helping individuals find tailored solutions to their struggles.
There are way too much struggles to name, but lead creation/ management, retention of clientele were the initial challenges. Towards the beginning of our gym, securing the location was a challenge. Building the gym were some of the most difficult months in my life. I did all of the labor myself and with the help of some friends and family. I laid the floors, built all the equipment, and everything it takes to open a new business all while training my clients at the old facility.
Lately, the biggest challenge has been manageable growth and focusing on expansion.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a fully private gym based in Duluth. We adopt much more of a personalized approach to fitness than our competitors. While other gyms/ trainers might write you a workout program and monitor it… we do much more.
We use 3D Body Scanning technology to assess body composition. Our machine takes roughly 10,000 snapshots of our clients in 45 seconds, creates them in 3D, measures their bodies circumference, and inputs all of the numbers into the Dexa Model (Gold standard for assessing body composition). It will then spit out hundreds of numbers. We can tell our members their visceral fat, regional fat mass in areas such as the upper stomach, and lower stomach, body fat percentage, lean mass percentage, and TONS of other numbers.
We use this data to create extremely customized programs for our members, and we don’t stop there. We create customized calorie goals, and macronutrient goals based on this data and even meal plans.
We then provide our clients with access to the “Ferris Fitness” app. Once inside, they will see their nutrition goal, track their meals and we monitor along to ensure success. AND this is all included free of charge in their training program.
To save on cost, we offer Semi-Private training. Our members are put into groups of 4 people all of which have their own unique program/ path to success. This is shared time with a trainer to make sure their form is perfect, they are achieving the appropriate rep range, and maximizing the potential.
Small groups are not unheard of, but the “other guys” are putting people in groups with one set workout for the day which does not take in account for every members unique goals, injuries, fitness level and more.
We scan our members every 4 weeks and make adjustments to the plan accordingly.
All of this is offered in a completely state of the art gym that does not offer gym memberships.. so we can ensure use of equipment for all.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Absolutely. Flexibility and adaptability. Life is not promised to be a certain way. As humans we strive for constants. A steady job, a steady home, a steady relationship, set schedules… whatever that may be, but the biggest leaps forward happen when we are thrown a curve ball. If we are stuck staring down at our next step, we can never see the big picture ahead.
I’ve found the biggest key to success is the willingness to adapt and learning from missed steps.
Pricing:
- Semi – Private – $35/ Session
- Online Training – $55-$65/ Weekly
- Group Class $199-$299/ Month
- Meal Plan (Pricing varies)
- 3D Scanning (For those that do not belong to the gym) $49.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ferrisfitness.co
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ferrisfitness
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/ferrisfitness
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ferrisfitness
