Ester Ovakimian is all about fitness. After opening multiple Club Pilates studios, she and her husband, Sarkis Ovakimian, decided to expand and offer amazing and energetic rowing classes through Row House, a franchise started in 2014 by Xponential Fitness. Xponential Fitness was founded in 2017 by Anthony Geisler, an entrepreneur and leader in a variety of fitness offerings including Pilates, cycling, stretching, dance, running, boxing, yoga and, of course, rowing.
Regardless of a person’s fitness level, there’s a rowing class for everyone. As you sit in your erg, or rowing machine, you’ll find the rest of the crew of 15 to 25 people all rowing in sync while rhythmic music pumps up the volume and low lighting provides a truly immersive experience.
The benefits of rowing are numerous and offer a great balance of optimizing aerobic endurance and muscular strength. Your personal indoor rowing machine is calibrated to measure the amount of energy you are using so you can gain real results through recorded data on its Row House app.
“It records meters, how far you’ve rowed, low split time and average split time, or pace, so you can see how you’re getting stronger,” Ester says.
Here, she shares more about what members can expect on this cool and unique Row House fitness journey.
Q. Why did you decide to open a Row House franchise? What attracted you to this particular franchise?
A. We decided to open Row House after joining our local Row House and realizing how fun, effective and inclusive the concept is. The decision was easy since the brand was part of Xponential Fitness, which also owns Club Pilates.
Q. What are the benefits of rowing?
A. Our classes are low impact, and with 86% of your muscles being used, you’re using your cage, trunk and core. And, you’re doing all that while saving the integrity of your joints.
Q. What are the different classes offered at Row House?
A. All of our classes are rhythmic based and music driven. Signature is our most popular class—it’s made up of rowing and floor work intervals. Our Restore class offers dynamic stretching between the rowing segments, and our Full Row class is our endurance and calorie-burning class. Power is our high intensity, heart pumping but still low-impact class, and you’ll definitely be challenged.
Q. Describe the experience of taking part in a class.
A. You’ll be rowing to the beat of the music, and it’s like every single person is in the same boat rowing as a team—there’s so much energy and community.
Q. What is some of the feedback you have heard after the classes?
A. Row House has been the best part of the day! We hear that our classes are fun and effective. We always get compliments on our coaches; they enjoy working together and hitting the goals together. We’ve also heard that it’s refreshing, and classes pass by so quickly!
Q. How does membership work?
A. It’s a month-to-month membership. We have a few different options, but none of them require a commitment.
Q. Tell us about the Meter Program.
A. We acknowledge milestones for the members of our community. They get a specific t-shirt and are added to the Wall of Fame when hitting certain meters.
Q. What is “Row for a Cause” and how does it work?
A. We Work [a commercial real estate company that provides shared workspaces] is a current member and we will be doing events to help a charity out as a studio!
To learn more, visit www.TheRowHouse.com/location/Westlake-Village and then come out and row, row, row your way to fitness and fun!
