How He Turned His Tiny Studio Into a Fitness Powerhouse: ‘At First People Were Coming Just to Play With My Dog and I Was Okay With That’ 

If you want to get pumped up physically and emotionally, spend a few minutes talking with Sam Tooley, the founder and CEO of Alpha Fit Club, a boutique strength-and-conditioning franchise he started in a 700-square-foot studio in New Jersey back in 2019. Today the brand has 20 studios open and 30 more sold across the East Coast. On October 3, they’re hosting their biggest event yet: Alpha Games, where 1,550 members and 750 teams will compete at American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. I sat down with Sam to talk about the heartbreak that sparked his franchise and hustle, and the unbeatable power of community.

Dan Bova: How did this franchise come to be? What’s the origin story?
Sam Tooley: I struggled towards the end of college, couldn’t figure out how to graduate, but eventually did. And I knew I wanted to coach. I was a state champ, high school record holder, went on to run in college, and running was just a big part of my DNA. So I moved home to coach, and that first season, my dad passed away really suddenly. That turned my world upside down. I needed to show up for my brother, who was a freshman in college, and for my mom, and I asked myself, “It’s great that you’re a coach in high school, but you need to start making some money here.” So I put myself out there, started my Instagram account, and started coaching endurance athletes all over the world. I coached three Olympic trial qualifiers in the marathon. It took off, but I was nervous about just having an online business, so I opened my first personal training studio. It was 700 square feet. It was me, my dog and a squat rack. Most people were just coming to play with the dog, which was totally fine with me.

Then you experienced another devastating loss.
The first month after I signed that lease, we experienced a home fire and my younger brother passed away in it. I was home, my mom was home. It was something you see on the news and never expect to happen to you. And yet I was living it. I used to use this term, “selfish selflessness,” where I learned that if I pour into other people, I feel really good, too. So I was like, all right, let me keep doing that, because everybody benefits. Work became that outlet. Coaching became that outlet.

So how did the studio turn into a franchise concept?
Two of my clients became like family, and they were exploring buying a local Orange Theory or opening an F45. This was back in 2017. We looked at all of them and took a step back, and I said, “I think we have an opportunity to build something ourselves.” We wanted to bring New York City-inspired boutique fitness — lights low, music bumping, coach on the mic — but pair it with the things that mattered to me, which was incorporating real strength training and a methodology. That’s a really difficult thing to do well. More often than not, people focus on the experience and do that well, but the programming falls by the wayside. Or they focus on the programming and there’s no experience. We opened the first studio in April 2019 in Westfield, New Jersey. We had 400-plus members within the first 10 months. And then the pandemic hit.

How did you keep the business alive?
I truly said, “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” with a smile on my face, because after what I’d already been through, contextually, this wasn’t that big of a deal. We took a step back, figured out a way forward, did the Zoom workouts, the outdoor workouts. I’d bring a boombox and a whiteboard downtown, and I’d have 250 people show up for a workout in the middle of Westfield. You could tell people were craving community and connection, and that wasn’t going anywhere. We had every intention of franchising before we ever opened the first studio, so we built everything with replication in mind. Nobody was signing leases to brick-and-mortar spaces at that point, rightfully so, and we did anyway. We ended up selling 20 franchises by the end of 2021, before we ever opened our first.

Photo credit: Alpha Fit Club

Can you paint a picture of the actual workout experience?
I want it to feel like your hometown gym when you’re in the studio, but behind the scenes I want it to feel like the most professionalized business you’ve ever been part of. You walk in, you’re greeted, people know your name. It’s not cold — it feels warm. We call it lobby life. When you walk into the workout room, it’s almost like a different environment. We’ve coined the term “approachable athleticism” — you can be 18 years old or 65, but the prerequisite is a willingness to do the work. Six stations, six minutes, one minute to rest and rotate. Equal balance of strength and conditioning. The lights are low, the music’s bumping. There’s a demo that breaks down the workout, a dynamic warm-up, and then you’re right into it.

What advice would you give someone thinking about franchising their own idea?
Until there are economies of scale and you understand what it takes to run multiple studios yourself, and can confirm it’s replicable, I’d have a very hard time standing in front of a prospective franchisee saying, “Bet on us.” A franchise is still a small business at the end of the day. You still have to do the work, and the burden of responsibility is ultimately on the franchisee to figure it out. I’ve had people take out a second mortgage on their home to do this thing — that’s a real responsibility. And the caliber of franchisee you select is going to dictate your success as a franchisor. You need to find people who have the entrepreneurial spirit and bring something to the table.

Tell me about Alpha Games. What’s that whole event like?
It’s why I’m wearing a hat — I’m losing all my hair planning it. Four years ago, HYROX New York had 5,000 people and we brought 500. We were 10% of that race, and we don’t even train for HYROX. So I took a step back and said, if we’re bringing people to a competition we don’t train them for, and they get hooked, chances are they’re leaving our gym to train for that instead. Why can’t we put on our own competition? We know how to throw an event. Year one, we had 550 people, at nine studios, and the capacity limit was 600 — we almost sold it out. People walked in and it blew away their expectations. Year two, same venue, sold out in 72 hours, 900 competitors across 13 studios. I left there and said, “We are going to need a bigger box.” My friend, a CrossFit competitor, had competed at the American Dream Mall, and the photo he sent me — camera angle low, this glass dome ceiling above the ice rink, he looks like a gladiator in a coliseum — I drove there the next day, walked in, and my jaw was on the floor. I said, “This is it. Non-negotiable.” We launched registration August 1st. We have 1,550 competitors coming through, and we’re expecting another 3,000 spectators. We’ve got beer gardens, specialized merch, a recovery lounge, an incredible start line and finish line. It’s been a year in the making, and I think the walls are going to shake.

Are you competing this year?
I am not. I’ve made that mistake two years in a row — I have learned my lesson. Last year, one of the stations was 60 burpees split between you and your partner before you finish on a one-mile run. My partner was an All-American 400-meter hurdler and our graphic designer — an absolute stud. She just showed up, had a little snack, and she’s flying through the air doing these burpees. Meanwhile, I’d been there for 12 hours at that point — I don’t know what day of the week it is, I can’t see my feet. I’m looking at the crowd, shaking my head in disbelief, like, “Why did I think this was a good idea?” So this year I’ll be up in the beer garden, cheering everybody on.

Photo credit: Alpha Fit Club