Former Jerry Springer Show security member starts CT boxing gym

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The SoNo Square facades for The Grit Nina and mSquash, fronting Water Street in May 2023 in Norwalk, Conn.

After a stint in rough-and-tumble TV on "The Jerry Springer Show", a one-time member of the show's security staff is opening the first Rumble boxing fitness gym in Connecticut, joining three other athletic venues at SoNo Square in South Norwalk.

Rumble Boxing SoNo holds its grand opening on June 1 at SoNo Square. The building has a diverse mix of tenants, from mSquash, The Grit Ninja and Iron Vault; to retailer West Marine; to The SoNo Baking Co., the gluten-free baker Stylish Spoon, and dog food brand Get Joy.

Under the tag line "Ten rounds, two fists, zero experience necessary," the Rumble program traverses a circuit of 10 rounds of exercises over 45 minutes against pulsating music. "Like working out in a nightclub" is how Xponential CEO Andrew Geisler describes the Rumble experience, speaking earlier this month on a conference call with investment analysts.

The rounds are split between boxing drills — none involve sparring — and resistance training. The initial slate of classes start as early as 6 a.m. on weekdays, 8:45 a.m. on Saturday and 9:45 a.m. on Sunday. Information is online at www.rumbleboxinggym.com/sono.

Rumble is limbering up a second location in downtown Stamford, with a location and opening date having yet to be set.

The workouts revolve around "teardrop" punching bags that are filled with water in contrast to traditional "heavy" bags filled with sand, which can settle over time and increase the possibility of joint injuries.

Jabs, uppercuts, crosses, hooks — each punch works different muscle groups from the arms and shoulders to the legs and core, which coupled with rounds of squats, lunges and dumbbell exercises creates a complete workout. Rumble instructors pace the group workouts with verbal coaching and prompts, with the assistance of overhead screens. Members able to set their own pace as they increase their stamina, strength and technique.

"Anytime I throw a punch, it's really a full-body exercise," said Dan Peterson, general manager of Rumble Boxing SoNo, during a Wednesday tour of the new facility. "You are driving from your legs, which transfers through your core, which goes through your shoulders. So every time you hit the bag, it's a full body exercise — you're ducking and you're slipping, and then hitting the bag."

Others are looking to recruit franchisees in the Tri-state region for their own versions of the concept, including Mayweather Boxing + Fitness backed by boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr., which has a New York City location and two more in New Jersey. RockBox Fitness, 9Round Fitness and 30 Minute Hit — the last restricting membership to women — also have New York City-area locations. None have announced plans for expansion to Connecticut to date.

Connecticut has independent studios as well that offer fitness programs derived from martial arts training principles, including MJ Fitness & Kickboxing in Danbury; and KickFit CT which recently added a second location in Brookfield in addition to a Ridgefield studio.

And FightCamp offers a home training kit with remote instructors akin to Peloton, to include a sensor-enable punching bag and gloves to help people track their progress through metrics on every punch. FightCamp charges $499 up front for the tracker bag and $39 a month after that for unlimited workouts, listing more than 30,000 members today.

In the early going at Rumble Boxing SoNo, some people are coming every day and others once a week, Peterson said. An introductory session costs $35, with a second session offered free for newbies to decide if they want to proceed to a regular membership.

Peterson says boxing drills exceed any other workout routine he has tried — and with experience opening a Darien gym, he has seen more than a few.

Peterson grew up in Fairfield, his father an engineer at Stratford-based Sikorsky, and became interested in Brazilian jiujitsu through Gracie Sports in Norwalk and by extension overall fitness. He became a personal trainer in Westport, then in 2009 with a brother he opened Infinity Fitness in Darien as fitness "boot camp" gyms began to get traction.

It was at Infinity that Peterson met Steve Wilkos, who parlayed a starring role as head of security keeping guests and audience members at bay on "The Jerry Springer Show" into his own daytime show with NBCUniversal. Wilkos ended up recruiting Peterson into moonlighting gigs on "The Steve Wilkos Show", with Peterson then joining "The Jerry Springer Show" with regular air time on the security detail.

Rumble's founding team includes Noah Neiman, a former trainer with Barry's Bootcamp which helped popularize high-intensity interval training, and which has studios in New York and Massachusetts but not Connecticut. Xponential Fitness bought Rumble in March 2021, the most recent deal in a string of acquisitions dating back to 2015.

Xponential Fitness brands operating in Connecticut today include Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab, Pure Barre and Row House. With Rumble's arrival in Norwalk, the only Xponential franchises that have yet to open in Connecticut are cardio-dance fitness studio AKT, strength gym BFT, treadmill workout center Stride Fitness, and YogaSix.

Across the 10 brands, Xponential added nearly 375 studios last year in North America to push the Irvine, Calif.-based franchisor's total to about 2,300, not including more than 300 more overseas. As of the end of March, the company listed 665,000 members globally.

In the first three months of this year, revenue across its studio brands rose 42 percent to $318 million and "same-store" sales were up 20 percent, leaving out revenue from studios that opened since April 2022.

Fitness studios have seen rebounding membership since the mass closures during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. It took Xponential franchisees two full years for average quarterly revenue to climb back above their averages of the final three months of 2019.

With franchisees facing higher interest rates on loans to finance new studios, Xponential's chief financial officer said that is making smaller boutiques like Rumble a more attractive option, given the lower startup costs.

"Franchisees are not really balking at the fact that interest rates have gone up," CFO John Meloun said. "The financing is there; they're getting it; and studios will continue to get opened."