Empowering women to love what their minds and bodies can do
Set in 12 acres of beautiful Somerset farmland, Studio 37 offers the opportunity to train in a fun, energetic and discreet space. Choose from 121 personal training, small group and bootcamp style classes, as well as one-off weekend retreats and a mobile service if you are unable to make it to any of our classes.
My aim, in a world filled with images of so-called perfection, is to help you appreciate and celebrate just how incredible your body is. I want Studio 37 members to discover some of the amazing things that our bodies and minds are capable of and just how amazing that can make you feel.
I want to remove many of the barriers which can exist for mothers in particular to train: classes are before and after school drop off times, children are welcome in the space and we have a safe area set aside for babies to play. We have ample parking and as a women only, private gym, not only can our members train without the common fear and uncertainty of using weights in a male dominated gym space, I also hope to create a community of women supporting each other to have fun and get fit.
As a mother of two I know how hard it can be to make time for yourself and in particular how hard it can be to get back to exercise post-birth so I want to make it as easy as possible for people to make it to our sessions regularly without having to rearrange their lives around three hours of exercise a week.
I want you to have fun and to achieve your goals and importantly to realise, rediscover and embrace your own abilities, strength and resilience.
“Erica is brilliant! Her encouraging, positive and practical approach to getting me moving has been exactly what I (didn’t know I) needed! … If you’re unsure how and where to start on your fitness journey, no matter what your age or level of fitness, I’d really recommend getting some of Erica’s magic in your life!
” Simone
“I am so enjoying working with Erica. I am seeing the results I want…leaner body shape, faster running times and having fun too.” Katharine
Meet Erica
I spent 10 years working in arts marketing and until 2012 I hadn’t done any exercise. I can’t even say I hadn’t done any exercise since school because even then I would make excuses not to got to PE. I would eternally engineer ways of being at the back of the queue in gym class (as a result I can still not do a forward or backward roll) and I would smirk if I saw people running.
Then one day a friend of mine posted a picture of herself on Facebook having spent 18 months getting fitter and healthier. I had known in my heart of hearts that I needed to stop being so sedentary but this was the spur I needed. I signed up there and then for an outdoor bootcamp., training in a local park three times a week. At 7pm. In February.
Quite understandably my friends and family gave this new project a matter of weeks before I would crumble and return to my non-active, crisp-guzzling ways but this was the beginning of a real love for health and fitness. Six years later, whilst on maternity leave with my second child, I retrained as a Personal Trainer and put plans in motion to open a women only gym space on our farm in Somerset.
The rest is an evolving history that has taken me from fitness enthusiast to fitness professional, changing the lives of my clients and helping them to achieve their health and fitness goals.
Meet Granny
This is Granny:
She died in 2017 aged 96. She trained as a dentist in the late 30s and spent the war as a dentist in the Women’s Royal Air Force. She lost her fiancé to the war (although we only discovered this at her funeral) and spent most of her life working as a dentist in Cumbria. She nursed her parents and, when she moved south and married my grandpa in her 60s, she nursed him through a major stroke and cared for him until his death.
She ate heartily and healthily. There were always KitKats at Granny’s house and she only drank a small glass of champagne (or two!) on special occasions. She loved to garden and walked at a million miles an hour, the click click click of her NHS issue walking stick heralding her arrival in later years.
There was not a bad bone in her body and I genuinely believe that she made it to nearly 100 without ever saying a bad word about anyone. She never had her own children but was the most caring and maternal woman I know.
She LOVED food and could demolish a whole sea bass in record time. She worked hard all her life and she never complained. She was famously un-greedy, asking only for a new ironing board cover one Christmas!
Granny left me some money when she finally gave in to dementia and it is that money that is financing the gym equipment. There will be reminders in the gym to #bemoregranny (and kitkats!) and this is why 💛
Pay it back
In a world seemingly dominated by money and wealth, power and status, the businesses I love this most are those that do things a bit differently. Initially I imagined that my giving back would take the form of donations to charities who work to improve the lives of women. Then last summer I saw a shocking statistic which changed how I viewed giving back. When I read that 6 million UK mum’s want to exercise more but lack confidence, time and childcare I decided that instead of donating a percentage of my profits to charity I would launch The Wonder Women Project to give two local women a free six month membership to the studio. My aim is that there will permanently be a Wonder Woman membership available at the Studio 37 so that women who, for whatever reason have found it difficult to access formal exercise, can take the time to invest in themselves.
In addition, Studio 37 will be created as environmentally as possible. The Gym will eventually be solar powered, with solar providing power for the electricity for at least 6 months of the year. For the rest of the year our electricity will be supplied by Bulb, the UK’s biggest green energy supplier. Water will be provided from our on site borehole and members are encouraged not to use single use plastic.
