Mill Street Fitness, a great small town fit

With a motto of “Stay active, be healthy, live longer!” Mill Street Fitness conveniently located in the Mill Street Mall near Rushford Foods is a perfect fit for the Rushford area. The fitness center is open 24 hours a day so anyone can find a time to work out that fits his or her schedule. Customers access the center using a card which tracks their use; they also sign in when they enter the center. This helps people wishing to have a record of the expense to submit to their insurance or company for rebates.

Mill Street Fitness opened for business in 2006 after Jim Hoiness and his son Marshall visited a couple existing small town fitness centers and decided if it could be done in other small towns, it could be done in Rushford. They had outfitted the gym with quality equipment and were off to a good start when the flood of 2007 hit. With flood waters wrecking all the equipment, the duo had to remove the damaged equipment and start over.

The Carleton College football team came to the rescue and helped clear all the equipment from the building; the Hoinesses installed double doors to the outside to make the removal easier. This was a lifesaver for Jim Hoiness since he was also attempting to clear his grocery store and reopen that. Jim marveled at how easily the football players handled clearing out the equipment; everything was loaded up in a truck and hauled away.

Jim and Marshall went on to replace the equipment and reopen in the same location, filling the center with quality workout equipment from True, Star Trac Pro, Precor, and Paramount. Jim and his wife Gayle handle the in-person end of the business while Marshall, who lives in Eden Prairie, does the billing portion of it.

Both Marshall and his wife Kellie are very involved in fitness; they are both golf pros, certified by the PGA. Marshall coached the golf team at nearby Blake; Kellie is the head pro at Minnekhada Golf Club in Minneapolis.

Dr. David Hinz also helped with the daily operation when he had his practice in the same mall. As a chiropractor, it was a good fit for him to be involved with the fitness center.

Jim noted that now is a difficult time since COVID restrictions have closed the business several times over the past year. Once they closed their business, they stopped billing the monthly members and gave free months extensions to members who were paying ahead. Mill Street Fitness Center was just able to reopen again in December.

Equipment is spread out more in the rooms to follow COVID requirements now. They have also opened a separate room in the mall, equipped with an elliptical and an exercise bike for people who are hesitant to work out near other people. As written in the contracts, all customers are expected to clean the equipment as they finish using it.

Jim and Marshall have very flexible rates; they offer a three-month rate for college students and work out agreements with visitors to the town for a week or two or a month. The center currently has about 45 members with the membership numbers split evenly between women and men.

Jim noted that older people are sometimes intimidated by the machines, but younger people are comfortable with them, having been exposed to them in school.

One of the longtime users of the Fitness Center is Adam Breer. Adam has been using the center four or five days a week for the past 10 years and loves it! Adam was more than willing to demonstrate the center’s equipment.

As the center’s brochure declares, “Health-related fitness will help you feel your best and reduces the risk of heart attack, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Being fit helps you to have more energy throughout the day as well as energy left over so you can enjoy leisure time.”

With the Mill Street Fitness Center open 24 hours a day, no one has a scheduling excuse not to exercise. People concerned about exposure to COVID can use the private room or choose to exercise at an off-peak time. Interested people are encouraged to stop in at the center at 310 Mill S. St, Rushford, and pick up a brochure for more information or call (507) 864-2007.