Photo courtesy of F45 Lakewood via Facebook.

An East Dallas family is opening a new fitness studio in Hillside Village.

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Kari Garrick and her family have been living in East Dallas since 2007. Her four kids attend St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School.

Garrick’s father-in-law opened an F45 franchise in South Melbourne about 8 years ago, and Garrick had been waiting to open her own for a while. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health and fitness management from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) and was a dancer for the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks. She later worked in the fashion industry for nearly a decade.

Garrick really started focusing on opening a franchise when the pandemic hit last year.

She found a storefront in Hillside Village, which is a convenient location for Lakewood neighbors, situated at the intersection of Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road.

Garrick has tried many different kinds of workouts, but F45’s methods were the most effective for her in terms of strength, stamina and definition.

“Healthy living has been extremely important to me,” Garrick said.

One thing she loves about F45 is the expansive variety workouts it offers. With more than 4,000 exercises, neighbors could workout every day for a year and never repeat a workout. Almost every session lasts 45 minutes, with some focused on cardio and some focused on resistance.

Garrick is hiring nationally certified personal trainers who will lead the group classes and ensure participants are motivated and doing the exercises properly.

Our neighbor is shooting to open F45 this fall. The studio is now offering a special: two weeks of unlimited access for $25. Only a limited number of those passes are available, and anyone who signs up for one will be able to try out the studio when it opens and get a lifetime discounted membership rate. Garrick wants to have an InBody scanner available so people can learn their lean body mass and body fat percentage to form specific, targeted goals for the two-week trial period.

In the meantime, neighbors can download the F45 Challenge app, which has recipes, at-home workouts and other resources.

Garrick is also working on a promotion involving the Lionheart monitors. They help people reach their fitness goals faster and monitor heart rates. They can also be linked to F45’s in-studio screens.

Follow F45’s Facebook or Instagram pages for updates.

F45 is located at 6465 E. Mockingbird Lane in Hillside Village Shopping Center near Haystack.