Local Gym Becomes Favorite Hometown Hangout
bedford county, recreation, shelbyville, sports,
Newcomers to Shelbyville can expect to receive a warm welcome from a place most people wouldn’t immediately associate with Southern hospitality.
The folks at Harvey’s Gym of Shelbyville greet everyone who comes through their doors as if they were family.
“We want to be known for our hospitality,” says owner Brent Harvey Jr. “When people come in here, we are friendly, and we welcome them with the hospitality the South is known for.”
First launched in 2005, Harvey’s Gym is a bit of a Shelbyville newcomer itself. But thanks to the quality of its facilities and service, and the town’s support, Harvey’s Gym has already realized an important goal: to become the local gym, Harvey says.
“In Shelbyville, we’re the hometown gym,” he says. “We don’t put gyms in big cities. We want to locate in communities where we get to know the people, and they get to know us. We want to get involved and help support the good things going on in the schools and the community.”
In addition to the hospitality, excellent customer service by knowledgeable staff members makes working out at Harvey’s more gain than pain.
“It’s not easy to get yourself into the gym,” Harvey says, “so we try to make it a place where people want to come. When you join, we include personal training with your membership. We’ll sit down with you and talk about your goals and your schedule and your lifestyle. Then we custom-design a training routine for you.”
The state-of-the-art facility has everything you’ll need to carry out your routine, whether you’re just starting or already an experienced fitness buff. Harvey’s Gym has more than 20 cardio machines, all with flat screen TVs, and several aerobics classes to choose from. For strength and resistance training, the gym is equipped with Hammer Strength and Legend machines, as well as a full line of free weights.
Additional amenities include saunas in the dressing rooms, three tanning beds – their use is included in the membership – a kids’ room and multiple wall-mounted flat screen TVs. Harvey’s Gym is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Harvey’s Gym legacy began in 1982, when the younger Harvey’s father, Andy Harvey, opened his first gym and karate school in downtown Columbia. In the mid-1990s, he expanded, opening another gym in a Pulaski shopping center.
The second location gave surrounding merchants such an economic boost that the owner of the shopping center financed Harvey’s Gyms in a number of his small-town Middle Tennessee shopping centers.
Brent Harvey Jr. struck out on his own to open the Shelbyville gym, located at 1733 N. Main St. He credits his team, which includes manager and trainer Tim Anderson and trainer Sheri Taylor, with helping make Harvey’s Gym of Shelbyville a hometown institution.
Story by Carol Cowan
Photo by Jeffrey Otto
