Bella Vista Is Getting a New Fitness Studio 

Charge owner Charles Scogna leading a pop-up group class | Photo via Facebook

If you live around the Italian Market, you’re about to have one more place to get your sweat on: Charge Performance and Wellness, a new 2,000-square-foot fitness studio at 928 Christian Street, will be opening its doors later this month, owner and trainer Charles Scogna tells us.

If the name Charge sounds familiar, that’s because they’ve been holding a few classes a week — Base Camp, which is a boot camp-style class focusing on fundamentals like core stabilization, and Charge Your Run, a cross-training class for runners that incorporates stuff like agility and strength-training exercises — at Three Queen Yoga’s downstairs space for the past few months.

So, what kind of training style can you expect from the studio? Well, as Scogna explains, “I really think that humans evolved by running and jumping and climbing and throwing and those are the movements that are really going to make us our fittest. I’m a little bit of a hippie in that sense.” But you won’t just be relying on your bodyweight, necessarily, when you get your sweat on at Charge: they’ll have the usual barbells and kettlebells, plus some pretty neat equipment, like, for one, a TrueForm Runner treadmill that only moves if you move, working the hamstrings and glutes in a way that a regular treadmill can’t, and allowing runners to improve their stride.

Charge will offer small group-training classes (mostly morning and evening classes) and personal training. Along with their regularly scheduled programming, Scogna tells us he also has plans to team up with other fitness groups in Philly — think: November Project, the Rocky 50K, Back on My Feet — for events in the gym and outside of the gym. And the USA Track and Field-certified coach says he may also start a Charge running group, with the goal of getting folks in the community who might not know much about running involved. “There are so many opportunities in this city to just open my door and have people experience fitness in a communal way. I have so many mad-scientist ideas in my head,” Scogna says.

When it comes to amenities, the space will feature two private bathrooms — one with a shower (!!) — along with a private changing room. As for pricing, Scogna is still figuring that out. He’ll be  opening the doors to Charge later this month, with a grand opening happening later down the line. Meantime, you can keep up with Charge on Facebook here.

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