As immigration stories go, Amen Iseghohi’s is rather unusual. “I was born in Belgium but raised in London,” he says. “When I was eight, my parents decided they wanted me and my sister to have a deeper understanding of our heritage and a greater appreciation of what was really important in life, so they took us to live in West Africa.
“At first I thought it was some kind of punishment – coming from somewhere we’d had so many privileges, waking up and eating cereal and watching cartoons, I suddenly found myself in a place with no electricity.”
The lack of electricity and other “luxuries” meant that a young Amen and his sister had time on their hands.
“My grandmother – a former athlete – wanted to keep us active. The compound we lived on was filled with tyres, so she used them as a way of keeping us fit, but also as a tool to teach us about life. We’d race the tyres and when we felt like giving up she’d say, ‘no, you can’t give up in life; you have to keep going. You need to move forward, just as a tyre turns and moves’.”
FITNESS THROUGH CONFIDENCE
It was these early experiences in Africa that played a key role in him setting up Amenzone. “When I moved to America in 2003, I immediately noticed that the obesity rate was so significant,” he says.
“I realised it wasn’t a local or city problem, it was a global epidemic. I thought about it and thought, this issue isn’t so much about the lack of fitness and good nutrition. It’s a disease rooted in a problem that everyone seems to be ignoring. If you don’t feel good about yourself, you don’t care what you do to yourself. My grandmother used fitness as a tool to motivate us, but she was always focused on our self-esteem. I thought, that’s it – the reason I’m in shape is that I feel good about who I am.”
Launched in 2008, Amenzone Fitness is based on a minimalist approach that uses nothing but tyres and members’ body strength and movement to get fit. Classes include boxing, ‘primal fitness’, yoga and ‘rebel workout’ – all using the tyres in different ways. The first Amenzone gym opened in Scottsdale, Arizona in June 2008. Since then, Amenzone Fitness Corporate has opened two further gyms in Arizona, both in 2013. A franchising arm was launched in 2012 and there are now six franchise gyms open across the US, with a further 23 franchises sold. The first Amenzone outside Arizona opened in Manhattan Beach, California in September 2013. A second California gym is opened in Santa Monica in July 2014.
The rapid expansion of the brand in the past two years has resulted in Iseghohi setting his sights on the international stage. “We will have clubs across the globe,” he says.
“We’ll go wherever we think we can help. It’s such a simple, scaleable model. We’ve already been solicited by international groups who want to take this to Australia and the UK, but for the next year, we’re going to focus on growing organically across the US via our franchise business.”
Part of the help will also be the Amenzone Foundation – a free after-school programme which is sponsored by corporates and angel investors. It uses fitness as a vehicle to build self-esteem and get the message out about the importance of physical and mental self care.
“For every location we have an Amenzone Fitness gym, we also want to have an Amenzone Foundation programme there,” Iseghohi says. “I refuse to compromise on that. Any franchisee has to be willing to make a difference.”
Details: www.amenzone.com
