It has been eight years since Allison and Bear Walters took a chance and opened Get Fit Oakdale in the center of town. Sandwiched in between Cahoots Corner Café and Little Caesars Pizza, the couple happily embraced the space and its visibility along the F Street corridor through Oakdale.

Their mission, first opening their doors in 2017 was about more than opening a gym, it was about building and fostering community.

Now, that community they set their sights on, has proved to be the key to their overall success.

In late November, Get Fit Oakdale made a move, a big move, as they relocated to 832 N. Yosemite Ave., the building which at one time housed the Oakdale Cinema.

The goal, to gain square footage and offer more services to their members.

“We definitely grew and people want more,” Bear said of the recent relocation. “They want more things under one roof. We want to offer more services to that same group of people that have supported us.”

“The opportunities of things we can do with more space is crazy,” Allison added.

Yet there’s two key factors in what prompted this to be.

Now residing in South Carolina, the husband-and-wife team shared the continued success of Get Fit Oakdale is only possible because of the team they have in place. The dedication brought each day to serving the community they’ve built is unwavering.

Recognizing they were in a bit of a slump as owners and looking to continue to serve the community which had given so much to them, they sought out inspiration.

In November of 2024 the couple shared they took a trip to Charleston to check out another gym. Looking to other gyms for inspiration on how they could better what they already had.

“It’s almost like we needed to be reinspired,” Allison shared. “We saw a vision of how it could be done differently than what was being done.”

“It’s been eight years of the exact same stuff,” Bear stated.

“Which is funny because people don’t like change, so we have to be careful,” Allison continued.

The following month, she made a trip to Oakdale for a team meeting and noticed the vacant building, which fit with the vision. By February of 2025 they took possession. It would take five months, as well as team input, for the couple to get the interior plans exactly what they wanted it to be.

“It’s always been about the people from day one,” Bear said of looking to improve upon the business. “We didn’t want to run a transactional business. We didn’t want to run a business that makes business decisions; we wanted to make people decisions.”

Now, the space which once held popcorn machines, soda pop, velvet chairs and a film projector is anything but. The new facility hosts a spacious check-in area, child care center, training floor, free weight room and upstairs area for classes.

“There’s no way we could pull off this or anything else we do without these people,” Bear said of the Get Fit team they rely on. “It’s not one person.”

The “team” Bear refers to, is a group of ladies who started as clients and now are the nut and bolts operators of the everyday business.

“We’ve always worked in the grey, all of us,” Allison said of defining the roles of the team.

“I think the best way to put it, is I’ve been on their crazy train for quite some time,” Kali Swilley said.

Swilley has worked for the Walters family in some capacity since she was a teen.

“A lot of times we think along the same lines, so I was like absolutely, let’s do it,” Swilley shared.

Working right alongside them in the “grey,” their team handles everything from scheduling of staff to leading classes, overseeing child care and everything in between.

“I’ve felt the liberty to make decisions as if we own the business. I’ve never felt that because they are there (in South Carolina) that they couldn’t be here and be present with us and helping,” longtime client turned team member Brandy Mangante noted. “Their hearts have always been here, and they’ve always trusted us to take the lead and do the things.”

Team member Presley Furtado echoed Mangante’s sentiment. First joining Get Fit as a client, she shared she knew immediately Get Fit Oakdale was the perfect fit for her. She said that the Get Fit mission of moving people towards whole health through community, fitness and nutrition spoke to her.

“They poured so much into us and changed just the way we look at fitness and our health in general,” Furtado said of the Walters and training under them when she became a member.

Noting that the training and mission affected her so much, she is now one of the Get Fit trainers.

“I want to do that for other members that may not have the luxury of meeting Bear and Allison,” she continued. “I want to be that in between person that can make someone feel what they did for us.”

As confirmation that the team they’ve entrusted to manage the business continues the mission, Allison shared it’s now fun to come back and have new members ask who the new trainer is when she leads a class.

“It’s like family. I’ve only been in Oakdale for a year,” member Brittany Markham shared. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt more attached to a community as I do here.”

Choking back emotion, Markham shared she lived in Manteca 30 years before coming to Oakdale and never felt this connected. She also is now a part of the team, working in child care and at the front desk.

“It’s not easy. It has its challenges,” Bear said of managing the business from across the country, “without this group of women there’d be no way we could do it. These ladies care for this place more than we do. Their heart’s the same as ours is for reaching people, touching people.”

“Truthfully, I wouldn’t want to do it. I’d be done if they were done,” Allison added of the staff that is a crucial part of the operation.

Yet they are far from “done,” with full plans to offer the community more than ever before in the coming year.

For information on pricing and class times visit getfitcommunity.com. For ongoing/breaking updates follow them on Instagram at getfitoakdale.