New approach, new location: Facility opens in Hingham offering functional training

New approach, new location

Facility opens in Hingham offering functional training

By A.J. Bauer

The Patriot Ledger

February 15, 2008

HINGHAM —

Members of the Notre Dame Academy girls’ lacrosse team are taking a different approach to preseason conditioning this year by taking advantage of a different kind of gym that recently opened in their backyard.

Competitive Athlete Training Zone – known as CATZ – opened a 7,200-square-foot gym on Pond Park Road in Hingham late last month. The new location marks the Needham company’s second attempt at gaining a foothold on the South Shore. In 2004, the company opened a location in Canton, but it only remained open for about two years.

“What we found was that most of our clientele in Canton was coming from the Route 3 corridor. So it wasn’t convenient for them, (and) they’d come once a week,” CATZ co-CEO Lars Hem said. “We wanted to come down to Hingham because it would enable them to come multiple times a week.”

The Hingham location opened about 18 months after the closure of the company’s Canton facility, but already many of the former clients have followed, Hem said. He said the gym is already working with approximately 100 athletes per week and expects to reach 300 to 500 per week.

CATZ is not your typical gym. It focuses on functional training, which is designed to strengthen the body as a system instead of isolating and strengthening specific parts.

“Everything starts off by just kind of getting the blood flowing,” CATZ executive vice president Todd Ducharme said while members of the Notre Dame Academy team performed what looked like a rapid game of hopscotch. “It’s a little different than the traditional static stretch.”

Rather than focus on weight training, as some gyms do, CATZ emphasizes sports-specific movements and qualities like speed and agility alongside general strength. The whole-body emphasis has aided in the company’s growth, Ducharme said.

CATZ was founded in 1996 out of one location in Pasadena, Calif. The company now has 13 gyms, including four in Massachusetts. Hem said the company, which moved its headquarters to Needham, plans to launch four to six more locations nationwide in 2008. He said to expect one or two more in Greater Boston in 2009.

While the company provides workout regiments for children and adults, much of the company’s business comes from the word-of-mouth associated with school teams and other young athletes it trains, Ducharme said.

McKenna Teague, 17, a senior and co-captain of the Notre Dame Academy lacrosse team, said CATZ is changing the way she and her teammates prepare for the upcoming lacrosse season.

“Previously, we were all on our own,” Teague said. “We were given a sheet from our coach of what we should be working on. But it was all left up to you. This way, like half of our team’s here and we’re all doing it together.”

A.J. Bauer may be reached at ajbauer@ledger.com.

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