Business & Tech

NutriFormance, Fitness, Therapy and Performance

The center in Le Chateau Village provides a training facility for athletes area wide.

These days, you will find top-of-the-line fitnesss training, personal care and nutrition counseling in Le Chateau Village at 10407 Clayton Road in Frontenac.

Here, Dale Huff, owner, and a staff of 52 caters to youth and adults alike in the world of well being, fitness, nutrition, massage and general sports development. The core business is known as NutriFormance LLC. It covers high energy corrective exercise for clients function or reconditioning from an orthopedic issue or illness. It is the team on staff that makes this place special and includes physical therapists, licensed massage therapists, pilates instructors and advanced personal trainers.

Think of this as a business within a business. The offshoot of NutriFormance is Athletic Republic,  a specialized sports performance conditioning company that is managed by local soccer standout, Charlie McDoniel.

Athletic Republic is primarily designed to develop the high school and college athletes, though some middle school youngsters work out there, as do a handful of professional athletes. It is home to a regimented, high-performance training program.

At Athletic Republic, the emphasis is on increased and improved quickness, agility, power and strength, along with a general buildup of aerobic and anerobic skills.

On the other hand, NutriFormance is a center for fitness, therapy and training for all ages.  Although it operates like a fitness center, it offers much more specialized services including hybrid small group personal training, Sleek Physique, private pilates and even physical therapy.

The Huffs came into this business utilizing 2,000 square feet of fitness space in 1997. In 2001, Huff, graduate of Missouri State, and his wife Ellie, a graduate of MICDS and Miami University in Ohio took on 14,000 square feet of space in the Le Chateau complex. At the same time, NutriFormance maintains a 4,000-square-foot satellite operation at 8025 Bonhomme in Clayton.

The Huffs believe that exercise and nutrition go hand in hand to help individuals reach particular goals. “For you as an individual to get maximum training results, the body has to be fueled properly for the best results,” Dale Huff said.

“Our clients work one-on-one with a registered dietitian to modify eating behaviors, choose a variety of foods and balance exercise and intake,” he said. Huff should know, he was a registered dietitian for 10 years.

“You can’t believe the eating habits some of the young athletes have when they first come here,” he said and rolled his eyes.

Athletic Republic primarily caters to team-sports athletes, such as those who play lacrosse, soccer, football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. Many athletes come from local sports groups, such as the Scott Gallagher Soccer Club.

Many athletes make long trips to the center in Frontenac. Athletic Republic draws from the Belleville area, St. James, MO, Wright City and many points inbetween. Local athletes from MICDS, Ladue, Villa Duchesne, SLUH, Lutheran North and others fill the ranks.

Most athletes and their families are looking to get the maximum out of their performance. Some, especially the girls, are seeking college scholarships.

“We do a lot of team training. We work in small conditioning groups, and we have personal trainers for our athletes.The list of alums is lengthy. Olympic soccer player Lori Chalupny works out at the center. Montee Ball used to come from Timberland High in Wentzille for his workouts before becoming a star running back at Big 10 Wisconsin. Another product of the center is DeDe Dorsey from Lindenwood University, who now plays in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts and SLUH’s Ronnie Wingo who plays today for Arkansas," said Huff.

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These days, the training staff is doing a lot of interesting things, especially with the amateur athletes. The buzz word these days is plyometrics.  Modern training devices and techniques are employed. “We use digital video to evaluate our athletes. We look at posture, muscular length; we look at just about everything,” said Huff. “Besides, it’s hard to argue with the findings of video.”

Nutriformance is well ensconced in the community. The Frontenac facility is a bee hive of activity almost around the clock. Athletes are becoming better performers and in part, that credit goes to this very progressive and forward thinking  staff which makes it all happen.

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