A dynamic duo that is disrupting the traditional at-home fitness market with their extensive backgrounds of top-tier fitness instruction and entrepreneurship: Frame Fitness

The Silicon Review

Pilates is a popular low-impact workout that is effective at toning, strengthening, and lengthening your muscles through controlled repetitive movements. By doing Pilates, you can achieve integrative fitness as the workout focuses mainly on the upper body, core, and lower body strength. Furthermore, this also positively affects our posture and flexibility. Whether you are a pro-athlete, new to fitness, or someone in between, the basics of Pilates movement will apply to you and your body. Pilates is highly customizable as you can come up with thousands of possible modifications and exercises based on individual needs.

Globally there are companies delivering excellent solutions to take your Pilates experience to the next level, but Frame Fitness stands out from the rest. Frame offers a groundbreaking approach to Pilates that is disrupting the traditional at-home fitness market. Frame’s unique reformer is unlike any other. It combines elegant and cutting-edge design with the expertise of top fitness instructors through a thoughtfully designed, lightweight frame and built-in touch screen to stream both live and on-demand workout videos taught by today’s top instructors. Frame fits seamlessly into any home and lifestyle with its clean lines, modern colors, and foldable features.

In conversation with Lee Belzberg, Co-Founder of Frame Fitness

Q. What was the motivation behind starting Frame Fitness?

Pilates has not been disrupted in more than 100 years, and with the global Pilates & Yoga Studios market size valued at $87.8B in 2017, projections are expected to reach $215.8B by 2025 and a growing CAGR of 11.7% from 2018 to 2025, it’s a ripe time for innovation. With the pandemic, we experienced a shift into the digital fitness world. Group classes like cycling and rowing moved into homes with well-designed, lightweight equipment and a virtually interactive solution. My Co-Founder and wife, Melissa Bentivoglio, had opened a brick-and-mortar studio in Toronto in 2020, and during that time, seeing her drive and the response from our community as well as beyond our inner circle stood out as something special I felt we needed to act on.

We were inspired to create a digitally-connected reformer that could fit into any space and connect users with a complete community online. Frame provides fitness enthusiasts with a solution that helps them achieve safe and effective Pilates reformer workouts at home without the hassle of heavy machinery or lack of knowledge or expertise. Frame is thoughtfully designed to be lightweight and compact. It also provides a professional user experience through its live and on-demand workout videos that are digitally connected to the reformer, making Frame a seamless way to have a Pilates workout experience without leaving your home.

Q. Do you have an integrated approach that focuses on goal-setting and realistic expectations, with an eye toward long-lasting results? Explain.

To help Frame reach its business goals, we lean into multiple tactics to make sure we are approaching our strategy holistically. We’re working with a skilled team that is helping us pinpoint ways to position Frame with key influencers in the media, wellness, and tech landscape. We’ve discussed long-term plans that spotlight how Frame will continue to grow in the coming years while keeping in mind that we need to stay flexible and open-minded as the landscape and times will continue to evolve. Frame’s low-impact workouts make it a great addition to not only home gyms but fitness centers in hotel chains, condominiums, sports medicine clinics, and fertility clinics. We’re working with strategic partners to bring our vision to life in brick-and-mortar gyms and studios across the country. As we get closer to our launch in September, we’re also excited to bring forth in-person experiences and moments to connect with our consumer audience on the ground.

Q. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful leader?

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask. In order to accomplish what you want, sometimes that requires asking questions someone may not have asked before, asking people for their opinions or asking someone for help with something. The tried and true saying “if you don’t ask, you’ll never know” couldn’t be more true. You have to be willing to ask questions that might help you discover something new or achieve something you may not have otherwise.
Think Big. Don’t limit yourself to what seems immediately achievable. Set goals for yourself that are big and challenge yourself to achieve them. Tell other people your goals until they become a reality. If you think big, whether you land at those goals or close, you’ll surprise yourself with how much you can achieve.
Be Curious! Always keep learning. Whether you’re reading the latest industry news or meeting with peers and thought leaders in the space. Always be open to consuming more information and honing your skill set. Having the mindset that there is more to learn and improve upon is what will help bring forth innovation and will only improve your business down the line.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

Currently, Frame is ready for pre-order online, and our team is getting ready for our official launch in September. We are excited to debut what we’ve been working hard on and for Frame to make its way into homes and brick-and-mortar studios across North America this fall.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We want to keep our community engaged with great content and great workouts! Frame is working on accessories that will be used with our reformer. We are also gearing up to have AI integrated into our product in order for our community to have a better sweat with less propensity for injury.

Meet the leader behind the success of Frame Fitness

Lee Belzberg is the Co-Founder of Frame Fitness and brings nearly a decade’s worth of experience strategically navigating the insurance industry to the company. As a natural trailblazer, Lee sought to create innovation in an archaic industry, and was the first to explore consolidating the benefits and pensions of portfolio companies owned by private equity firms. Lee realized that by utilizing a multi-employer program, he could help portfolio companies by adding better benefits at a lower cost, and grant private equity firms the opportunity to add value to their EBITDA and maximize on investments. Lee’s knowledge and experience in strategy continues to propel Frame toward its potential in the digital-startup space. With his skills and expertise, Frame has garnered the attention of A-list celebrities and completed a successful seed round of $5 million. Frame has also attracted investors and fitness industry titans including Mark Mastrov, Michael Bruno & Jim Rowley, and has become one of three brands in Jaclyn Johnson’s New Money Ventures venture capital firm and brand incubator.