Right on track with one of the top trends for this, yoga, Core+ is a contemporary spin on traditional poses.

Yoga’s capacity to reinvent itself has allowed it to retain its popularity, suggests the Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2018, published by the American College of Sports Medicine’s health and fitness journal.

Spotting a trend for shorter, sharper fitness sessions, Michael King saw an opportunity to develop a fusion model. His concept is classes delivering yoga-style exercise in 45 to 50 minutes rather than the traditional 90-minute sessions.

“We started out with 90-minute sessions, but people could not attend several times a week. Now we offer a maximum one-hour class, and most are 45 to 55 minutes, specifically at lunchtime.”

Mixing up the exercise styles means Pilates moves are taught incorporating hand weights and on a reformer bed. “It’s traditional apparatus but almost a choreographed class,” says King.

Two new classes have been introduced into the Core+ fitness menu. Guns, buns, tums and cardio is a single class that provides a full body workout with cardio intervals to raise the heart rate. “It is 50 minutes with a good soundtrack. The music is a huge element of the classes – everyone has a curated playlist,” says King.

Another class, developed with a Hollywood celebrity trainer, is dance cardio. High levels of co-ordination are not needed for practitioners to benefit from the workout. King believes the variety of the boutique offer provides something different to other gyms and studios.

In the three years it has been trading, Core+ has opened two corporate studios and turned to the franchise model last year. In seven months of franchising, the business is almost at eight units and expects to reach a network of 12 outlets this year; it may achieve a dozen studios just in Melbourne, says King.

The latest outlet to be signed up is on the ground floor of a low-rise tower at Essendon Fields. The franchisees, Core+ trainers for two years, will be adding an Ascot Vale site to their business to take it to a super-territory, he says. King expects interest in Sydney to develop following an expo in the city.

A boutique studio costs between $200,000 and $350,000, depending on site size and location. This includes fitouts, franchise fee, set-up costs and training. Equipment leasing is a separate cost.