Alumna Christine (Galica) Koslowski is putting the skills she honed as a two-time graduate of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and a 12-year career as a math teacher to good use in launching a new boutique fitness studio.
Koslowski ’00 and MS ’09, and her husband Jered Koslowski, of Oshkosh, opened Next Level Fitness at 1561 W. South Park Ave., in October.
“Next Level Fitness is about helping people achieve their ‘next level,’ whatever that may be,” she said. “Whatever you are looking to achieve, we want to help you get there.”
After graduating from UW Oshkosh, Koslowski taught a variety of math classes from pre-algebra to geometry and college math at Oshkosh North High School. She later returned to UWO to earn a master’s degree in educational leadership in 2009.
Meanwhile, fitness was a big part of the equation.
“Jered and I met at the Oshkosh Y. I had been a fitness instructor for about three years, and he was a participant,” she explained. “We became friends and he decided to become a fitness instructor as well. We shared a love for fitness and helping others. All that grew in to a wonderful relationship, and we were married in 2004. We have grown together over the past 11 years and our passion for fitness and for helping people has never been stronger.”
After their third child was born in 2012, Chris resigned from teaching to spend more time as a hands-on mother and to work as an office manager for Jered’s business Everyday Technology.
Over the years, the couple continued to teach fitness classes at the local Y. In July 2012, they took a month-long trip to Florida and checked out several different gyms, looking for something “new and refreshing” to infuse into their group classes.
They tried a Les Mills BodyPump class and were immediately hooked. They worked to bring BodyPump to the Oshkosh Y and started teaching at the Fond du Lac Y as well.
Soon they started talking about venturing out to start their own fitness studio, and on Oct. 3 they held their official open house for Next Level Fitness.
Koslowski explained that their studio is not a standard gym with treadmills, ellipticals or weight machines. Instead, Next Level offers a range of Les Mills group exercise classes, including BodyPump, Body Attack, BodyCombat and CXWORKS all led by instructors who have a minimum of 17 hours of training.
“We strictly run Les Mills programs, because they are backed by research and development via Penn State University. The workouts are always evolving and incorporating ways to get better and faster results for participants,” she said.
In addition, the studio offers nutritional guidance through Nutritional Healing of Appleton and an innovative heart rate monitoring system to get more accurate feedback on your workout intensity.
Koslowski said skills she gained at UW Oshkosh, such as perseverance, responsibility and resourcefulness, have helped her to launch this new venture.
“I learned to not give up when things aren’t going the way you planned and how to reach out and find the necessary resources to make this business a success,” she said.
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