Health House Fitness Studio in Prairie Village closes its doors after serving hundreds in the East area.

Health House Fitness Studio in the Prairie Village Shopping Center permanently closed its doors on Nov. 30 due to COVID-19 after after serving hundreds in the East area. 

Its easy accessibility and unique rowing workouts helped foster a community that CEO and founder Jon Knopke and his team will never forget, even after making the tough decision to permanently close the last Kansas City location in Prairie Village — with the Town Center location closing earlier this year. 

Knopke grew up in Kansas City and attended Rockhurst High School, then Rockhurst University. He moved to Chicago for about three years, moved back to KC in 2007 and started Health House here in 2013. Now, he lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif. and operates Health House studio West Hollywood — the only location still standing.

Starting his career in Chicago at Equinox Fitness — a luxury fitness company that operates several lifestyle brands, such as SoulCycle — Knopke got his inspiration to start Health House with the simple desire of making other people feel good through working out. 

Knopke says that Kansas City is where his roots are, which is why he decided to move back from Chicago and start Health House here. 

In founding Health House, his goal was to create a workout that combines safety and efficiency — regardless of the customer’s age or fitness level — through low-impact rowing machines. Knopke says Health House was the first fitness studio to implement this methodology in the United States, right here in Kansas City.

Throughout his time in Kansas City, Knopke has noticed the easy, high energy community that has come in and out of Health House over the past eight years. 

“[Kansas City] contains some of the most dynamic folks that I have ever encountered,” Knopke said. “It’s just such an incredibly diverse audience of men and women, husbands and wives, sisters, brothers, executives. The movers and the shakers of Kansas City coming together as one crew in one unit, [that would be Health House].”

East alum and former Health House front-desk worker Brigid Wentz was also impacted by the distinctiveness of Knopke’s operation and its community.

“As much as Health House was a great workout, it really brought people together that maybe would have never met if it wasn’t for Health House,” Wentz said.

Wentz noticed the groups of people who would workout together every Saturday morning, and says they would talk about getting brunch, coffee or even dinner with the instructors afterwards. She also said that her brother, Joey Wentz, made friends at Health House from ages 25-50, and would go to wine nights with them. 

Between taking classes and working at the front desk, Wentz spent over two years in the Health House community, and eventually it felt like a second home — which is what Knopke strived for.

“I know a [a girl], sometimes you don’t want to lift heavier weights, which is kind of what Health House is,” Wentz said. “You’re lifting at least a 10-pound weight I would say. So [Health House] inspired me to take more classes where I’m using heavier weights.”

Wentz will also miss the “always-push-yourself” and “never-hold-back” environment Health House created in its classes.  

And while Knopke strived to reinforce these mantras during his time with Health House, sometimes mindset alone isn’t enough to stay afloat.

In Knopke’s words, when the pandemic hit, it decimated the business world to a point where businesses — small and large — were going under left and right.

“We really couldn’t recover with the looming uncertainty that COVID poses for the business and any retail business, we just didn’t see that there was an end in sight,” Knopke said. “And so we decided to make the hard decision to close both of [the] locations.”

Knopke’s landowners weren’t cutting him any slack in terms of rent and problem-solving for the KC locations amidst the pandemic. After the income from Health House continued to go down, he had no choice but to close things down for good.

“[My position] just puts things into perspective of the things that are super important, and the things that aren’t,” Knopke said. “And ultimately, when you’re facing adversity, it’s almost being in a heavyweight fight with somebody you know you can’t beat, [in this case] meaning COVID. It’s tough to be able to get into a fight with something that we don’t know if it’s going to subside, or if it’s going to continue to grow, or run rampant across the country and impact our business in California.”

In response to the constant uncertainty going forward, Knopke hopes to see growth in the new year with their online platform: Health House at Home. 

Starting in March when COVID temporarily shut down their business, Health House created an online presence in an attempt to continue to still give their customers a way to workout with Health House.

“We had always wanted to launch a digital platform, [and COVID] only magnified a kickstart,” Knopke said. “We launched it back in March, [and] we’re now represented in 35 different countries, which I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams.”

Despite the apparent struggle Health House and other businesses have faced the past nine months, Knopke also sees the pandemic as a blessing in disguise. He’s reformed his view on the pandemic and is aiming to turn every negative into a positive.

Starting an online platform has been one of the biggest highlights of Knopke’s career and life, he says. Health House at Home is giving Knopke hope for future success for his company and brand name.

“To know that people in Dubai, London, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia, Kansas City, New York, Chicago, they all get to experience Health House, I would have never imagined that in a million years when I started the company,” Knopke said. “To know that the Health House brand and experience is touching people not just locally, not just nationally, but globally. And I think it’s really the coolest thing. And I’m excited about the growth into 2021 and beyond.”

In the future, Knopke hopes to continue to expand Health House’s online presence for the community. 

“And then reinforcing that through proprietary products based on our methodology for people to experience inside the home and also at businesses such as hotels, hospitals, airports, university, schools,” Knopke said. “So that’s really the future, it’s less about having brick and mortar studios, such as the ones that we had in Kansas City, [and more-so] enhance and improve the digital, on-demand experience.”