HIGH Fitness co-founders Emily Nelson and Amber Zenith tapped into their intuition, charisma and natural penchant for business to scale their fitness program across North America. They never relied on investors to bring their vision for a bold and unique fitness program to life. For the past 10 years, Nelson and Zenith have run the popular group fitness program in the U.S. and Canada, growing a team of more than 3,500 instructors. While it may sound like a seemingly impossible task, it’s proof that hard work pays off.
Nelson, a Utah native, and Zenith, a resident of Calgary, Canada, met on a chance encounter when Nelson moved to Calgary in 2006. They became friends at a gym called Heaven, where Zenith worked in membership, and Nelson eventually began teaching group fitness classes.
“Emily was this rock star fitness instructor and I was a big yogi,” Zenith, 47, says, “but I was trying to find my way into the group fitness world.” Yet entering the group fitness social circle wasn’t the easiest task. Zenith says it was a “dog-eat-dog” world where people kept training secrets close to their hearts. Ultimately, new or emerging fitness instructors are often left to their own devices.
Nelson, however, was different. “Emily had the opposite mentality,” Zenith says, continuing. “She was like, ‘What do you want to know?’” It was the beginning of a close and rewarding friendship that blossomed with a few simple words: “Just be yourself,” Nelson, 40, encouraged Zenith.
As they brainstormed class programming, Nelson and Zenith combined the best of both worlds. They integrated Nelson’s dance background with Zenith’s vast fitness training, and it quickly became clear that the two complemented one another as teachers and entrepreneurs.
The end result: HIGH Fitness, a group fitness program that transforms old school aerobics into a modern, high-energy class with an effective HIIT workout that challenges and inspires participants.
Building a brand
On January 31, 2015, Nelson and Zenith held their very first instructor training where they scaled the class format. Sixteen women showed up, learned the program and became certified HIGH Fitness instructors.
Instead of advertising or marketing, the HIGH Fitness co-founders simply relied on word-of-mouth to build excitement for their brand. The business premise was simple: HIGH Fitness would operate as a subscription model where instructors pay $250 to become certified.
From there, they can teach HIGH Fitness classes virtually anywhere and create their own business. Instructors pay $35 per month to access routines, notes and other methodology.
“They can teach one class, they can teach their kids,” Nelson says. “This is their own business to make it what it is.”
Instructors span the gamut of backgrounds. Some are stay-at-home moms looking for a meaningful way to engage with people outside of the home, while others are seeking an energizing side hustle on top of a nine-to-five job.
“The majority of our instructors had never taught fitness,” Zenith says of HIGH Fitness instructors entering the fitness world without barriers, which is often dog-eat-dog. “We changed that in the industry. We give people a tool so that from the get-go, they’re not going out there alone.”
“We give people permission to empower themselves,” Nelson says. “It turned into a web of people just inspiring people. That feeling of being empowered, it’s just so contagious.”
Hard work pays off
Many hopeful business owners would need an investment to get such a monumental fitness program off the ground, but Nelson and Zenith took it upon themselves to split the costs 50/50.
“We self-funded it from day one,” Nelson says. “We’re just two moms doing what we love.”
The pair built a social media presence, negotiated a payment plan for a new logo and taught extra classes to help fund their vision. “We slowly paid off everything one step at a time,” Nelson says, looking back, crediting her husband and Zenith’s husband for supporting them in their dream.
Eventually, HIGH Fitness grew big enough for partnerships and outdoor fitness events. “People were hungry for it,” Nelson says. “There hadn’t been a dance fitness workout that was more aerobic and sports-based in a long time.”
This wasn’t a one-dimensional fitness format. Instead, Nelson and Zenith kept a pulse on pop culture and the latest trends to ensure HIGH Fitness classes always felt new and relevant.
Today, HIGH Fitness offers four formats to choose from: HIGH, LOW, TONE and HIIT.
HIGH class, which mixes high-intensity aerobics-inspired movement with moderate and active recovery.
LOW, a lower-impact, steady-state cardio workout adaptable to all fitness levels.
TONE is a low-impact, full-body toning workout that blends barre, abs and arms, while YO, a yoga-centric deep stretching class format, is inspired by Nelson’s yoga background.
While HIIT training, or high-intensity interval training, can easily get tedious, Nelson and Zenith found a method that works.
“We disguise it as fun,” Nelson says. “That’s what makes it so effective. We spike the heart rate, and then we do a toner track to bring the heart rate down and bring up the burn.”
Finding a silver lining
Since its launch 10 years ago, Nelson estimates that 500,000 people across the U.S. and Canada have participated in HIGH Fitness programming. This growth hasn’t come without hurdles. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made the fitness world come to a standstill.
“We had to pivot in a big way,” Nelson says. “None of our instructors could teach.”
HIGH Fitness began offering free virtual classes while working with music licensing, which is a tricky and complex world to navigate. “You could do classes with a family,” Nelson says. “You didn’t need equipment. You could push your kitchen table to the side [and exercise].”
While it was a difficult and stressful time, COVID-19 offered a surprise silver lining.
“That grew a new facet of our business, and that was the online portion,” Nelson says.
Inspired by the success, Nelson and Zenith launched a HIGH Fitness app with on-demand classes that people could take anytime, anywhere.
Still, the duo says HIGH Fitness will always primarily remain an in-person experience. “We will say that until the cows come home,” Nelson says. “The experience and the magic of being in that classroom is like nothing else. You can’t reciprocate that. But we understand to be a true fitness format in 2025, you have to have all facets, so we have that online portion as well.”
“Our growth is through our instructors. That’s why we empower them to be pioneers in this and work with gym chains [to help expand the brand]. We want to build up those who support us.”
— Emily Nelson
Embracing your “magic”
Today, Nelson says HIGH Fitness is a “creative outlet that’s in our souls.”
By operating around the simple premise of making exercise fun, the brand has reached new highs with a recent rebrand to keep the program relevant and meaningful for all.
HIGH 2.0 was rolled out with a new look, logo and opportunities for instructors, including a points system that allows instructors to redeem points for rewards. Slogans like “you fit HIGH fit” and “you can do fun things” solidify the notion that anyone is welcome at HIGH Fitness, regardless of age or experience.
“One of our biggest frustrations with the fitness industry is that people do hard things all day long,” Nelson says. “People think that working out is supposed to be a grind, and you have to do things a certain way or look a certain way. Screw that. We’re here to have some fun.”
Through their new podcast, “Be Your Own Hype Girl,” Nelson and Zenith encourage participants and instructors alike to “stop hiding their magic.”
“It’s something that’s organic to who Amber and I are,” Nelson says of one of the newest HIGH Fitness offerings. “We just want to be everybody’s hype girls.”
Now, with its instructor network, app and podcast, HIGH Fitness has become a lifestyle.
Staying true to form
Nelson and Zenith may have started the business as a two-woman team, but they’ve since grown to a staff of 20 that includes accounting, app support, social media and customer service.
Yet the pair says dedicated HIGH Fitness instructors will always be the heart of the program.
“Our instructors are the soul of HIGH Fitness,” Nelson says. “They are the most important element. They make us who we are because they get people to become their best selves.”
She calls HIGH Fitness instructors the “most passionate, amazing people.” If it weren’t for the many faces and personalities they met along the way, Nelson and Zenith aren’t sure that HIGH Fitness would have been possible. “The people are why we do it,” Nelson says. “We’ve been able to meet people from all walks of life, in all different states, people telling us their stories.”
“This is hands-down the most rewarding part,” she says. “If we didn’t have those stories [encouraging us], I don’t think I could keep being an entrepreneur and a full-time mom.”
“We have never faltered from who we are, our stance in the fitness industry, diet culture and overall health,” Nelson says. “We have stuck for 10 years, and we will not stray from that.”
No amount of “flashy marketing” could ever change that, she says. Still, Nelson’s holding onto those values and having firm beliefs can also come with challenges.
“As women entrepreneurs, you can’t be personal with everyone,” she says of one of the toughest elements of being a female business owner. “We’re so personal with people, but we can’t be everything to everybody. We have to be business owners [first and foremost].”
“You’re never at home, your kids want you,” Nelson says, addressing the struggles of managing a national brand. “You’re pulled in so many directions. That’s for sure the most challenging part for both of us.”
Yet hearing how HIGH Fitness has changed lives makes the sacrifices ultimately worth it.
One instructor, for instance, lost a child in her teens. “She tells me how this keeps her going,” Zenith says of teaching HIGH Fitness classes. Other instructors have battled cancer.
“How does that not become the most rewarding thing of your entire life?” Zenith says.
Reaching the next level
HIGH Fitness may have accomplished the seemingly impossible in its short 10 years of existence, but its co-founders still have big plans for the brand in the coming years.
Nelson, for instance, has a sign on her desk that says “HIGH Fitness is going to be bigger than Zumba” in big letters. She looks at it every single day and finds inspiration to make it a reality.
“I’m manifesting this to happen,” she says, “to be a nationally-recognized brand in the way that Zumba or Les Mills is. We’re going to take this to the next level and empower as many people as possible.” Yet while Nelson and Zenith have a dream for HIGH Fitness that’s still in the works, they’re steadfast in saying that instructors will always be the root of the business.
“They are our business,” Nelson says. “Our growth is through our instructors. That’s why we empower them to be pioneers in this and work with gym chains [to help expand the brand]. We want to build up those who support us.”
“That’s how HIGH Fitness grew in the beginning,” she says, “and we believe it’s the future of what our growth will look like going forward.”