Michael and Lori Frey had reason to be thrilled when they opened their third Xcel Fitness location on June 9 in Jonesburg.

The couple opened the 24/7 fitness center in Michael’s hometown, just seven months after they moved there.

“This is our forever home,” Lori said. “We’re very excited to bring this back here.”

The new gym is located at 203 East Booneslick Road, Suite B. It has mostly new exercise equipment and will be operated on an unstaffed basis.

“Having a business here is kind of wild,” Michael said. “I never thought I would have one here in my hometown, but I do.”

One of the best features of the gym is its ceiling lights, which came from Australia.

“We have a company there that I bought tons of these lights from,” Michael said. “They’re very expensive, but they’re worth it because they look pretty cool.”

Xcel Fitness joined Achieve Fitness and New Momentum in Montgomery City as the only fitness centers in the Montgomery County area.

“We were like, ‘This town is missing something that targets health and wellness. So a gym is what we’re good at, building, running and maintaining them,” Lori said. “All of that came together and it produced this.”

The Freys also own locations at Waynesville and Osage Beach. Both gyms are staffed.

“Even though this is the smallest location we have, we’re the most proud of it just because it was built by us only,” Lori said. “No other contractors. We did all of the interior modeling and design. We hope it does really well.”

The Freys are building a home in Jonesburg. They have moved five times in the last five years. They lived at the Lake of the Ozarks before moving to Montgomery County in November.

“With us building our house, we kind of had to juggle building our house and building this (gym),” Michael said. “There was a lot of painting. We come up here as often as we can.”

The Freys have been married for eight years. Michael grew up in Jonesburg off Highway Y and graduated from Warrenton High School in 2005. Lori is from Gilmer, Texas, which is located outside of Houston.

Michael spent 13 years in the Army, while Lori spent eight. They opened the first of their three Xcel locations in Waynesville in 2021. Two years later, they opened the second location in Osage Beach.

Lori said her husband came up with the idea of opening a gym while they were both in the military.

“About four years ago, before we started our first one, we were stationed at Fort Leonard Wood,” Lori said. “There was only one gym on post, which was 24 hours. When we walked into that particular gym, it was small and crowded. It wasn’t what we wanted. I know a lot of fellow military service members felt the same way.”

When the Waynesville location was open four years ago, the business was called New Life Fitness. It was renamed Xcel Fitness in 2023.

“It was a new world,” Lori said. “When you have been in something for so long, you switch your life direction to something totally different. So we started out with New Life Fitness. Then after the first year, we rebranded to Xcel.”

Lori said opening the gym in Jonesburg gave her and her husband an opportunity to bring their passion for fitness to the community.

“It’s a great community,” Lori said. “I think it’s a wonderful location, especially for the people who work in this town because it’s not very far. They can go on lunch break and they can come here and get a workout in. It’s always good for your mental health, not to mention your physical health.”

Lori said now that the Jonesburg location is open for business, she and Michael have set big plans for the gym.

“We would love to make this bigger,” Lori said. “We would love to add classes. We want to get trainers in here to help train specific individuals who might have some health problems. There are trainers out there who have a specialization in that, like the elderly or coming out of surgery or they’ve been unhealthy for a long time.”

To sign up for a membership, call 636-359-4441.