Women’s Athletic Club Clocks 10 Years

Celebrating its 10th year this month, Women’s Athletic Club (WAC) is a 24-hour facility on upper State Street whose founder, Alice Huang, has created a welcoming, safe space for women to launch and maintain their health and fitness journeys. “I realized that women’s gyms had a completely different energy than coed gyms,” she said about her original inspirations to open the club. “Women seemed more supportive rather than competitive with each other, and even though some of the big-box gyms offered women’s sections, I thought they were third-rate setups. I wanted to have the best of everything to let women know what they deserved in the fitness world.”

While many gyms can become overcrowded, Huang limits membership to 200 to allow members a more personal experience and — per its main mission — to provide a feeling of inclusion. “Our environment encourages self-growth by living the vision. Inclusion breeds individuality,” she said. “We strive to make WAC feel like a family [or] community. Many lifelong friendships and connections have formed here — that’s awesome and humbling.”