A five-minute stroll up the road from Queens Road Central and a right turn into a nondescript office building is one of Hong Kong’s most passionate and frenetic club. But no alcohol is served, nor parties held at this club, only sweat and high-fives, and female empowerment.

Pherform Gym in Wilson House on Wyndham Street is Hong Kong’s sole women's-only gym, catering to the needs and ambitions of female gym-goers seeking a space to get fitter, leaner, stronger, and faster.

Programs at Pherform are designed for women, by women, to train daily, targeting different systems in the body, structured about metabolic conditioning and improving strength and power.

Created by the founder of popular women-only outdoor bootcamp, Bikini Fit, and now owned by former human resources-coordinator turned gym-junkie, Stephanie Poelman, Pherform focuses on female-specific training across strength and power in high-intensity cardio, metabolic conditioning, and isolated hypertrophy workouts.

Coaching is personalized and in small group classes. Female staff are taught to smile and high-five everyone walking in. Male trainers are educated in empathy and how to motivate positively and inspire confidence.

Only five-years-young, Pherform captures the need for a fitness environment focused on the needs and wants of women in Hong Kong searching for classes designed for their bodies and mind.

Pherform was built in 2016 under the directorship of Australian gym-operator Alex de Fina, founder of Bikini Fit.

At the end of 2017, the expertise of Stephanie, former owner of the first CrossFit gyms in Kuwait, was brought in to serve as managing director, designing programs, engaging existing members, and driving sales and advertising.

In July 2021, Stephanie purchased the business outright from Alex.

The concept of Pherform was created by a male, but the programming and atmosphere were tailored towards women. “I wanted to emulate the feeling and community of SoulCycle and the non-intimidatory atmosphere of a [American gym chain] Planet Fitness.”

Pherform is special in Hong Kong. Operating as a sole women's-only gym in the city, Stephanie sought to create a safe, non-intimidating space for women seeking to get fitter under the command of knowledgeable trainers and programs designed for the female -body.

“Originally, I wanted to create a space where [our members] come in and they’re not intimidated by the gym space.”

Women are often intimidated by entering a mixed-gender gym and the training aspect of getting fitter, Stephanie explains. “We want to remove the intimidation from the gym space and tell our members you can be strong, you can get lean, you can get fit, and you can be healthier training.”

Their current programming system is based on six-week programs, with classes each day hitting three different modalities: strength and power, metabolic conditioning, and isometric hypotrophy.

Exercises in the program are designed to work the body’s different systems, including the muscular, respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, nervous, and skeletal systems. “We train [our members] with the intention of getting [them] stronger, faster, healthier, and leaner,” Stephanie points out.

Pherform’s process for bringing new female members into the gym begins with the flagship “Kickstart 30” program, a 30-day trial program offering unlimited access to FST training sessions, a one-on-one strategy session with member advisor on goals and aims, and a 30-day “food, mood and training journal” for HK$2,800.

The one-on-one private session, Stephanie states, allows new members to explore “where they are now and where do they want to be” following completion of the trial.

“We work with new members to locate their inconsistencies [in training], find what they are self-doubting about, and what small things we can tackle over the next 30 days.”

The trial offers a taste of the female-specific and -designed training methods employed at Pherform and creates a bond with existing member-base and new additions to the space.

As former-managing director and current outright owner of the business, Stephanie is “massive on community.”.

“When everyone’s done with a class, we all high-five each other. Everyone knows everyone’s names; our coaches know our member's’ name. This camaraderie between members and coaches and staff is what builds powerful relationships.”

“We want people to feel safe and train hard. We are constantly exploring ways in which to create a cohesive environment where everyone is on the same page. Members and staff can come in and get their workout in and can also be next to their friends.”

Pherform’s member-base in October 2021 stands at 230 women, with 70% of members holding an unlimited pass to classes any day and any time.

With an average demographic of 25- to 32-year-old young professionals, Pherform is welcome to any female in the city eager to kickstart their training routine. With the launch of a student discount for undergraduate and postgraduate student members, Pherform caters for the young, as well as married female members, high executives, business managers, and stay-at-home mothers.

Stephanie’s gym journey began in Texas when she was first introduced to strength and conditioning group training classes by her friends. “I hated the first workout and I thought it was terrible, until I came back the next day. It was the people that were around me [that made it].”

CrossFit entered her life in Texas, then a community-based and small project compared to its global dominance today. Her quick fervent passion for CrossFit classes in Austin, Texas brought her to the corporate world of the developing gym fad.

The world-wide community aspect of CrossFit in early 2013 brought Stephanie to the introduction of a CrossFitter in London who knew someone in Kuwait who was seeking help building the first female CrossFit gym in the country. The opportunity to turn her passion into a career was a “no-brainer.”

Stephanie emigrated to Kuwait in October 2013, away from her life and career in athleisure sales and marketing in Texas, to begin her role managing HR and recruiting, facility growth, and operations, creating new workout programs at Circuit Plus Fitness, one of the first CrossFit gym chains in the Arab nation.

In a very -family- and culture-oriented country, where men and women socialize separately, Stephanie mentions, her goal with Circuit Plus’ first female gym was to foster a culture of women seeking to put their health first.

With a membership of 90% English-speaking and religious-Muslim women, often wearing a hijab, “the beauty [of the female gym] was we were able to allow our members to uncover and take off their religious head coverings,” hidden away from men. The female-only location, in Shuwaikh Industrial Area of Kuwait City, was completely female-led: a women’s only front desk staff, cleaners, coaches, and members.

Stephanie graduated in 2006 from a university in Wisconsin with a degree in business administration and interests in human resources. Up until October 2013, Stephanie had worked in human relations and recruiting in Wisconsin and sales in Austin, Texas, before emigrating to Kuwait in 2013.

Her career in Kuwait represented her diversion away from the red-tape and corporate bureaucracy of her former roles in HR in the U.S. “I wanted to be authentic, have a candid conversation with employees,” Stephanie says, unable to in her previous HR role with her colleagues, “I started a discussion with myself on how I can get into an environment where I can be candid and candor.”

After four years manning the operations for the female-run and member locations for Circuit Plus Fitness, overseeing the beginning of city-wide CrossFit programs and construction on new centres, Stephanie moved with her partner to Hong Kong on Dec. 25, 2017, to begin her position as managing director at Pherform – a date she never forgets.

After establishing connections with a mutual connection at a CrossFit event in Kuwait in early 2017, Stephanie met Alex, then-owner of Pherform. The pair established an “instant connection [with] a similar mindset on training and community, building the space in terms of fitness [programs], and growth of the business.”

Beginning the position in January 2018, Stephanie’s transition began as the gym’s first female-managing director. Alex provided her with free reign over operations – business development, coaching, business collaboration, franchising. With an already established membership base and systems and staff in place, as opposed to her Kuwaiti project, Stephanie began to make Pherform a friendly space.

She began telling staff and trainers to learn members’ names, dish out positive, reinforcing comments during tough sessions, and high-five as much as possible. “People want to know that you see them, you feel them, you hear them. A smile goes a long way,” Stephanie told The Beat Asia.

The difficult part immigrating to Hong Kong, Stephanie recounts, is the difference in female gyming attitude.

“[In Kuwait], more locals are looking at fitness that is something they can introduce into their life. [In Hong Kong], a majority of Western expats already have some sort of sporting background.”

“In the Middle East, you go to a women's-only gym because it is the only place that you can uncover [there]. [In Hong Kong], why would I go to a women’s gym, when I can to any gym and be with men.”

Under her leadership in Hong Kong, Pherform aims to work on training, nutrition, and lifestyle with every member. “The biggest question we ask to each one of our members is what are you doing today that will impact tomorrow.”

With the goal of changing behaviour to become the identity you want, Stephanie is able to influence members in aspects outside the gym: building a daily training routine, working on health and eating habits, and relationship-building in and outside the gym.

“We can control training six days a week and we know what training can do for other aspects in your life. It is up to our members to impart change in themselves.”

“If you have the routine in terms of training, you get that consistency, [influencing] the rest of your life. So now you start watching your nutrition a little bit more. Now you start going to bed a little bit earlier, because you want to get up for a workout in the morning.”

Stephanie works out at a mixed-gender gym in a need to separate work and pleasure. She is passionate about her project at Pherform, but is shy to create an exclusivity around her gym,. nor prevent competition from other chains.

“The more that we can get more people into focusing on their health, the better it is for everyone,” she says.

When members leave Pherform, Stephanie is genuine about her dedication to her members’ continuation of their fitness and mental health journeys. “I think that we've done our job in setting a foundation for [departing members], that they're now wanting to go somewhere else and continue that journey.”

She has an expansive circle of gym operators, personal trainers, and coaches who she knows have her former members in good hands.

“Do we like expanding and having more people know about Pherform? 100 percent. [It is not just] Pherform, but knowing that you can create a culture within a gym, where training is priority, but it’s also supportive and encouraging, and you can hold [your members] accountable.”

“I would not have bought the business if I did not love Hong Kong!” Stephanie exclaimed.

Under her directorship since early 2020, Pherform has closed doors three times due to city-wide shutdowns of the fitness industry under strict COVID-19 rules. After purchasing the business in July 2021 and through a physically toiling period during the 2019 protests and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie’s heart follows the success and tight-knit community of her female member-base.

“When it comes to Pherform, I want us to be a household name in Hong Kong, whether people come and workout at our gym or not.”

“We want to be known as the centre that provides female training that is community based, that people know that they are [going to] get good training and be supported.”

Stephanie’s next business venture with Pherform is in Singapore, a location promising in a financial standpoint as the city holds a similar demographic to their Hong Kong center – students, executives, and managers – and a present demand for a women's-focused gym across the Indian Ocean.