Origin Story: Body Concepts (formerly Peak Cycling)

2011 Body Concepts Race Team

In writing the Origin Story for Body Concepts we found ourselves challenged in remaining a more neutral voice. Our usual approach is to interview the owners and let their words to do a majority of the storytelling. In this case, however, that has proven a nearly impossible task. So we are taking a different approach to this article, dropping any Reuters-like pretense and giving you a twist on this Origin Story.

We first became aware of Body Concepts through one of their cycling team members. Chris was looking for a cycling team to start out with and a friend of his from work highly recommended Body Concepts as a place to start. Chris was impressed with the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of the team and joined up. Body Concepts offered the team valuable classes and clinics and Chris soon became impressed with how much he was leaning and swiftly his cycling performance increased. Soon he got me (Dawn) interested in taking classes as well.  Over several months we came to know the married owners Rob Kopitzke and Linda Bailey.

Body Concepts started out as “Peak Cycling”, a business started by Rob back in 1995, but before he became a physical therapist and cycling coach, Rob was always a cyclist. Some of his earliest memories are of upgrading from a little trike to his first “real bike” when he was around four or five years old. He won his first race in fifth grade, a contest not of speed but of technical skill and control in which the slowest rider to cross a distance without putting their foot down won. Rob’s prize was two silver dollars. As he matured he began racing mountain bikes in the early nineties and since has raced in road and cyclocross races as well as enjoying the challenge of his unicycle.  If anyone could be accused of being an all-around cycling devotee, Rob would definitely be one of the prime suspects in the line-up.

Rob and Linda of Body Concepts

In 1998 the name changed to “Body Concepts” and in 2004 Linda added her talents and experience as a Pilates instructor, personal trainer and well-rounded athlete as well as her business acumen. Linda’s athletic lifestyle (including cycling, rowing and martial arts) as well as her own experience with injury recovery through physical therapy and Pilates has helped to enrich and deepen the quality of service that Body Concepts provides to their clients.

In 2008 they moved the business out of their original El Dorado Hills location to their current location right next to Bicycles Plus in Folsom. The move was precipitated by a desire to be closer to one of their main client bases: cyclists. With a location next door to a bicycle shop and right off the American River Bike Trail the Body Concepts team have been able to provide quality physical therapy, coaching, Pilates training and education to the active Folsom community.

Rob’s long experience in coaching cyclists (including time as the head coach for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training) eventually brought about the Body Concepts Racing Team, now thirty-two members strong and includes multiple women racers. Last year their honors included winning their category for best all-around team and rider (Rick Kile).  So far this year the business has won first in the Pilates Studio category on the KCRA A-List but it is their commitment to the cycling community and their extraordinary dedication to their client’s well-being and performance that sets them apart from other businesses of their ilk and earns their place as a featured business in our Origin Story series.

As a member of the Body Concepts team Chris has seen an incredible explosion of his cycling performance, power and efficiency in less than a year. Listening to the advice Chris was getting from Rob and Linda convinced me to finally follow my doctor’s directive to start physical therapy to mitigate the ravages of my own disability. For those familiar with my previous blog posts on my disability you may know that regaining my strength has been an incredibly difficult and slow process. Over the past few months since I started working with Rob as my PT I have seen an explosion in my own strength and stamina. It hasn’t been a magic bullet or a cure; I still have my relapses, and I may never be able to claim to be completely free of my challenges, but my vistas of possibilities have greatly widened and my hopes to someday join the cycling team seem a bit more reachable.

I say these things as someone who has had over two decades of experience in the rehabilitative industry. I have worked with (and for) doctors, physical therapists, massage therapists and even coaches. I have seen and been a part of many stories of miraculous healings and I have experienced and witnessed some of the most ineffectual or just plain detrimental treatments that could be dredged up by greedy fools with gold-sealed medical degrees. It is sad to say that so many of the health related businesses that truly care for their patients are the ones that struggle to make ends meet. There is not a lot of money to be had when you do a great job getting your clients back on their feet and healthy.

The owners of Body Concepts are able to maintain a nice facility and are constantly busy but they are not in danger of retiring with Jaguars in their garages and a weekend home on Lake Tahoe. What they have earned is the respect of an awful lot of cyclists within their community, the deep affection of the many clients they have helped and an awful lot of great Karma.