Meet Lauren: the story behind Feliciana Fitness
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 30
There is no shortage of fitness content online. What is harder to find is a place to go.
Lauren Andrews understood that. She grew up knowing the area the way most people know their home: the roads, the names, the things you have and the things you drive an hour to find somewhere else. A fitness studio that felt welcoming to women was one of the things you had to drive for. Lauren decided that didn't have to be true anymore.
Feliciana Fitness opened in St. Francisville in April 2026 with a specific kind of woman in mind: someone who has thought about getting back to movement and deepen their sense of wellness but hasn't quite found the right door or needed one closer to home. Not just a gym. Not someone who needs a competition or a leaderboard. Just a woman who wants to feel good in her body and have somewhere to go that belongs to her.
Why a boutique studio, and why here
Lauren could have opened a general-purpose gym. She didn't.
The decision to build around specific class formats (barre, pilates, yoga, spin, and Strength/Sculpt) was deliberate. These are forms of movement that work for women at a wide range of ages and fitness levels. They're also forms that reward consistency more than intensity, which matters when you're building something you can keep doing for years rather than a few weeks. This philosophy applies in all realms of health and wellness and is a pillar of the studio' mission.
The location mattered as much as the format and offerings. St. Francisville is a small town, and Lauren wanted to build something that felt like it belonged here. Not a franchise that arrived from somewhere else and happened to land in West Feliciana. A studio with its own character, run by someone who knows the community it serves.
That's harder to do than it sounds. It means making decisions by instinct as often as by spreadsheet. It means recognizing that what works in a larger city will likely need some adjustments in a town of 1,700 people. It means caring whether your members feel at home, because if they don't come back, you know it.
The classes she chose
The class lineup at Feliciana Fitness covers a wide range of styles, and Lauren selected them carefully.
Barre, because it's one of the most beginner-friendly strength formats available, and because women in West Feliciana who'd never heard of it often found it to be exactly what they'd been looking for. Gentle Pilates, because some women need a low-load starting point, and because movement that meets you where you are is the only movement most people will stick with long enough to matter. Pilates and Pilates X for members who want to go further. Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Restorative Yoga because the spectrum counts: active practice for the women who want a challenge, slow deep-stretch for the women who need quiet. Spin and SpinX for the cardiovascular work the other classes don't prioritize. HIIT Functional Fitness for the women who are ready to push.
The variety is intentional. What serves a woman in her 30s may not be what serves her in her 50s and beyond. Lauren wanted a studio where someone could grow through different classes over years, not just find one format and max it out.
Who the studio is for
There is a particular kind of woman Feliciana Fitness was built for. She may be athletic or was at some point and drifted away. She may have never been a gym person and isn't sure she'd fit in at one. She may be more driven in a group class format with friends and family in the room.
She lives here. In St. Francisville, in West Feliciana Parish, or across the line in communities like Jackson, Centreville, Clinton, or Zachary. She doesn't need a long drive to get somewhere that understands her. She needs somewhere close, welcoming, and good.
That's what Lauren set out to build.
What Lauren hopes you take home
More than fitness.
A class at Feliciana Fitness is a time in your day in which you show up for yourself. That sounds like a small thing until you consider how rarely most women put themselves on that list. Between children, jobs, partners, and everything else that needs tending, the body and wellness is often the last thing. Sometimes it falls off the list entirely for months or years.
Lauren's view is that it doesn't have to be that way. That showing up once a week, or twice, is enough to shift something. Not your weight, necessarily. Not how you look. Something quieter: how you feel in a room, how you move through a day, how long it's been since your body felt familiar.
She built the studio because she believed that was possible without a long drive, without intimidating equipment, and without a room full of people who already know what they're doing.
Come in. The schedule is at felicianafitness.com/schedule, and you can reserve your class through the Fit by Wix app. If you have questions before your first visit, send us a message. Lauren is happy to answer.
Comments