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SCLPT Studio brings boutique wellness to Athens

Reporting I, Grady College · March 30, 2026 · By Grace Park

Reformer machines line the studio floor at SCLPT Studio
Reformer machines line the studio floor at SCLPT Studio in Athens, Ga. The boutique fitness studio, co-founded by Alexis Cason and Genna Ringler, offers both reformer Pilates and hot mat sculpt classes to members. (Photo/Grace Park)

SCLPT Studio brought something new to Athens, a boutique fitness studio combining reformer Pilates and hot mat sculpt classes under one roof. Co-founders Alexis Cason and Genna Ringler opened the studio one year ago, and it has already hit maximum capacity.

The two co-founders identified a gap: Athens had no studio combining reformer Pilates and hot mat sculpt classes under one roof, so they built one. The idea took shape after both women independently visited the same heated mat Pilates studio in New York City within a week of each other.

“I believe we’re actually one of the only studios in Georgia that offers hot mat sculpt classes and reformers in the same studio,” Ringler said. SCLPT now runs 13 to 17 classes on a typical weekday, and nearly every one fills a waitlist. The studio paused new memberships temporarily to protect the experience for existing clients.

Hot mat sculpt room at SCLPT Studio
Mats line the floor of the hot mat sculpt room at SCLPT Studio in Athens, Ga. Co-founders Alexis Cason and Genna Ringler say the heated mat class offering sets the studio apart from other fitness studios in the area. (Photo/Grace Park)

Other multimedia sources

B-roll from inside SCLPT Studio. (Video/Grace Park)

Beat pitch presentation

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Why I Wrote The Story

A studio run by two women in their 20s that hit capacity in its first year is the kind of small-business story Athens papers don’t always pick up. I sat down with both co-founders in the same interview, which I had not done before, and figured out how to ask one question that fit both of them instead of running it like two separate Q&As. The story also forced me to keep the profit thread and the mission thread on the page at the same time, since leaning into either one alone would have made the studio sound like a brochure.