Stories of our Clients: Lift Lake

The one clear purpose of Lift Lake is to make building muscle feel approachable, structured, and enjoyable. The studio opened this year, but the inspiration behind it runs much deeper than recent fitness trends.

"Muscle is so important for our overall health," Megan explains. "It affects not only our strength but also our heart health, our digestive health, our sleep, our mood, and is one of the biggest predictors for longevity. It allows us to be independent and resilient as we get older." She points out that women in particular need to actively prioritize building muscle after the age of 30, at which point the body will otherwise start to naturally lose muscle mass each year. 

Unfortunately, strength training can be hard to get into, because people either don’t know where to start, worry about getting injured, or simply are intimidated by the gym environment. To create a different experience, Megan set out to build “a studio that prioritizes building strength in an approachable and structured way, with a focus on education, safety, and progress over time.” In other words, “A group class experience that has all the benefits of personal training, but in a more accessible format.”

You’ll find the same, overdone setting in most commercial fitness studios. Fast-paced workouts, loud music, dimmed lights, and no room to catch your breath. Lift Lake takes the less trodden path and does the exact opposite. “We have a beautiful, sun-lit studio with a relaxed atmosphere,” the founder describes. “We take breaks to adequately recover between sets, which is essential when you’re really pushing yourself.” Those breaks also help trainers check in on form and guide the clients to make sure they’re getting the most out of every movement. 

The programming is structured differently, too. Rather than rotating through new exercises constantly, Lift Lake keeps its four main class types the same for a month at a time. "Clients get to learn the movements properly and build confidence week by week, adding weight as they go. This is called progressive overload, and it's one of the most effective ways to build muscle," she explains.

For Megan, brand protection wasn’t something to keep in mind once things got moving. It was on her mind from the get-go. "I know how important it is when you're building something new," she says. "You spend time and effort perfecting the concept, name, logo, colors, so of course you want to make sure it's protected."

Given that she set the entire business up in just two months, it was important to find the right law firm for trademark registration. One that could keep up with her pace. "I only had so much time to dedicate to important but not directly urgent tasks, so I wanted to outsource where I could."

After a quick Google search, the choice was simple. She recalls that “It was immediately clear that they were professional, organized, and customer-focused.” The experience that followed matched that first impression. "Everything was frictionless, from their website, which has all the information you need, to their availability for a video call to answer all of my questions before committing, to their easy-to-navigate portal."

Trama also gave Megan a heads-up she didn’t expect. "They even made sure to warn me ahead of time that I may get bills in the mail from other parties that are trying to scam you into paying for additional unnecessary trademark-related services, which I did, and could confidently ignore." This is exactly the kind of detail that you appreciate when you’re running a new, fast-paced business and don’t have the time to painstakingly mull over every decision. "I felt really taken care of by Trama from start to finish."

Lift Lake takes its purpose seriously. It’s designed to provide the kind of training that changes how people feel, move, and age, and it’s built to remove the barriers that keep most people from starting strength training. The brand protection side reflects the same commitment. It’s thoughtful, proactive, and done properly from the beginning, so the work behind the name is never at risk.

The founder opened Lift Lake after learning about the outsized role muscle plays in long-term health, from cardiovascular function to sleep to longevity. Seeing how many people found strength training intimidating or hard to access, she set out to build a studio that makes it structured and approachable, particularly for women over 30.

Lift Lake uses a monthly progressive overload program, meaning clients work on the same movements long enough to genuinely improve and increase the weights they use each week. The studio atmosphere is deliberately calm and well-lit, with recovery built into every session, and trainers on hand to focus on form throughout.

With just six weeks to get the business off the ground, the founder needed a partner who could handle trademark registration without adding to her workload. Trama's clear process, responsive team, and easy-to-use portal made it the obvious choice, and the experience delivered on that promise throughout.