Episode 105: Is 727Fit the Fitness Community St. Pete Has Been Missing? Sydney Gault & Ava McGuire
- Aug 20
- 6 min read
In Episode 105 of Talkin’ St. Pete, Ryan Bogden sits down with Sydney Gault and Ava McGuire, founders of 727Fit, a community fitness group bringing people together through workouts on Upham Beach in St. Pete.
What started with a chance meeting at a beach workout in Sarasota quickly turned into an idea Sydney and Ava couldn’t ignore: Why isn’t there something like this in St. Pete?
About a month later, 727Fit was up and running.
But this episode isn’t just about starting a fitness group. Sydney and Ava share what they’ve learned about turning an idea into something real, creating a space where people actually meet each other, making fitness feel less intimidating, and growing a community without losing the personal connection that made it work in the first place.
From One Beach Workout to a New St. Pete Fitness Community
727Fit didn’t begin with a business plan. It started with a workout, brunch, and one question:
Why isn’t there something like this in St. Pete?
Sydney and Ava met by chance while attending a beach-based workout group in Sarasota. They both loved the experience, but what stood out wasn’t only the exercise. It was the community surrounding it.
Afterward, they went to brunch, exchanged numbers, and half-joked about creating something similar back home.
Within a couple of weeks, they were sitting down together and deciding to actually make it happen.
They chose a name, worked on a logo, planned a friends-and-family workout, and created a launch timeline. About a month after the initial idea, 727Fit was up and running.
Their story goes beyond fitness. Plenty of people have good ideas. Sydney and Ava’s experience shows what can happen when you find someone who shares the same excitement and is willing to actually follow through.
Why 727Fit Is About More Than Working Out
727Fit hosts community fitness workouts at Upham Beach a couple of times each month, but Sydney and Ava are clear about what they really want people to get out of them:
Connection.
With social media, dating apps, remote work, and more of everyday life happening behind a screen, meeting people naturally can feel harder than it used to.
That can be especially relevant in St. Pete, where many people have moved here from somewhere else and are looking for ways to build a social circle in a new city.
727Fit gives people a reason to get outside, move, and be around other people without putting all the pressure on walking into a room and introducing yourself to strangers.
The workout becomes the reason everyone is there. The relationships can happen naturally from there.
Sydney and Ava have already watched friendships and friend groups form through the community, with people meeting at a workout and later getting together outside of 727Fit.
For anyone who has ever moved to St. Pete and wondered, “How do I actually meet people here?” their story offers one possible answer: start by showing up somewhere.
Have We Made Fitness Too Serious?
If you show up expecting a traditional fitness class, you may find yourself playing Sharks and Minnows instead.
And that’s intentional.
Sydney and Ava want 727Fit to feel approachable, especially for someone who might normally feel intimidated walking into a workout group alone.
Games are incorporated into the workouts to break the ice and get people interacting. In Sharks and Minnows, participants are running across the beach trying not to get tagged. Within minutes, strangers are chasing each other, laughing, moving, and getting outside their comfort zones.
It’s playful, but it also serves a purpose.
Instead of waiting until after the workout to introduce yourself to someone, you’ve already interacted before the real workout has even started.
That approach raises an interesting question about fitness in general: Does every workout have to feel so serious?
For Sydney and Ava, getting healthier and building community don’t have to be separate experiences.
The 7.27 Day Workout That Put St. Pete Knowledge to the Test
Few things say 727Fit quite like combining a workout with St. Pete history.
For their 7.27 Day event on July 27, participants competed in teams and answered trivia questions about St. Petersburg.
Get the answer right? Move on to the workout.
Get it wrong? Burpees.
A lot of burpees.
The questions covered local history and St. Pete landmarks, including places like The Don CeSar and Vinoy. Unfortunately for some participants, their knowledge of the city didn’t quite match their enthusiasm for the workout.
Add a roughly 95-degree day, and Sydney and Ava quickly learned a few things about designing future events.
But the idea captures what makes their approach different. They aren’t simply bringing exercise to the beach. They’re finding ways to connect fitness with the city around them.
Does Bigger Always Mean Better?
As 727Fit grows, Sydney and Ava are also thinking about a question nearly every growing
community or business eventually faces:
How big do you actually want to become?
It can be easy to look at fitness groups drawing hundreds of people and assume more attendees automatically means more success.
But Sydney and Ava see another side of growth.
At their current size, they can introduce themselves to people. They can recognize returning faces. They can ask someone how they’re doing, learn where they’re from, and help connect people with similar interests.
Participants can also meet each other more easily.
In a crowd of 500, someone might stay with the two friends they arrived with. In a smaller group, there may be more reason to talk to someone new.
Sydney and Ava aren’t against growth. They’re thinking about how to grow without losing what made people connect with 727Fit in the first place.
It’s an interesting lesson for any entrepreneur or community builder: growth matters, but so does knowing what you don’t want to lose along the way.
Listening to the People Who Keep Showing Up
Another part of keeping that community personal is listening.
After workouts, Sydney and Ava ask participants what they liked, what they didn’t, and what they’d want to see again.
Then they use that feedback.
If people loved the structure of a workout, they can bring parts of it back. If something was confusing or didn’t work, they can change it.
Of course, there are limits.
If your feedback is simply that you never want to do another burpee, you might find yourself doing jump squats instead.
The workout is still supposed to challenge you.
But that constant feedback gives Sydney and Ava a chance to adapt while staying connected to the people they’re building the community around.
Two Different Personalities, One Shared Vision for 727Fit
Sydney and Ava may share the same drive, but they don’t always react to things the same way.
Ask what would happen if 500 people suddenly showed up to a workout and you can see the difference immediately.
Sydney describes herself as more of a perfectionist. She’s thinking about whether the music is loud enough, whether the workout makes sense, and what could be improved.
Ava brings a calmer energy.
Their first workout made that clear. Sydney was worried about things that weren’t going exactly as planned. Ava was having a great time.
Instead of working against them, those differences have become part of why their partnership works.
Ava designs the workouts and brings experience from coaching, running, and her studies in sports psychology. Sydney handles marketing and outreach, drawing on years of marketing experience.
They don’t bring identical strengths to the table, and that may be exactly the point.
Fitness, Mindset, and Learning to Be Present
The conversation also goes deeper into the mental side of fitness.
Ava is studying sports psychology, and one of the areas that interests her is motivation: where it comes from, what affects performance, and how people can become more present in what they’re doing.
That idea fits naturally into 727Fit.
When you’re on Upham Beach playing a game, doing a workout, and interacting with people around you, there’s less room to think about everything else competing for your attention.
For one hour, the focus can simply be where you are and why you showed up.
Ryan, Sydney, and Ava discuss routines, self-awareness, positive self-talk, eliminating distractions, and the importance of the people you surround yourself with.
The takeaway isn’t limited to exercise.
Sometimes getting out of your own head starts with putting yourself somewhere that makes it easier to be present.
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