Stuart Taylor | The Valdosta Daily TimesSculpt 24 Fitness is located at 3259-A Inner Perimeter Road.

VALDOSTA – Cade Batten found his purpose 15 years ago.

That’s when he became a personal trainer.

Batten has always been an athlete, even playing baseball for North Florida Junior College (now North Florida Community College), but he had never trained anyone before.

Still, he thought it might be something he could do well.

He quickly found he loved it.

“I loved being able to interact with people from all walks of life and show them how fitness can change their life,” Batten said.

He didn’t know how much impact solid fitness training could have until, one day, a client burst into tears.

She had been going to gyms off and on for years, always with the goal of losing 15 pounds.

When she was finally able to hit her mark with Batten coaching her, she started crying in the middle of the gym.

“Around then, I realized that this was my purpose, my calling in life,” Batten said.

Working at Bailey’s Powerhouse in Jacksonville, Fla., he built a clientele, working with them on nutrition, exercise and fitness goals.

After a few years there, he was approached about taking a management/sales role.

“They saw something I didn’t necessarily see in myself,” Batten said.

He hesitated. What he loved about his work was the personal, one-on-one connection he built with his clients. What would happen to that if he moved up?

“What I realized was I would be able to help more people, by teaching trainers what I had learned and by matching up clients with the right trainer,” Batten said.

He continued to move up in the fitness world, working as an area manager in central Florida for Gold’s Gyms and then coming on board with Kinetix a few years later. Eventually, he became president of the company.

“The more I helped the people under me to succeed, the more I was able to succeed,” Batten said.

Somewhere along the way, between that first client and running Kinetix, Batten started thinking about opening his own gym.

He made mental notes along the way, keeping some ideas from the gyms he had worked at and changing others.

When Kinetix announced the company was looking for someone to purchase its Valdosta location, Batten took it.

It also gave him a chance to spend more time with his son, who lives in Hahira with his mother.

“Being on the road, I couldn’t be around as much as I wanted to,” Batten said.

Batten opened Sculpt 24 Fitness in December

“We have people in here from all walks of life,” Batten said. “It can be intimidating, walking in through those doors, but they do it. We might have different starting points, but we’re all in here to do the same thing, to get better at what we’re doing.”

The gym is a reflection of his interests as a fitness trainer.

Up front are the weight machines and treadmills.

In the middle are the free weights, the functional movement section of the gym.

In the back is a CrossFit gym, that familiar black box.

CrossFit classes are held in the morning and evenings, with the box open during the day for CrossFitters to work out in.

“I wanted to change the idea that CrossFit isn’t for everybody,” Batten said. “It’s for all walks of life. Every exercise in it is scalable.”

Also in the back is the Sculpt 24 Wellness Center, something that Batten is getting ready to launch this month.

The wellness center will combine nutrition and meal plans with allergy testing and an on-staff doctor.

The gym focuses on the family, offering family memberships, a daycare center and fitness programs for kids, programs such as taikwando, cheering and tumbling, and sports training.

Batten wants to add a sauna as well.

“It’s a lot of work,” Batten said, smiling. “But I’m very passionate about it. My purpose in life is exactly what I’m doing.”

Sculpt 24 Fitness is located at 3259-A Inner Perimeter Road.

It is open 24 hours a day.

It is staffed 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m Saturday and Sunday.

During unstaffed hours, members can use a key card to enter.

Stuart Taylor is a reporter for the Valdosta Daily Times.