Break a sweat at Hall of Fame Village. Green Bay Packers star opens fitness center

CANTON − Former NFL star Donald Driver beamed with excitement Wednesday as he unveiled the latest location of his Driven Elite fitness center chain.

And he told those gathered at a ribbon-cutting event at the Hall of Fame Village that Canton boasts the first Driven Elite Fitness boutique facility, located on the ground level of the Constellation Center for Excellence at 2014 Champions Gateway.

Led by a certified instructor, the boutique offers prescheduled workout classes in groups of up to 40 people, combining high-intensity interval training and circuit and functional training. Open gym workout sessions are also offered during certain hours.

"When we talk about making sure that you are in the best shape possible, we take care of you," Driver said. "We want you to live a healthy lifestyle. We're so excited about where we're going."

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Former NFL star partners with Hall of Fame Village

Driver was joined by Hall of Fame Village officials, local government leaders and others at the grand opening of both Driven Elite Fitness and Driven Elite Performance. Driven Elite Performance is in the Center for Performance dome at 1901 Champions Gateway on the Village campus.

"Thank you to the Hall of Fame, thank you to every single person that has been a part of this journey and building this," Driver said. "We're excited."

Anne Graffice, executive vice president of global marketing and public affairs for the Hall of Fame Village, said she's excited about the partnership with Driver.

"His ability to create exercise for training, for development, for recovery is unmatched, unparalleled," she said.

Driver, a former wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, is founder and owner of Driven Elite. In 2012, he also won the "Dancing with the Stars" television competition.

The Canton gym location joins others in Denton, Texas, which launched in 2017, and Gulfport, Mississippi.

Memberships are for sale and available at https://www.drivenelite.net/.

Sports performance training for student athletes

Canton's Driven Elite Fitness, which features the Driven Elite HIIT studio, continues to hold a soft opening through Feb. 2, including free workout sessions. The first payment for memberships will start on Feb. 5, said Madison Zurakowski​, public affairs specialist at the Hall of Fame Village.

Driven Elite Fitness is open to all skill levels and ages.

Driven Elite Sports Performance is also open, an offshoot of Driven Elite Fitness. The sports performance site features a Mueller recovery room, which includes sports therapy using ice and heat compression, a Mueller muscle massage gun and saunas.

Athlete training programs focus on endurance, strength, stability, balance, injury prevention and explosiveness. They are open to teams and students in elementary school, middle school and high school. Training for college and professional athletes is also offered.

Training classes for school teams focus on running mechanics, functional movement skills, neural pathway development and other areas. Sports turf inside the dome is used to help athletes improve linear speed, change of direction, first-step explosion, footwork and flexibility.

Program specifics depend on the age group of the student athletes.

'It's going to be a life-changing event.'

Driver, a member of the Packers Hall of Fame, said fitness and sports training have advanced greatly since his youth.

"It's completely different I think than when we grew up," said Driver, who played for Green Bay from 1999-2012 and was selected to four Pro Bowl teams. "I think we just had weights in the backyard and we just lifted as much as we could and got as big and strong as we could.

"But now ... you have somebody that's knowledgeable about understanding how to actually do lifting, how to do recovery, how to do nutrition, (and) we never had that," he said. "And so, if we can implement that now, as the world evolves into new things ... it's going to be a life-changing event.

"This is why we wanted to come to Canton," Driver added. "So many people we talked to said we don't have anything like this, (and if) you bring it here, we know it's going to be successful."

For operating hours and more details about programs, visit https://www.drivenelite.net/locations/canton/. Driven Elite in Canton also can be reached at 330-960-8080.

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com.

On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP and Instagram at ed_balint

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Donald Driver opens Driven Elite fitness site at Hall of Fame Village