Joe Ochoa believes in the power of exercise.

And he knows personally all those great and small things that can derail a Latino family from exercising regularly.

He's determined to do his part to make exercise a habit, not just a once-in-a-while event.

Ochoa has opened Family Gym, a 40,000-square-foot facility that offers affordable rates, bilingual staff and even child-care while the parents are exercising.

The gym is located on the corner of 17 Street and Imperial Avenue, next to Interstate 5, to serve the residents of Golden Hill, East Village, Stockton, Logan Heights, downtown and even Coronado.

A native of Jalisco state, Ochoa moved to Golden Hill when he was 12 years old. He wanted to do something to make a difference in the health of the community where he grew up.

"If we want to plan our exercise around our daily activities, we're going to fail," he said. "My advice is to plan our activities around exercising."

The gym has low rates – with plans starting at $9.95 per person and $39.99 for families per month.

Ochoa says the idea is to motivate the entire family to be active and to keep the children away from the streets and its potential problems.

"We have a 10,000-square-foot aerobics room, the largest on the West Coast, with the kind of music you would hear at a quinceañera party or Latino wedding," he said. "I think people who would not feel comfortable at other gyms would like with us."

In additional to offering traditional services, the gym offers Zumba classes and other rhythmic Latino dances, like the merengue.

Latinos traditionally buy fruits and fruit drinks at stands – and such a stand is in the works for the gym.

It's open from 5 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 7 a.m. on weekends. The idea is for the place to become a community hub, contributing to the revitalization of the area. It's a process that's already in the works, given that a supermarket will open soon in nearby Barrio Logan.

The gym represents a total investment of between $4 million and $5 million annually, which includes the cost of renovation, rent and equipment. Ochoa said that 2,000 people have enrolled in the gym in its first two months, and has capacity for nearly 8,000 more.

The gym, located east of Petco Park, is near several shelters for the homeless. Ochoa said the investors were initially worried that potential members simply would not go there, that there are boundaries that they simply would not cross.

"My people don't stop at any border," he said. "Our location is safe."

Carla Guerrero, 21, said she enrolled because the gym is close to City College, where she studies, and the price is just right.

"I'm not worried about security," she said, noting that public transit makes it easier to go there than to a gym near her house in Bonita. "This place is attractive."

According to his marketing studies, of the 444,000 residents who live in the surrounding neighborhoods, between 15 to 18 per cent are interested in joining a gym. That's cause for optimism about the gym – and future such facilities.

In fact, this gym is the company's second. The first one opened in 2007 in Chula Vista.

"We want to open one of these in other Latino neighborhoods in San Diego, something that may take us two years," he said. "And then we want to expand to Brownsville, Texas.

"If you have small dreams, small things happen. But if you dream big, big things can happen, like the size of our gym now."

editorial@uniontrib.com; this story was published in Enlace, The Union-Tribune's weekly newspaper in Spanish.