Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Buckley and Rana Ilaian.
Hi Julia and Rana, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Golden Hour was founded by two longtime friends with over a decade of shared history and a mutual passion for fitness, community, and personal growth. We’ve always believed in the balance of strength and mindfulness, lifting weights to build power and practicing Pilates to find control and alignment, yet we could never find a space that truly blended both.
After countless late-night conversations (and years of driving across town to get the workouts we wanted), we decided to create Golden Hour — a studio that combines the precision of Pilates with the intensity of sculpt and strength training.
Our goal is simple: to build a community where everyone can dedicate one golden hour each day to themselves.
Fittingly, our journey began with outdoor workouts on the cliffs at Terramar Beach, a place that inspired our vision and now sits just steps away from our studio. I’ve included a photo of us from 2019 after a workout on these cliffs.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Overall, it’s been a smooth journey. Our goal has always been to create a welcoming space and share the importance of blending weightlifting with Pilates. Watching our vision come to life has been so rewarding that, even through challenges, we’ve never lost sight of our purpose or end goal.
We also feel incredibly fortunate to have such supportive families who believed in us from day one. Our dads played a huge role in bringing Golden Hour to life. They helped us design, build, and create the studio space we had always dreamed of. We couldn’t have done it without them.
If we could offer any advice to someone looking to do something similar, it would be to find a mentor in the same industry, or be ready to spend a lot of time researching and learning along the way (which is what we did). One challenge we faced early on was permitting, which turned out to be far more complex than we anticipated.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Golden Hour?
We opened Golden Hour on September 2nd, and as we approach our two-month mark, we’re still learning and growing every day. Right now, we’re wearing all the hats — from front desk to admin, management, janitors, and everything in between.
We believe what sets us apart is offering both strength training and Pilates under one roof. Most studios focus on one or the other, the “Pilates princess” or the “gym girl”, but we’re here to bring those worlds together. Our goal is to educate on the importance of weight training, since many women still feel intimidated by lifting weights. As women age, bone density naturally decreases, which can lead to health risks. Strength training helps counter that by stimulating bone growth, as well as boosts metabolism, improving joint stability, coordination, and overall mobility. Mat Pilates can help with posture, flexibility, core strength, stability, and so on. Pairing the two together is the ultimate combo!
As a women-owned business, community is at the heart of everything we do. We want Golden Hour to be a space where everyone feels supported, welcomed, and empowered. That sense of inclusivity and encouragement is one of the most important things we look for when hiring instructors, because we’ve all been to those studios where you feel out of place or unsupported, and we’re determined to be the opposite of that. We plan to start having monthly community events, inside and outside of the studio to bring people together and become more than just a fitness studio.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
We love the beach and the wellness community.
Pricing:
- Offering buy one get one free for new members ($30)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hourgolden.com/
- Instagram: goldenhourheat_
- Other: tiktok: goldenhourheat
