Thick links of steel chain draped around the neck and shoulders of a middle-aged woman like a snake. She pushed her body up and down until she could do no more. She was spent, obvious by the pinkish hue of her face. And she was challenged.

It’s that sort of challenge and unorthodox approach to exercise that makes the house she trains in so different. So are other things about Results Fitness in Newhall, which was recently selected by Men’s Health magazine as one of America’s Top 10 gyms.

To the untrained eye, it would seem like a huge surprise. The location is unassuming. It’s sandwiched between an Italian restaurant and a beauty salon on the sleepy tail of Walnut Street in Newhall. At nearly 4,000 square feet, it’s one-tenth the size of many of the more brand-name local gyms in the Santa Clarita Valley. Yet there’s a reason why this little gym has been recognized nationally not just once, but multiple times.

“The average person is looking for something different,” says co-owner Rachel Cosgrove, whose first book, “The Female Body Breakthrough,” will be released in November. “They’ve failed. They’ve been to the big gyms. We treat everyone as an individual — scientifically.”

The genesis of Results Fitness is rooted in failure and frustration. Alwyn Cosgrove, Rachel’s husband and co-owner, was an athletic trainer at a local gym who got fed up with what he saw around him in the industry. He was fed up with cookie-cutter gyms with rows and rows of stationary equipment, and of trainers who, he says, may not have always been qualified to convey the correct information to members. The trainers weren’t doing their homework and, he adds, didn’t have to work very hard to obtain certification.

On top of that, there became a stereotype the media was sending out about the trainers — “meatheads or a ditzy little aerobics instructor on the TV,” Alwyn says, matter-of-factly.

So Results Fitness opened up in its current location, with just 1,500 square feet to work with.

Alwyn says there wasn’t a lot of equipment and he had little money, but it didn’t matter.

His methods would take care of the gym’s shortcomings.

Yet, he jokes, “I had a friend in Arizona (who opened up a gym). He got sponsored by Adidas. I was sponsored by Visa.”

Results Fitness isn’t like other gyms, where you see plates of weights and machine after machine after machine. There are two treadmills — that’s it — and bars and dumbbells.

After that, there are ropes, the aforementioned chains, platforms, suspension trainers and kettle bells.

“I think it comes down to their programming and trainers,” says Alwyn’s friend and colleague Robert dos Remedios, who is director of speed, strength and conditioning at College of the Canyons. Alwyn and dos Remedios have worked together to deliver speeches and create DVDs on athletic training, and dos Remedios says he sends interns to work with Alwyn regularly.

“They’re just superior to anyone else,” dos Remedios says.

Both Rachel and Alwyn are on the speaking circuit, detailing their methods at fitness conventions across the country. The Cosgroves require that their trainers read and research to stay on the cutting edge.

“The first thing that stands out (about us) is the research we put in and the certified education,” says fitness coach Joe Hand.

The standard is set by the Cosgroves. Alwyn is a former Tae Kwon Do champion who has had two books published — “The New Rules of Lifting” and “The New Rules of Lifting for Women.”

He has motivations for the business and his clients. Alwyn’s mother died of an obesity-related illness, and he has survived cancer.

This issue of Men’s Health isn’t the first to feature Results Fitness. A May 2006 article likened the gym to a “muscle laboratory.” The reason for that is the science behind the gym. Every new member receives an evaluation, or “body blueprint,” that lasts about an hour. A questionnaire is filled out, followed by an examination of posture, pictures from the front, side and back, and movements are tested. The trainers at Results Fitness look for asymmetries in the body, an indicator of injuries. They look to see if the body is tight in a particular area.

The data is given to an in-house program designer who tailors a workout to that particular person. That workout is given to a fitness coach who goes over the program with the client. The program usually begins with lots of stretching — maybe 10 minutes’ worth.

Then there is a warm-up. The warm-up routine is shown on three TV monitors above a rubber track. The client follows what’s on the TV.

After warm-up comes the workout, which the coaches say has its prime emphasis on movement. Says fitness coach Cody Bartosh: “We’re all pretty much in sync as far as philosophy.”

Alwyn says the coaches use a more athletic approach. “There is no fixed equipment here. You don’t sit here.”

Data is collected after every single workout. The Cosgroves say they guarantee results and emphasize the guarantee. Science backs it up. Alwyn says he’ll win a debate on fitness because he has studied it so hard, and what he has studied has proven to work.

Author dos Remedios, who wrote “Men’s Health Power Training,” says this: “I just think their setup is fine-tuned so well, it’s nearly impossible not to meet your fitness goals.”

Alwyn says there are a couple of ways to measure success at Results Fitness — not just with a feature in a national magazine. Much of the clientele has been coming to the gym since it opened. But also, in an economic downturn, the gym has expanded in size.

They’ve gotten results.

Cary is the assistant managing editor at The Signal.