“It’s such a unique concept and so counter to everything that was being written about 20 years ago,” he said. Zickerman began hiring trainers, and within a couple of months signed up about 60 clients, and then began expanding nationally. “I was naive at the beginning thinking I could set this up, and if I wasn’t so naive in thinking it could be accomplished, it would have probably never happened.” He told them he was in the process of opening a facility in the city and that it should be open within six months - knowing that he didn’t have a plan or a potential space.īut he found a space, signed a long-term lease, called back all of the potential clients and signed up 25 of them. But they didn’t want to travel to Long Island, he said. The New York Times article led to more than 100 phone calls from people in the city wanting to try the workout. “I was telling anyone my story and building it from there.” “I was taking a leap of faith because it is a very fringe market,” he said. and be a doctor and now I am saying to my mom that I was going to be a trainer.”Īfter a client offered Zickerman half of the basement space of a professional building in Massapequa rent-free, he bought a couple of machines for around $5,000 and retrofitted them to fit the high-intensity workout while trying to get word out. Zickerman, who has a background in genetics research, said he read an article written in the 1960s about the high-intensity method and decided to switch career paths. “Cardio is very inefficient at burning calories,” he said. He preaches that cardio training only puts wear and tear on knees and his method is safe and efficient. Zickerman said the workout requires one to slow down the speed of repetitions, while working to muscle failure. The high-intensity method Zickerman implemented in his gyms was popularized by Arthur Jones and focuses on avoiding injury and intensely challenging your body for 20 minutes once a week, working your muscles to exhaustion. “I fantasized about contributing to this community in this way, so I was excited about bringing it to my own town and to be able to contribute to my community,” Zickerman said. Zickerman, who has lived in Port Washington for six years and is a native of Woodbury, said he was excited to bring his gym to his community. On May 21, Zickerman will celebrate the grand opening of his Port Washington location, which launched last year at 26 Harbor Park Drive. Zickerman’s high-intensity training program, which was seen as unusual at the time, he said, turned national, with his gym, Inform Fitness, opening in Virginia, Colorado, New Jersey, New York City and California. “It happened so fast and I couldn’t believe it,” Zickerman said. Only one publication ran a story: The New York Times. He waited for responses and desperately tried to grow his business. He ran across the street to a deli and bought every magazine and newspaper, scoured their mastheads for contact information and sent news releases to more than 50 publications in 1998. The channel did a small segment, and Zickerman realized the power of a news release. Adam Zickerman was operating a gym in a 300-square-foot basement in Massapequa, training a handful of people, when a friend sent a news release to News 12 about the high-intensity training methods he was teaching.
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