Bringing high-intensity training to Port Washington

Stephen Romano

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.

The channel did a small segment, and Zickerman realized the power of a news release.

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.

He waited for responses and desperately tried to grow his business. Only one publication ran a story: The New York Times.

“It happened so fast and I couldn’t believe it,” Zickerman said.

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.

On May 21, Zickerman will celebrate the grand opening of his Port Washington location, which launched last year at 26 Harbor Park Drive.

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.

“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.

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.

Zickerman said the workout requires one to slow down the speed of repetitions, while working to muscle failure.

He preaches that cardio training only puts wear and tear on knees and his method is safe and efficient.

“Cardio is very inefficient at burning calories,” he said.

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. 

“My mom thought I was crazy,” he said. “I was going to be get my Ph.D. and be a doctor and now I am saying to my mom that I was going to be a trainer.”

After 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.

“I was taking a leap of faith because it is a very fringe market,” he said. “I was telling anyone my story and building it from there.”

The New York Times article led to more than 100 phone calls from people in the city wanting to try the workout. But they didn’t want to travel to Long Island, he said.

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.

But he found a space, signed a long-term lease, called back all of the potential clients and signed up 25 of them.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “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.”

Zickerman began hiring trainers, and within a couple of months signed up about 60 clients, and then began expanding nationally.

“It’s such a unique concept and so counter to everything that was being written about 20 years ago,” he said. “But today, all the articles are about short, brief workouts, basically high-intensity exercising.”

The Port Washington location, which he said he had wanted to open since he moved to the town, was a bit of a struggle for him, too.

“I didn’t want to be the that guy, the trainer, who lives in the community and tries to pitch you to join his gym,” he said. “We all have that uncle who tries to sell the family insurance and I didn’t want to be that guy.”

The Port Washington facility, however, worked out, he said.

“Those fears I had about starting a facility here became unfounded and my friends joined and they couldn’t be happier,” he said.  “It’s been the greatest gift.”

The location on Harbor Drive is run by Christopher and Nicole Strk, who before discovering Zickerman’s high-intensity program exercised with and trained in the techniques he preaches against.

“We used to preach the more is better, push, push, push way of working out,” Christopher said. “But Nicole and I fell in love with the workout. We’re still adjusting because we were used to getting up everyday and working out constantly but it’s been great.”

Nicole Strk, a Port Washington native and trainer for 15 years, said the community has responded well to the method.

“People feel they don’t have time to work out, and this allows them to be able to get into the gym more,” she said.

Zickerman said opening the gym in Port Washington was probably the result of being naive again.

“I’m very humble, though, because I remember how scared I was trying to get this one started,” he said.

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