UPPER WEST SIDE — Like apartments and groceries, fitness can get pricey in New York City, often costing double what it might elsewhere. But Adam Rosante believes it doesn't have to be this way.
"What you do for a living shouldn’t dictate the quality of your workout," he said. "Fitness is for everyone."
So this past June, Rosante started a pay-what-you-wish bootcamp program, based in Central Park and accessible to people from all walks of life and all levels of fitness.
"I surveyed the fitness landscape and I realized that not everybody can afford private training or the group fitness classes — a lot of them are 30 or 50 bucks," he said.
That's not to say, Rosante, a television executive developing non-fiction programming for truTV, is opposed to profits. Before founding the People's Bootcamp, he trained his co-workers privately after hours.
But, he said, he's committed to helping all people lead happy, healthy lives, from "models to mechanics." Though he tries to limit the size of his classes, which meet four times a week, to no more than 20 people, and ideally 10, the bootcamp structure offers the chance to have greater impact and reach.
The 45-minute interval training classes, which include exercise using your body weight, "torch fat" when combined with healthy eating, Rosante said.
And with your metabolism ratcheted up, "while you’re sitting on your butt or sleeping, your body turns into a furnace and torches calories."
"People see unbelievable transformations," he said — and, they're paying what they're comfortable with.
One misconception is that everyone takes advantage of the lack of a set price, he added.
"You’ll find people who drop $5 and you’ll find people who drop a load of $20s," he said.
As the cold weather moves in, Rosante and his partners are looking for a new indoor home for the People's Bootcamp somewhere on the Upper West Side, by mid-October to early November.
They haven't found the perfect space yet, and Rosante said the overhead of a studio "takes more thought," but he's confident in the future of the concept.
"When something’s important, you’ll figure it out."
Over the next year or so, People's Bootcamp will likely expand.
"We’ve had countless requests to launch one in Brooklyn," said Rosante.
"Right now, we’re focused on this one location with plans of expanding out."
Rosante encourages participants to sign up here.
