STATEN ISLAND, NY - CHARLESTON -
If you’re looking for a juice bar, a sauna and Jacuzzi in the locker room, flat-screen televisions on treadmills or lines of fancy presses in front of full-body mirrors, then Next Level Performance is not the place for you.
The Charleston gym is unlike any other gym in the borough, as it focuses all of its workout regimens around the concept of High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.).
That can involve anything from using kettlebells and medicine balls to literally beating a truck tire with sledgehammers.
After all, the Next Level motto is “our warm-up is your workout.”
The location opened its doors in October 2008, less than a year after co-founder and Tottenville resident
Juan Becerra
was first introduced to the concept of H.I.I.T.
Becerra, a vice president at the global securities and investment banking group, Jefferies & Company, Inc., in Manhattan, was competing in an intra-office weight loss competition in January of that year.
He began with the “dinosaur workout,” as he now calls it, which involved working his biceps, chest and back on Mondays; shoulders, triceps and legs on Tuesdays; resting; and then doing it all over again.
The problem was, he wasn’t losing weight.
Chris Brown
, a co-worker who would soon become his partner at Next Level, introduced him to a H.I.I.T.-style boxing class that forced him to run up and down stairs, do push-ups, hit a heavy bag and do military crawls.
Becerra was sweating puddles and loving every minute of it.
“The weight started to melt off and my eyes were opened to a new training method that was very similar to playing sports,” he said. “At the contest weigh-in, I had lost 30 pounds in three months.”
Since then, he’s dropped another 30 pounds and admittedly feels stronger and more agile.
Looking to introduce the concept to Staten Island residents, Becerra and Brown launched Next Level, which has a particular focus on younger athletes looking to build strength and endurance.
“Sports require skills such as throwing, catching, running and, most, (physical) contact,” Becerra noted. “However, today, parents register their children in multiple sports, (including basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and football), thinking that their son or daughter will become better simply by playing more sports.”
But the diverse physical demands of the various sports leads to injuries in younger athletes, according to Becerra.
“Travel ball, multiple games, tournaments, sports, sport-specific training and coaching, pushy parents, school work, and friends also make the list due to the fact that they are additional stresses,” he added.
“These things help to lead to laziness on the field and the classroom because kids are exhausted,” he said. “It’s important for athletes, parents, and coaches to understand the importance of a well-balanced strength and conditioning program.”
Becerra and Brown, as well as staff members
Donald Girard, Dan Lynch
and
Rocky Ferrante
, believe that Next Level can provide a consistent program that will improve an athlete’s chances “of staying on the field, out of the doctor’s and off the bench.”
Next Level takes the guesswork out of working out by posting daily regimens on its Web site under the “Routine of the Day” tab, with each exercise having functional, core and compound activities that can be scaled to any ability level.
The result is increased strength and stamina with noticeable overall conditioning improvements.
A typical H.I.I.T. workout usually last about 20 to 30 minutes and mixes short, high-intensity intervals with longer-slower recovery intervals.
And Becerra says that the workouts are something that those from all walks of life can find useful.
“(Our clients are) people who want to try something new,” he said. “They are people with busy schedules, looking for a better workout in less time. They’re people who need to be pushed and encouraged. They’re grandmothers to athletes who want to improve their functional competence at home or on the field of play. They’re people who are motivated.”
Next Level Performance, located at 85 Industrial Loop, Charleston, can be reached at 917-922-8513. Visit www.nxtlevelnow.com for additional information.