Mobile Gym Makes Its Debut In The Hamptons

As a way to bring his gym and slow-motion workouts to his clients who spend their summers in the Hamptons, InForm Fitness founder Adam Zickerman of Manhattan put all of his exercise equipment on a 27-foot bus and headed east.

“I know how supermodels feel,” Mr. Zickerman said of the attention his bus has been getting. “People have been pointing at us.”

The bus, outfitted with shiny laminate flooring, mounted fans and six fitness machines, has been traveling across the South Fork since late June, when Mr. Zickerman and trainer Mariko Phillips of Hampton Bays cranked the engine for the first time. He parks the mobile gym in the parking lots of local businesses or homes.

“I thought it would be cool because a lot of people come here and are not near any of my locations, and I thought I could provide these people with this efficient and safe workout without having to drive to the city or the South Shore,” Mr. Zickerman said.

In addition to his original gym in Manhattan, he has locations in Massapequa, California and Pennsylvania. For the adventurous types, or those who cannot regularly get to a gym this summer, the bus workout is aimed to be a convenient alternative to the traditional classic, weight-based routine, Mr. Zickerman said.

The machines inside the bus have been custom-engineered to fit inside the small space and still allow for walking and floor work, much like putting together puzzle pieces.

“If I took all the equipment out of the bus I could take it to Atlantic City,” Mr. Zickerman quipped. The equipment has been secured and reinforced with steel, however.

The machines are smaller replicas of the equipment at his brick-and-mortar gyms, according to Mr. Zickerman. All his machines are modified to reduce friction and balance resistance to natural movements. Instead of fighting with the body, the machines help protect muscles and joints from injury and allow clients to perform at peak levels, he said.

Going straight through the slow-paced, 20-minute workout reduces momentum but builds intensity by exhausting all the muscle groups, which is why clients need to do it only once a week, Mr. Zickerman said.

Ms. Phillips, who started as a client in Malibu and also drives the bus, works with clients in the driveways and parking lots at their homes or businesses for $125 per hour, or $100 per hour for an eight-week package.

“If I get neighbors to train on the bus, I can train three people in one hour,” Mr. Zickerman said.

So far, the InForm Fitness bus has visited several clients, all of whom have climbed onto the bus for a less-than-traditional workout.

“My clients are going crazy over this,” Mr. Zickerman said. “Twenty-eight people have signed up. It’s finally an answer to their questions.”

For a few years now, clients of Mr. Zickerman’s Manhattan gym have been asking how they could continue their weekly visits to the gym while on vacation in the Hamptons. Opting not to open a pop-up gym to meet their needs, his idea for a mobile gym hit him like a bus. “I thought, ‘Wait a second, what if I brought it to them and made it mobile?’” he said.

Now that he’s fulfilled their requests, Mr. Zickerman hopes the bus will be a hit. “Now I’m saying, ‘Yes, we’re coming out, and you better sign up because for years you’ve been telling me to come out to the Hamptons,’” he said.

And although the bus has proved to be a radical idea, Mr. Zickerman said that his exercise and nutrition program alone has proved to be even more unconventional. In 2004, Mr. Zickerman published “Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution,” about his slowed down, intense workout.

“When it first came out, I was considered a real quack,” he said about his book. A lot of criticism poured in from those who discounted the feasibility of a 20-minute, once a week workout. But according to Mr. Zickerman, Barbara Walters and Lesley Stahl from “60 Minutes” have given his program their time and approval.

“Really influential and intelligent people are doing this now,” he said. “This is not a weird thing anymore.”

Mr. Zickerman remains hopeful about his mobile gym and said he would like to get another bus for the North Fork—if the Hamptons bus proves successful.

“It’ll spread by word of mouth like a good machinist,” he said. “You know a good machinist by the fact they’re still in business.”

For more information and to see the InForm Fitness bus roll up, visit informfitness.com or call (212) 755-9895.