If warehouse sized gyms make you feel like a spec on a treadmill you may just find your comfort zone over on Main Street at Unlimited Fitness.
The gym, housed between Gaio's Garage and has been open for eight years and has a loyal clientele that includes student athletes, adults, kids and seniors.
With 18 years as a fitness trainer, owner Renee Liotta said her gym offers a personal touch that you won’t find at larger, warehouse style gyms. You won’t find a smoothie bar or swimming pool, but what you will find, nearly every time you are there, is Renee.
“It’s a private setting,” said Liotta. The gym, housed in the lower floor of a Victorian style home, feels comfortable- not expansive, but not small. “I do the bulk of the training," she said.
While Liotta, who lives in Kings Park, does most of the training, she doesn’t do all of it. She has a trainer specifically for boxing classes and two additional trainers.
The focus for her right now is on childhood obesity and ways to help kids and parents break through the wall of stationary video game playing to real playing.
“I am working with a group of kids now and I try to make it where I am not a trainer. We’re having fun, but it’s a workout,” said Liotta. “To see kids today getting sick due to their weight, developing diabetes, it’s just heartbreaking to me.”
It’s not just the young that gets Liotta worked up, it’s also the seniors, who perhaps are her most loyal customers.
A Zumba class was wrapping up on the day Patch visited. The group, made up of senior women, have been training with Liotta in a goup setting for the past five years.
“Renee’s very good,” said Betsy Warne, a local retiree. “About 15 girls come and we all became friends.”
For them, it is not all about weight loss and looking good, it is about feeling strong.
“It has improved our balance and has built up our stamina,” said the group. “It is good for our bones.”
The gym has treadmills, weight machines and free weights, like most gyms, but what you will also find is some variety. Patrons can pay as they go, no contracts are required.
“In the nice weather I like to take the kids outside,” said Liotta. “We play basketball or head to the open field behind us.” She has also run boot camps that take participants on a run to the high school and an al fresco workout.
With her son now heading off to college, Liotta has more time to develop new programs and take the gym to the next level.
“I love what I do,” said Liotta. “For me it’s not work, it comes easy.”
Unlimited Fitness is located at 61 E. Main Street in Kings Park.
