“We’re not training for vanity,” says Izzy Levy, co-founder with his wife, Dyan, of the new ICE NYC fitness studio on Worth Street. “We’re training for life. The six-pack is just a byproduct.”

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet, a winner at the 2014 CrossFit Games, oversees the programming—four types of hour-long classes, each named along icy lines. There’s CrossFit Below Zero; Hail, a high-intensity training class; Arctic Row; and Melt Yoga. “For the first 40 minutes of CrossFit, we’re working on form, function, how to move,” says Levy. “Anyone new to it will wonder where the workout is. Then, after the last 20 minutes, they’re going to be like, ‘What just happened?!'”

Because CrossFit is popular with women, too—Levy says it’s the first sport at which women are able to compete at higher levels than men—he wanted to make sure the 4,300-square-foot facility was more visually appealing than a simple black box. You’ll find bronze pull-up bars, marble columns, hexagonal tile (a reference to the crystalline structure of natural ice), and spacious locker rooms with towel hampers that look like penguins.

“All of this is great,” says Levy. “But people will only keep coming back if we have good classes. My goal here is to build a community, not a bunch of cliques. Two people who signed up for class yesterday didn’t show, so I called them.”

When asked why people should disrupt their fitness routines with a visit to ICE NYC, Levy says simply, “It worked for me.” A trainer for 20 years who was growing bored, he took up CrossFit in 2011. He really got converted after attempting the Murph workout: a one-mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and another mile run, named in honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. That last mile took Levy 25 minutes, while elite-level athletes were doing the whole thing in a half hour. “I thought, Everything else is nothing compared to this.”

Classes are $35 individually, 10-packs are $313, and ICE NYC is currently offering a first month of unlimited classes for $199.

ICE NYC is at 93 Worth (at Broadway), 212-343-0105; ice-nyc.com.

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