“This is an extension of my passion for exercise,” says Drill Fitness founder Winston Fisher. “The right exercise can transform your body—it can transform your life. I know. I was a fat kid. I used to weigh 220, 230 pounds.” But don’t go to Drill’s first outpost—at Church and Warren, in the old Janovic Plaza space—expecting not to sweat. When people ask what the gimmick is, Fisher’s answer is always the same: “Hard work!”
Drill offers four types of group classes (or “shared suffering”) at the 4,200-square-foot facility. In the Body Studio, which has windows that look onto the street, Drill Body FIT incorporates weights, suspension training, and your body’s own weight, while Drill Body HIIT (high-intensity interval training) classes involve strength, cardiovascular, and plyometric movement. Every HIIT and FIT class makes sure to work the core, and you can buy a heart-rate monitor that, using wi-fi, displays onscreen how you’re doing.
In the 30-bike cycling studio, there are 45-minute Drill Ride Sprint and 60-minute Drill Ride Enduro classes. The monitors post scores for each bike, but Fisher says it’s not a race. “The scores factor in how fast you pedal and the resistance, so when you isolate, you can see what’s happening.”
Music is an important part of the equation: The sound system is “bumpin,'” and disco balls hang in the studios. “I want Drill to be clean, cool, and sexy—different than your average gym. And I want people to have an endorphin rush after every workout.”
Upstairs is a smoothie bar and merchandise display; downstairs, you’ll find men’s and women’s locker rooms, the former with two showers and the latter with four.
“I have one spot identified, and I’m looking at a few others,” says Fisher, also a real-estate executive, when asked whether more Drill locations are in the works. “I don’t do anything small.”
Drill Fitness is at 136 Church (at Warren), 212-233-7455; drillfitness.com.
Recent New Kid on the Block / First Impressions articles:
• Bar Cyrk
• Dutch Petals
• Ruum
• Morsi
• Church Street Tavern
• Tribeca’s Kitchen
• White Street
• EGG by Susan Lazar
• Barre Tribeca
• Haus
• Añejo
• Café Noir
• Pi Bakerie
Looks spiffy but I liked it better when the space was a discount store