Health & Fitness in South Farmingdale

When working out at Retro Fitness, clients may feel a pang of nostalgia along with the usual burn that accompanies cardio and strength workouts. Movies from the 1980s play to an audience of exercisers in cardio theaters within the expansive gyms, which make room elsewhere for Zumba, bootcamp, toning, yoga, and cardio classes. In other areas of the gym, professional trainers help clients work out efficiently and old-timey strongmen lift medicine balls to general applause.

Nicole Tzen, Inner Balance’s owner and a certified holistic practitioner, wants to do more than treat illness; she strives to empower clients to take control of their own health. That’s why, in addition to offering integrative-healing services such as massage therapy, acupressure, and reiki healing, she hosts a range of yoga classes to bolster clients’ fitness. This balance between mind, body, and spirit is also seen in the wellness center’s Peaceful Minds program, in which licensed holistic practitioner Amy Mahoney provides free massage therapy, reiki healing, and yoga and meditation instruction for combat veterans.

The walls inside Total Body Boot Camp and Performance Center’s sprawling gym are covered in motivating quotations. Most of the motivation here, however, comes from the team of expert instructors, who lead guests of all fitness levels through intense boot-camp classes. During the group training classes, each student can make use of the gym’s array of equipment, such as sandbags, kettlebells, and training ropes, for a holistic workout for the body.

Take a look around the gym at Gaglione Strength and you might spot college football players, wrestlers, and MMA fighters, all of whom turn to trainer John Gaglione for their coaching. As a sports performance specialist, John has been featured in many major publications such as Men’s Health, and is a featured strength-and-conditioning writer for the Long Island Wrestling Association. During workouts, he uses a hybrid style of coaching, often incorporating unconventional equipment ranging from ropes and resistance bands to kettlebells and chains to help athletes perform at their best. He fuses these into a variety of different programs, including elite wrestling development, sports performance, offseason and in-season training, power, speed, and movement training, injury prevention, and general fitness training.

Members of Synergy Fitness Clubs thrive on choice. Choice of location? There are nine. Choice of activity? Instructors lead classes in almost any form of exercise imaginable, such as power sculpt, full-body circuits, and intense cycling. To make sure that members are making the choices that will help reach their fitness goals the fastest, the clubs are staffed with more than 100 lifestyle coaches. These pros are continually educated in their fields of specialty—which might mean nutrition counseling, yoga, or boxing.

A wide slate of equipment and amenities makes it as easy as possible to fit in workouts. Most locations are open 24 hours, and while parents lift free weights or dance a beautiful tango with a Precor elliptical, their kids can hang out in a free childcare room.

It’s been said that those who do what they enjoy never work a day in their life. Dr. Stephen H. Atkins can relate to the sentiment. His passion for holistic medicine has led him to develop an expertise in the field and become a relied-upon resource for patients and the public alike. Through nutrition coaching and a focus on the body's optimal function, Dr. Atkins aims to support physiological strength so that patients can battle chronic symptoms or bench-press their minivans.

Rewind 25 years. There, Dr. Atkins is receiving his Ph.D. in Integrative Medicine. Travel a few years into the future and see him gain membership and association in a number of medical organizations, including the American College for the Advancement of Medicine and the Academy of International BioEnergetic Sciences. Today, Dr. Atkins remains energetically active in his field by treating patients with functional medicine, authoring books, and speaking with the public through television programs and desert visions.