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Military-Style Fitness Coming To Mineola

The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees approved special use permits for two new businesses at its Wednesday night meeting last week: a fitness center cast in military mode and a nutrition store with a juice bar.

The fitness center to open at 80 Herricks Rd. in Mineola will be manned by Brian Gomez, an active member of the Marine Corps, and Antonasio Hernandez, who recently retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years of service.

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A group class at MSTANY

“It’s a military-style training,” Gomez, a 15-year veteran of the Marine Corps said of the approach he and his physical instructor partner will take. “We just bring something different to the table. We bring a different mindset.”

Gomez, a Mineola resident, said the hour-long group training sessions will commence daily at 5 a.m. with evening sessions planned for 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Hernandez said the two also plan to schedule four classes each day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Groups would include 20 participants. One-on-one sessions with the two Marines will also be scheduled, which Gomez said would be more rigorous than the group workouts “because there’s no place to hide.”

Marines Brian Gomez (left) and Antonasio Hernandez plan to open MSTANY on Herricks Road.
Marines Brian Gomez (left) and Antonasio Hernandez plan to open MSTANY on Herricks Road.

Gomez and Hernandez already conduct their intensive training sessions at MSTANY Boot Camp in Hempstead, a facility they said they’ve been operating successfully for the past 18 months.

Asked if they would be playing music during the sessions, Gomez said the only music would be the sound of the instructors’ voices.

“Judging from the video on your website, you won’t have any trouble being heard,” Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss quipped.

Videos on the MSTANY (Military Style Training Academy of New York) site, www.mstany.com, show men and women of varying ages engaged in running obstacle courses that included car tires and moving at a brisk pace holding logs in their arms.

After the public hearing, Hernandez said the training regimen they employ is modeled on the physical training they have undergone in the Marine Corps. He said the Mineola fitness center would operate under the same name as the Hempstead facility.

Gomez said plans for the fitness center include eventually bringing other instructors into the action. “We’re looking to bring other Marines on board,” he said.

In a brief phone interview, a third partner in MSTANY, Irving Hernandez, said customers in groups at their Hempstead facility range in age from late teens to late 50s, with the average age at between 25 and 35 years old. They hope to open the Herricks location within the next two months.

The board’s special use permit approval for the nutrition store selling vitamins and supplements at 466 Jericho Tpke. in Mineola was essentially to approve the addition of a juice bar, according to owner Joseph Ponte. The 1,000-square foot facility has already been open for business and Ponte said he has been operating a similar business in Brooklyn for the past three years.