Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 100 Sweat, Fail, Succeed: One Trainer's Rocky Road to Fitness Glory
Michael Donofrio's fitness journey wasn't always picture-perfect. After failing his NASM certification twice in his early twenties, many would have given up. Instead, he pivoted, obtained an alternative certification, and began building what would become Donofrio Fitness—now a thriving studio in Mahwah, New Jersey celebrating its sixth year in business.
What makes this fitness community special is Michael's approach to training. Breaking free from rigid methodologies, he creates dynamic workouts that borrow from various disciplines. One day might feature a CrossFit-inspired AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible), while another focuses on boxing technique or strength supersets. This variety keeps members engaged and continually challenging their bodies in new ways.
The studio primarily serves adults aged 30-50 through both group classes and personal training, with classes starting as early as 5 AM to accommodate working professionals. Recently, Michael has expanded into youth programming, offering specialized classes for children 8-13 that focus on proper technique and age-appropriate strength development—a growing area of his business that fills an important need in the community.
Beyond the workouts, what truly distinguishes Donofrio Fitness is the sense of belonging Michael has cultivated. "I love seeing the same people every day," he shares, "knowing they believe in and trust me." Some clients have been with him for over a decade, forming the backbone of his business. This loyalty, combined with strategic use of social media and community involvement through local events, has helped the studio weather the inevitable challenges of small business ownership.
Michael's story reminds us that success often comes not from perfect beginnings but from persistence through failures and a willingness to adapt. Download the Donofrio Fitness app or visit www.donofriofitness.com to experience this unique approach to fitness for yourself.
Donofrio Fitness
Mike Donofrio
370 Franklin Turnpike Mahwah, NJ 07430
(973) 897-3912
donofriofitness15@outlook.com
Donofriofitness.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. I am your host, doug Drohan, and today we are joined by Michael Donofrio from Donofrio Fitness, based in Mahwah, new Jersey, bergen County's best. Welcome to the show, michael. How are you guys doing? Good, good so Donofrio easy for me to say Donofrio Fitness, it's kind of a tongue twister.
Speaker 3:People say Donofrio. A lot of people say Donofrio. It's properly pronounced Donofrio.
Speaker 2:Oh, People say Donofrio, it's, it's properly pronounced Donofrio oh.
Speaker 3:Donofrio, ok, I go along with whatever.
Speaker 2:All right, donofrio, that's easy. Donofrio Fitness, so so, how long have you been a trainer? How long have you been a fitness trainer and instructor.
Speaker 3:So it's. It's about 10 to 11 years now. I started around 20. You know, there's always that process where you're studying for about you know, six months to a year. In that process you're always training clients. Like, as far as you know, when I first started, I got my friends and you know, a couple of my family members just to like practice with and stuff like that. So the gym that I was in where I was working out in they actually saw me there, you know so much, two, three times was in where I was working out in. They, they actually saw me there, you know so much, two, three times a day where they're like, you know why don't you just start? You know, personal training and that's how I actually, you know, ended up starting so where did you get certified?
Speaker 3:so I started. I started doing the NASM certification when I first started. So I was 20 years old when the guy who I just said, where I started in the gym in Oakland it was called the Edge and, like I said, he saw me there so much. So he's like, you know, let's get the, let's get the book, let's start studying and we'll get you going in, you know, six months to a year. And it was hard for me because growing up in school I was always bad with like tests and studying and all that stuff and I think that's what led me to, like you know, out of high school not knowing what to do and just going to the gym all the time.
Speaker 3:So, you know, I happened to take the test a year, after six months, you know, like six months to a year, and I failed the first time. Um, I ended up taking the test again, probably a couple of weeks later, um, not not studying as much as I should have, but, uh, like you know, I was trying to jump right into it. I was excited to, you know, train. I knew I knew the physical part of it but, uh, the anatomy part of it and knowing all the you know, the body parts and all the muscles and stuff like that was really hard for me, you know. So I failed again. I actually failed my first two times.
Speaker 3:So I ended up doing a test that was a little easier. It was called ASFA, so it was the American Sports and Fitness Association, very basic certification. But in that process of that guy that I was working for, the Edge, they were closing down. So I ended up working at another gym in Pompton Lakes called Temple Kinesis and my, my friend, who was the owner, he didn't really care, as far as you know, what certification you had, as long as you had a strict certification and you knew what you were doing. You know he was cool with it. So I ended up getting that American Sports and Fitness Association certification and I got going the next day and that was all within you know the you know two, three weeks after I failed those two tests. So you know I got going pretty quick. I got five to 10 clients the first week and we got zooming from there. It was pretty good.
Speaker 2:So I, you know, full disclosure. So I was a NASM certified fitness trainer, cft I. My first certification was ISSA, international Sports Science Association, but it was kind of like I was working out at this gym in edgewater, new jersey. I had just gotten laid off from a corporate job at sony music where they had a fitness center an employee fitness center where the the people that ran that fitness center were all college grads with sports science degrees, some with advanced science degrees and you know, uh, strength and conditioning and what have you. And I learned a lot from those guys and women that were guiding us as employees to take us through fitness routines and stuff.
Speaker 2:And when I got laid off, I'm working out in the gym all the time and I went up to the owner and he's like hey, do you want to be a? Just get certified and I'll hire you right away. So ISSA was like the kind of like the same reason. I think it was the easiest one, the quickest one I could take and I had to go to some courses and I passed that. But then after that, talking to a lot of other people because I knew guys in that had degrees, I felt like I needed to get more education and that's when I did NASM and then I did a corrective exercise certification, specialty of prenatal certification. I was an ACSM member, although I wasn't actually. I went to ACSM conferences which were amazing. I didn't get certification through ACSM, but you know there's so many of these things, right?
Speaker 1:um, yes, that uh but you realize, like when it comes down to it to be a good trainer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you, you need those certifications because you don't want to hurt your clients, right? They come to you and they say I want to do this, that and the other thing you do want to assess whether or not they have any limitations. You know tightness is short. You know they're hunched over, their hamstrings are too tight. You know there are certain things, you know from a liability perspective too, that you can't. You know if you hurt them they could sue you, but at the end of the day you're I guess I'm going to take you through your journey is the reason you were able to go off on your own, you get so many clients right away is that you were good at how you communicated and the kinds of programs and routines you put your clients through, I guess, showed results. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think overall, just uh, yes, that I think me just uh, you know being physical, uh, you know fit already and, um, knowing a lot of different exercises and and routines and me just posting on the internet before you know me even being a trainer. So people just seeing you know the different routines that I was already you know putting up and you know it motivates people to uh, you know, be like you.
Speaker 2:You know they want to be like yeah, well, you're, you're, you're a walking billboard.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:So your clients, though you know your clients walk into a room and they say, oh, my God, you look great. What have you been doing?
Speaker 3:Oh well.
Speaker 2:I'm working on Mike yeah.
Speaker 3:That's why I tell you know, my, uh, my instructors always be posting. You know, people are always. Even if you're you're, you're bugging those people that are following you they obviously you know they're not interested anyway, so don't worry about them. You know, keep posting, keep posting, posting. If they're going to unfollow you, let them unfollow you. There's always going to be those people that are are going to contact you. After two, three, four times. They see the same thing. It just kind of uh, you know, gets in their head.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah. So when did you go off on your own then?
Speaker 3:when did you open up? Uh, yeah, so that gym that I told you I was at in pompton lakes. I was only there for for probably a couple months. At the same time, I was uh going to a gym in, uh, white cough. At the time it was called venom fitness. So, okay, I was kind of in between both and at the same time, uh, the guy at temple his name was toby he didn't like I guess that I was kind of doing both. So I ended up, uh, just doing my uh thing at venom. I ended up transferring all my clients that I had at temple over there.
Speaker 3:Uh, I was getting more clients in that area. It was just a better area for me, um, not that it was closer to my house, but, um, just a better area for for a gym and you know, and more money in that area. So the people were buying bigger packages and they were committed more. Instead of I was getting a lot of people at Temple Kinesis, where they were only training once a week and they weren't getting big packages and committing, which is what you need for personal training If you're going to get people that are, you know, not that it's bad if they're going to do once a week, which you know.
Speaker 3:I would say 90% of my clients probably do train once a week because they do classes and stuff. But it's just. You know you want the people that are going to commit they're not going to cancel on you and they're not going to mess with your schedule and going to cancel on you and they're not going to mess with your schedule. Um, and that's what's good about my clients now Um, everybody's on a very strict schedule three, four days a week and, like I said, even if it's once a week, um, I'm very good with you know, getting my clients in um, you know, trying to get them there before the stretch and to do a little thing after. I like the summer because, um, because my gym we do a lot of outdoor stuff.
Speaker 3:So I like doing like the tires and the hills and the running. It's a good area where I have in Mawa, yeah, so we really like to do the outdoor stuff.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about your classes and training. So what types of classes do you do and do you have a certain kind of philosophy when it comes to training? Because I, you know I used to. When I taught classes, I'd say go big, or go home. In other words, for women who think that I can't lift heavy weights because I don't want to look like arnold schwarzenegger, I'd be like you're not going to look like him. Yeah, and you know, you got to challenge your muscles and and I think a lot's changed in 20, 30 years when it comes to women's fitness, because you just watch the Summer Olympics and you look at the physiques of the women's track and field team.
Speaker 2:And there's a way to be sexy but also be muscular and it's very feminine and I think women were worried about looking like corina everson or cory everson back in the day when these women who took steroids were bodybuilders, and it's like no and yes, you know, I think there's a certain look that women who do crossfit look like. That is not very feminine. Sorry to, yes, crossfit, but you know that's not the kind of body a lot of my female clients wanted and, um, you know, from looking at your gallery, it looks like the people that you train and take your classes are looking just for that athletic aspect healthy, muscular overall fitness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, overall, overall just toning up. Um getting stronger. Um, most of my client and not most of my clients, most of the people that contact me before, they always kind of get confused, um, with that circuit training, with the CrossFit, um, I think you know what I'm talking about. Um, I always say, you know, I I never say it's CrossFit style. Um, I say we do CrossFit exercises. I wouldn't say it's CrossFit specific. Um, you know there's certain stuff that we do in classes where we do the Tabata, we do the every minute on the minute. Um, you know there's certain timers that are very, uh, CrossFit related but, um, we mix it up every day, like Monday.
Speaker 3:Yesterday I didn't really do a setup and right now I'm very limited because I have the hernia but say it was a strict normal week. Say Monday, I do no setup, it's just, you know, you grab weights, we do a six minute AMRAP, as many rounds as you can, then we do some abs, then we go back to another AMRAP and we kind of just, you know, go back from grabbing kettlebells to dumbbells and just grabbing stuff, staying in the spot the whole time. And then you might see a day where there's you know, 20 different stations and we're doing two rounds of those 20 stations, 45 seconds on a 20 second break, and you know you'll get to do all those exercises twice. And, um, you know, depending on what day it is, it can go from a strength to a cardio, strength to a cardio. It could be, you know, three cardios in a row, going to three strengths in a row. Um, it's really whatever's, whatever's on my mind when I walk in that place at four, 45 in the morning.
Speaker 2:That's what we're pretty much doing today, um it's kind of like your wild, your workout of the day, yeah yeah, it's pretty much the wad.
Speaker 3:I would say all the classes besides I'm just thinking off the top of my head besides Wednesday, they're all the same all day. So, like 5 am, 6 am, 8 am, 9 am, they're all the same. And then we do one evening class at 6 pm um, that's that's during the week, and then 8 am, they're all the same, and then we do one evening class at 6 pm that's that's during the week, and then 8 am and 9 am we do. We do a boxing ina boot camp, so that splits up a little bit. But yeah, as far as, like you know, timers and all that stuff, it's always a high intensity class. As far as our boot camps, we just do a Tuesday, we we slow it down a little bit. I would say Tuesday and Thursday we slow it down a little bit. I would say Tuesday and Thursday we slow it down a little bit.
Speaker 3:Um, my one instructor, he does a lot of weights, so he's like very, uh, strength specific, and then, uh, tuesdays we call it total body superset. So what we do is usually and that was today usually we do two exercises going back and forth. Either it's, you know, time or or reps. But we'll do either three or four rounds, you know, going between those two, um, and we'll superset those for a couple rounds and move on to another thing. But, um, you know, we try to mix it up as far as you know, just circuit wise, we we don't really name too many classes any. You know like it's just boot camp and total body superset. We don't really have too many names. But uh, like I said, we do the Tabatas and EMOMs and and everything like that.
Speaker 2:So so you have, but you do like calisthenics, something you call box, and burn your X and those you might be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we, we still do all that stuff. You're probably looking at some old stuff that I've had up, but yeah, we still do all that stuff like the box and burn. Sometimes if it's box and burn, it's more of them not looking like a pro boxer. We're not. We're not doing as many uh combinations and as much defensive stuff.
Speaker 3:It's more, you know, burning out the punches on the bag, doing some mountain climbers and some burpees mixed in there. Um, if we're doing like an advanced boxing class, then we're mixing in. You know different combinations, different footwork, um different styles of boxing. Um, you know some people like that stuff, some people like to just kind of burn it out, but, um, you know everybody's different yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's interesting though, because, um, you know, it seems from the description of your classes your philosophy is more like HIIT training H-I-I-T high-intensity interval training.
Speaker 2:But total body, you're getting cardio, you're getting strength, you're working core a lot of different things all within a certain time frame. Um, what so? Who is your typical client in terms of age and sex? Is it a mixture of men and women? Uh, is it people of all ages, or do you mostly have, like you? You mentioned a lot of early morning classes, so yeah, you know you have a lot of people that are going to work afterwards, I'd imagine yeah before, yeah before.
Speaker 3:Most of the most of my, I would say, five and six am people. They're usually city people or they're teachers. Um, okay I would say 40 to 50 years old is our uh probably main for classes, uh, for training it's kind of mixed Like we have a lot of kids, we do a lot of kids stuff.
Speaker 3:But right now, over the last couple years it's mainly been 80, 90% women in the gym and over the last probably year it's probably about 50, 50. Now we've had a lot of guys over the last year year um. But yeah, I would say it's the same with the training. I would say for the one-on-ones, I would say that 30 to 50 year old demographic um is very common. But uh, after you know, you get the kids after school. You don't really get any of those besides the summer, like during the day, because they're in school. But that's really it. We just started doing a lot of, you know, kids' classes and kids' seminars and it's been really good.
Speaker 2:So that's something we're probably going to start getting into a little bit more. And what age? When you say kids like what?
Speaker 3:age is that? So we do a Monday kids' strength and conditioning class and that is usually kids eight to like 13,. But most of the kids are like 10 and 11, but we we run it eight to 13.
Speaker 2:Now is there an age you read a lot about. You know how old a kid should be before he starts lifting weights, so what kind of class are you guys doing at that age?
Speaker 3:So it's mainly body weight and like medicine balls, very, very light dumbbells. The heaviest thing I have them do, and they actually love it. They ask for it every class. It's the farmer's carry, so I just kind of have them carry, you know, 10 to 15 pound weights, depending on who it is. If it's an older kid I'll have them maybe do 20s, but they're just carrying weights.
Speaker 2:You know, head up, chest up, just walking straight, pretty much in a straight line um nothing crazy, they'll do some bikes very light, yeah, so kind of like um, world's strongest man competition, except instead of walking with uh exactly, you know 250 pounds on each arm.
Speaker 3:It's five pounds yeah exactly, that's cool um, but I always ask, you know, if I'm training, like I have a kid today actually he is, I think he's 11 or 12 and I always ask his dad. I say, you know, can I use the 15s with this? And you know. So, if the parents there, I always ask them if they want me to go heavier. Um, you know, and if it's something that I I'm really going to disagree with or something I won't, even I won't even I won't even you know, yeah, but um, yeah, it's mainly body weight.
Speaker 3:Uh, we just did a kid's seminar and it was the same age, I think it was a couple seven-year-olds, but it was eight to thirteen. We did a boxing seminar where we just went over proper technique and footwork and defense. They weren't even putting on the gloves, they, they stayed in the same spot and we just we went over technique and proper form.
Speaker 2:Pretty much for that 90 minutes and uh, it's something you really should do before you even hit the bag because you don't want to right, you know you don't want to hurt yourself from your wrists or your knuckles or anything yeah, yeah, if you don't, don't have the your fist in the right position or know how to make a fist, exactly so can somebody just join the gym and come in and work out on their own, or they have to be either part of a class or have a trainer.
Speaker 3:It's mainly we're, we're mainly a private studio Will will I say no, probably not. We probably have two or three. You know we have over hundreds of members at the gym, so I would say there's two or three that do their own thing, but it's mainly mainly just classes and personal training. Only because, say you know, say there's no personal training, no personal trainer in the gym at the moment and there's no class, we'll lock down the gym or shut it down. So if someone wanted, to come in.
Speaker 3:It'd be hard unless I gave them the code and you know I was yeah, but uh right yeah, it's hard. I try to just do classes. Um, I don't. I don't even have a proper membership on my website for, like someone who just wanted to join the gym, it's mainly uh classes for personal training right, right, okay, that's excellent.
Speaker 2:So, and you could join. You could just do an a la carte, you could just sign up for one class. Instead of like, if you're not a member, you could just come in and say I want to take a class, okay yes, we, we do drop ins, uh, we do.
Speaker 3:We do offer a 10 pack of uh classes. So, um say, you're gonna take class either like once a week, every other, maybe once a month. We offer the 10 pack. It does expire after a couple of months, but that's some option that we do. And then we do a six month membership and then a month to month membership. So I always tell the members.
Speaker 3:If you're going to come, like twice a week, it's always worth doing the membership. If you're, you know, like I said, if you're going to do that once a week or maybe you're going to do every other week, you know that 10 pack is probably best yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So you, I mean we're the weather's getting warm, hopefully, I mean we're still technically in winter, but, um, you said you like to use the outside. So where are you guys located in mawa, where you have that space?
Speaker 3:so we're on franklin turnpike. If, uh, if you know where kinchley's is in mawa, uh, we're in between the police station and kinchley's, so there's a bunch of those warehouses and uh and uh, townhouse slash condos over there. We're in that area um, okay so we've been there for about five years. We were located by the police station in mawa, by the mawa deli right above it, for a year okay kind of a stupid spot. So we've been there for about five years, total of six years okay, nice, yeah, years ago, I don't know.
Speaker 2:There's a guy who wrote a book called total impact. Um, he's originally from deal, new jersey, and I'm gonna get his name. I feel like I know his name.
Speaker 3:I feel like maybe I know durkin, I think his name is.
Speaker 2:Let me just never mind, I don't know if that's his name let me see, uh, todd durkin's impact.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he had a book that I bought called todd durkin impacted. I think he had a um. I saw him on cable but he's from deal, new jersey, played high school ball and football impact body plan. But he's based out in san diego and I was living in hudson county for a long time, where there's not a lot of space, and I I went out to San Diego for a business trip and we were actually in LA.
Speaker 2:I was in LA for a business trip and my wife and I decided to go to San Diego. I said, hey, you know what? I think that guy, todd Durkin, has a gym out here. So we actually went to his gym and it was really cool because it was in suburbs of San Diego and again, I'm used to living in Hudson County for a long time and they had a class where we had to go outside and run down the street down a hill, come up and they did a lot of stuff out in the parking lot. They had ropes and it was just all this space to use and I wasn't used to having that kind of space and it was very cool. I thought it was a great way to design a class, definitely a mix of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, um, so let me ask. I mean, you've kind of alluded to it as you talk, but what do you love about what you do, michael, I?
Speaker 3:love how, uh, you know just the clients and and seeing the same people every day. Um, you know knowing the same people uh, believe in me and trust in me. You know knowing the same people believe in me and trust in me. You know they've been with me for over 10 years now, so that's. That's great. The people I work with. I love working with. You know all my employees and, yeah, just working. You know being able to work out and, you know, make a living at the same time. It's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think, like you said. Well, to quote this guy, his book is called the Impact Body Plan by Todd Durkin. I'll share it with you when we're done.
Speaker 2:Yeah definitely share it. Excuse me, but to make an impact in somebody's life, I'm sure is rewarding because you're changing the way they feel about themselves and maybe their health overall, and it's great. I mean, you said you have, you know, hundreds of members in it, so you know you've built your business from basically nothing right. You had some early clients when you worked at the other gyms to build this business. What have you learned along the way, like as a business owner, like anything you could share? Obviously you use social media quite a bit, which is a great tool for for people in the fitness industry. But what else have you done to, uh, to grow your business and to build your following that you've, you've had and and what have? Have there been any like uh bumps along the way?
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, yeah, as far as like the social media, that's probably number one. Um, you know offering different things to different members. As far as you know you give me a client, we'll get you a free. You know personal training session, or um. You know events, um, town events that we do. We do, uh, you know the Ramsey day, the Mawa days. Um, I do a lot of. You know 5k race events.
Speaker 2:you know where we have tents up and we offer, you know, free months and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Um, that's always you know number. I think that's key. Um, what was the second question? I'm sorry, I think that's key. What was the second question?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. Have there been any kind of road bumps along the way?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's always bumps in the roads. There's always points where you get a member, you lose two. Or you get a member, you lose three. Then you'll get a big hump. Know hump. Where you get ten, you only lose one that month. There's always, uh, there's always bumps in the roads. You, you lose an instructor and you know half of the members go with them. You know there's always bumps, but you know you always, uh, you always find a way to to solve. You know whatever's going on, um, right, yeah, but as far as bumps, I it's you got to just get over it.
Speaker 3:If someone's you know complaining, like you know there's, there's always going to be complaints. You know music, it's cold, it's hot. You know this person's sweating. Um, you know the prices are too high, whatever, whatever it is, um, you know I've learned over the years to just ignore it. Um, you know you're not going to please everybody, and that's you know every business. Um, it's like you know you go to a pizza place. You know everybody that goes in there isn't going to love the pizza. There's always going to be that one person, you know, that complains. Uh, yeah, but you know that's, that's just life, you know, in general.
Speaker 2:So yeah, they're usually the loudest, so sometimes they distort you know how, like you said, it's and one percent, but that one percent sometimes makes you know, can make you feel pretty crummy, but um, it's important, remember it's just just one person out of you know hundreds or whatever it is that you have, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And even the people that complain, they still uh, they still love me and I still make fun of them.
Speaker 2:There you go, cool. So, mike, how would people book a class? How can they find you? Where are you located?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so that's something I wanted to go over too Over the last year. We have an app now, so it's called Donofrio Fitness. You can use your Android, your Apple phone, whatever. It's just called Donofrio Fitness in the app store. You could download it, create an account, should show up a schedule, um, all the memberships and stuff like that. I believe the personal training is on there. As far as personal training, If you wanted the book, you would just email us, um, at Mike at Donofrio fitness. com. That's a way you can get a hold of us. We also have our website, www. donofriofitness. com. We also, like we were talking about before, the social media. We have DonofrioFitness underscore. Mawa is our Instagram and that's really it. You know, the Facebook is just Donofrio Fitness. Everything is pretty much done for your fitness. But if you wanted to sign up for classes, use our app, use our website whatever's easier for you guys.
Speaker 2:Great Mike, this was great. I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you mentioned you just had hernia surgery, uh, so you're kind of laid up. I appreciate you taking the time and uh, resting while we have this discussion. I'm sure the audience is going to take a lot away from this, and thank you very much and just bear with us for a few seconds. Yeah, you and I will be right back.
Speaker 1:Cool, thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergencom. That's gnpbergencom. That's gnpbergencom, or call 201-298-8325.