New Jersey’s Ronald and Anna Lubischer are bonded in health. As former athletes and lifelong health fans, the 2 had been launched by a mutual buddy in 2010, and had been married 4 years later. Then, having already owned his first health club, Ronnie would take his partnership with Anna to the following degree once they determined to crew up professionally and get critical about launching a number of areas. Now, with a busy household life, and a ardour for creating the proper place to pump iron, this duo is disrupting the sterile, franchise health club mannequin.
As followers of old-school, dungeon model gyms, Ronnie and Anna are being progressive with their amenities, whereas staying true to the thought of the hardcore exercise. M&F sat down with the pair, who function a number of areas of their Burn-N-Blast health club idea, to search out out extra.
“We encourage hardcore training but demand ‘no nonsense’ respect for our gym and members,” says Ronnie. “If you bend a bar from pressing a heavy weight, we take that bar and retire it to a special rack that has all the bent bars that our members have earned over the years through impressive lifts!”
There’s little doubt that Ronnie understands the mindset of an all-in exercise since he performed semi-professional soccer earlier than competing as an NPC bodybuilder, within the heavyweight division. “However, “If you’re dropping your weights and screaming and yelling for no good reason, we’ll politely tell you that this isn’t how we do it here,” he provides. “You can bring your own chalk and use it anytime as long as you clean up after yourself. You can load the leg press with twenty-four 45s, but your reps better be immaculate… and it’s understood that you always rerack your weights.”
He provides: “Our motto is ‘Where old school principles meet new school technology,’ and we stand by that to this day. Our gyms are a throwback to the old hardcore basement style gyms of the past where everyone is accepted, so long as they respect the way of the iron and their fellow gym members.”
Burn-N-Blast: A Combo of Old-School and New Tech
There’s little doubt that there’s a plethora of shoppers on the lookout for an alternative choice to a number of the trendy, nameless wanting gyms, that usually provide model however little in the best way of substance. Ronnie and Anna are having fun with enormous membership numbers from all expertise ranges—from freshmen to superior lifters to skilled athletes. Fortunately, they’re greater than certified to take each particular person by means of their journey to greatness. Anna was a nationally-ranked determine skater and coached ice skating for greater than 15 years. She’s additionally a profitable bodybuilder, incomes second-place on the New Jersey State Championship simply six months following a C-Section after giving delivery to their first little one.
By design, every Burn-N-Blast location is exclusive, with a person record of kit, however one factor that all of them have in frequent is that they’re proudly impartial.
“We are totally independent, family owned and operated, with zero outside investors,” says Ronnie. Many gymgoers is probably not conscious that franchise gyms are sometimes managed by enormous conglomerates that don’t all the time select their tools based mostly on a love of understanding. All too usually, offers are completed to guarantee that health club areas all function the identical tools due to profitable distribution agreements and an emphasis on maximizing earnings as an alternative of maximizing muscle-mass.
“Quite literally, myself and Anna own everything down to the drywall of our locations, and this gives us the freedom to run our gyms exactly how we see fit,” provides Ronnie. “And this provides our members with a direct link to ownership, to expedite any and all questions, suggestions, concerns, etc. This also allows us to equip our gyms in any way possible without the handcuffs of a corporate floor plan, or a set ‘buy list.’”
Ronnie and Anna Lubischer Plan Their Gyms Right Down to the Era
“There are certain gym chains that are required to carry a predetermined inventory of equipment,” says Ronnie. “In our case, we can mix and match not just brands but eras of equipment too. Each of our locations is a unique mix of the best of some new, cutting-edge brands such as Prime, Watson, Arsenal, and Atlantis mixed with up-and-coming mom-and-pop designers like Raw Motive Works, Cross Axes Tech, and GymBros. Then, there’s old-school pieces that are out of production, like the original Nautilus, BodyMasters, Flex, and Paramount pieces just to name a few. Our goal is to build bigger and badder ‘garage style’ gyms.”
For Burn-N-Blast gyms, all the pieces stems from a love of bodybuilding. “Selfishly, for myself and Anna, we plan with the exact specifications of what we want for our own perfectly executed workouts, but then we invite all of our friends to come and train with us too,” explains Ronnie of the event course of. “As an equipment collector and aficionado, I love to just let other people enjoy tools they either don’t have access to, or never even knew about. We offer an environment that doesn’t really exist in the current gym landscape anymore and our membership pays tribute to that.”
The backside line, as Ronnie explains, is each individual of each talent degree is welcome at Burn-N-Blast, as his day by day glimpse of his attendance proves. “For instance, recently at our Long Branch location I was training a rising sophomore ice hockey player from the Citadel while a newly minted IFBB pro was smashing legs, along with two NFL starting offensive linemen who were getting in a workout pre-beach, as we’re a beachfront location. Then, one of my older ‘gym rat’ type members came up to me and thanked me for the two new curated pieces that I’d added—a rare and extremely functionable Cybex Eagle Kneeling Lateral Raise and a Life Fitness Signature Series Seated Uni-Lateral Biceps Curl.”
The Hardcore Gym Empire Strikes Back
“Everyone who comes to [Burn-N-Blast] loves to train but we have a greater cross-section of clients that you’ll experience at a ‘harder-core’ atmosphere gym,” explains Ronnie. “That’s why you’ll see families training together at our locations. We have one family that comes almost every day together. We also see three brothers who all are police officers or fireman locally, their sons who are college athletes, their daughters who are local high school athletes, and their wives who use the cardio machines. They all come and train as one unit almost on a daily basis even with different levels of fitness and goals. That’s really cool, that’s really something we’re proud of, and that’s what makes [Burn-N-Blast] unique.”
The Lubischers personal two, 24-hour gyms (in Long Branch and West Long Branch, New Jersey) in addition to a high-end personal private coaching studio in West Long Branch. Right now, they’re actively scouting for a 3rd, 24-hour location. So, as a defender and innovator of the hardcore health club empire, what a part of Ronnie’s assortment is he most happy with? “Wow that’s a tough question,” he says. “Almost every bit of kit at each location is particular to me for various causes. For occasion, in our personal studio we now have three unique PowerTecnic items. We have the Super High Stepper, The SuperCAT Squat, and an unique Power Runner. To this present day, for athletes, you possibly can’t get a lot better.
“All of my Randy Coyle original pieces are near and dear to me as well, as we boast a SwingSquat. We’re also one of less than 50 gyms in the country with a plate loaded front squat machine called the Saxon Squat, as well as a custom-made plate loaded multi-grip bent over leverage row that was hand delivered to us. We also have a prototype gifted to us called the GlutePress. And then there’s the Flex Hamtractor, or tall frame Pit Shark. I could go on, but that’s why I truly say we don’t purchase equipment like most other gym owners. We curate our Burn-N-Blast gym floors for maximum results.”
With half of all health club members anticipated to give up inside their first six months of membership, discovering the proper surroundings is important for staying motivated and sticking with a sustainable exercise regime. Fortunately, with their Burn-N-Blast areas, the Lubischer’s are taking the time to share their lifelong ardour with those that wish to turn out to be one of the best variations of themselves. “Our members know we’re here to help, and I’m more than happy to let people make their own mistakes,” explains Ronnie, who together with Anna, created their very own barcode-activated tutorial movies for every Burn-N-Blast machine. “But, if they’re doing something that can endanger themselves or other members, it’s my job to step in and stop it, but these are teachable moments where hopefully they take our advice and grow mentally and physically for many years to come.”