By Bobby Panza
There’s big energy in the petite X93 Fitness space at 673 Amsterdam Avenue, near the corner of West 93rd Street. Amid the leg lifts, squats, and customized workouts, owner Chris Fernandez has created a welcoming environment, where everyone is encouraged to speak their mind while working on their physical well-being.
In business for 12 years, the gym has amassed a community of patrons who like to socialize outside the gym. And while inside doing their workouts, they often learn intimate details about one another.
“Everyone’s so right there on top of each other that I hear about someone’s STDs or dating life,” said Dr. Miggie Greenberg, a psychiatrist and regular at X93. Greenberg describes herself as a “little old lady” next to Fernandez and X93 fitness manager Anthony Ortega, who both have bodybuilder physiques. “They are so wonderful, so endorsing, and they are so irreverent, which I love,” Greenberg said.
X93 is a dream that was a long time coming for Fernandez, 46, who grew up on Broadway between West 127th and 128th streets and later moved in with his grandmother in the NYCHA Jackson Houses in the Bronx, which he refers to as “the projects.”
In school at PS 125 in Harlem, “I was the light-skinned one,” Fernandez said. “So, I grew up fighting black kids because they said I was a white boy, when I’m Hispanic.” Then he added: “I fought white kids because they said I was Spanish. I grew up with racism.”
After school, Fernandez worked security details for Diana Ross and rapper/actor DMX, became an account manager for a security consulting firm, and later worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, transporting inmates.
Then, he became an inmate himself.
Driving home one night in 2000, Fernandez said he was stopped at a traffic light in the Bronx when he saw his younger cousin being viciously attacked. “It was 10 guys on top of one guy, trying to kill him,” Fernandez said, so he got out to try to break up the fight. Instead, according to Fernandez, he ended up in the middle of it, and one of the men he was trying to stop later died in the hospital. Fernandez believes he saved his cousin’s life – but he was convicted of murder in the second degree. The sentence: 20 years to life.
Fernandez served eight years in several New York lockups. While incarcerated, he said, he found renewed faith in God and became an instructor in Aggression Replacement Training, a program aimed at teaching adolescents to manage their anger and build skills in moral reasoning.
Fernandez was freed in 2008 after a federal judge revisited his case. He became a trainer, and later a top-ranked master trainer, at New York Sports Club, before opening his own gym.
X93 has no membership fee; clients are charged by the session, and they can make appointments for custom workout sessions, where they might work one-on-one (or two-on-one) with Fernandez.
“I never went to a place that’s like what I built here at X93,” said Fernandez. “What I built here is no race. Black, Chinese, Indian, Muslim, I don’t care. I don’t care if you’re Jewish or whatever your religion is, whatever your ethnicity is, whatever it is, here everyone is one.”
Upper West Sider Dale Mandelman, 77, and a nurse at Beth Israel Medical Center, credits Fernandez with fostering a culture that also makes senior citizens – some in their 90s – feel comfortable working out next to young bodybuilders.
“People loosen up because of who he is,” Mandelman said. “He’s got great energy and we adapt to that.” Mandelman also helps coordinate outside events for X93 clients to get together for drinks and food. On one outing, clients celebrated Fernandez’s birthday at e’s Bar on Amsterdam between West 84th and 85th Streets. (Fernandez is sober now but still enjoys being with everyone.)
Another client, Krin Gabbard, 76, said he didn’t know Fernandez’s background when he joined the gym in its early days. As they got to know each other, Fernandez humorously suggested that Gabbard write his biography (Gabbard is the author of a book on jazz luminary Charles Mingus).
Gabbard said he is an atheist and “suspicious of people who proclaim to be profoundly religious. But Chris makes it work.” And “for that, I have a great respect for him.”
Another long-standing client, Abigail Rubin, began working out after knee surgery. Now, she’s been at X93 so long “that it’s not only the personal training; it’s the relationships. I know [Fernandez’s] whole family at this point. When you spend that much time with someone, it’s way more than just the workouts,” she said. “Besides that, he is a great personal trainer.”
Fernandez now lives in Wayne NJ with his wife and three children. “I feel my faith in God has led me to this chapter in my life. I have become in tune within myself and within this world we live in,” he said. Then, echoing the atmosphere he seeks to foster in the gym, he said: “I appreciate all life has to offer me. I accept it with a positive attitude. Learn from it and move on in the right direction. I believe your success comes from drive and ambition. Let no one stop you. No matter what.”
Read more Small Business Focus columns here.
Subscribe to WSR’s free email newsletter here.