Crunch Constructing Fifth Long Island Gym in East Meadow

EAST MEADOW — A new gym is coming to East Meadow just in time for prospective members to make good on their New Year’s resolutions to get in shape.

Crunch will open a fifth Long Island facility in January at the former MJM Designer Shoes space at 2501 Hempstead Tpke., next door to Panera Bread.

The 30,000-square-foot facility is abuzz with electric drills, saws and other tools of construction workers who are building the Long Island franchise’s second-largest gym after its Amityville location. The other gyms are in West Babylon (the first to open in 2013), Hauppauge, and Bellmore, the hometown of franchise owner Lew Breslau, who lives in Massapequa.

“Crunch is great because we offer so much for such a reasonable price,” Breslau said. “It’s really second to none and I think the East Meadow and surrounding communities are going to embrace us like the other ones have.”

Crunch offers as many as 70 weekly classes, including yoga and Pilates, spin cycling and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a 45-minute circuit routine involving everything from lifting tires, hitting heavy bags and tossing medicine balls. There are also Crunch-exclusive classes such as absolution and chisel.

The East Meadow gym will have a large room with free weights and treadmills, ellipticals and various other machines, as well as platforms with Olympic bars and weights. Other rooms will be devoted to stretching and kickboxing. The gym will also offer a relax-and-recovery area featuring hydro massages and tanning, and locker rooms will come with saunas.

Crunch is open to members of virtually all ages, from teenagers to senior citizens. Parents can exercise while their children ages six months to 12 years old can join the Kid's Crunch program.

The membership goal for the East Meadow gym's first year in business is between 4,000-5,000, Breslau said.

“Now that we’re clustering our locations a little closer together, it will lighten up the load,” he said. “And we were so popular, the gyms get crowded and it gives people the opportunity to go from one gym to the next.”

Crunch has more than 300 gyms nationwide and internationally.