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SET Fitness Mamaroneck
The studio

The studio, and who runs it

Nine hundred square feet off Spencer Place, four racks, and a decision made in the first year that has never been revised.

Donald bought the lease in 2013

He had spent eleven years coaching in commercial gyms in Westchester and Manhattan, most of it undoing what the previous hour had done. The maths never worked: twelve people, one coach, forty-five minutes, and a manager counting heads at the door.

So he took a lease on a light industrial room in Mamaroneck, put in four racks, and wrote a rule on the whiteboard that is still there — never more than three on the floor. The studio has been full most quarters since, which he takes as an argument rather than as luck.

Donald still coaches the six o'clock hour Monday to Friday and writes every twelve-week block himself. If you enquire, he is the one who reads it.

Donald Johnston, owner and head coach, in the SET Fitness studio
Donald Johnston, owner and head coach

Three coaches, one written arc

Everyone here works from the same twelve-week structure, so a change of hour is not a change of programme.

Donald Johnston

Owner, head coach

Twenty-four years coaching, thirteen of them in this room. Writes the blocks, coaches early mornings, answers the studio line himself more often than not.

Marcelo Reyes

Strength coach

Came from collegiate strength work. Handles the evening blocks, the Saturday hours, and most of the technical barbell coaching in the studio.

Ilana Petrov

Coach — assessments

Runs first assessments and return-to-training after injury. Writes the summaries that members take to their physiotherapist or their doctor.

The SET Fitness training floor with daylight from the north windows
The room, looking north

What we deliberately do not do

  • No open gym hours. The floor is only ever running a coached block.
  • No class timetable to scroll. You hold an hour, and it stays yours through the block.
  • No leaderboards, no scores on a wall, no photographs of members without asking.
  • No annual contract and no automatic renewal — blocks simply end.

None of this is austerity for its own sake. It is what a room of three people at a time can honestly support, and we would rather do that well than run a busier version of it badly.

Come and look at the room before you decide anything.

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