By Bobby Panza
There’s a lot of energy at the small X93 Fitness space at 673 Amsterdam Avenue, near the corner of West 93rd Street. Between leg lifts, squats, and personalized workout routines, 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 built up a community of customers who like to socialize outside of the gym. And while they exercise indoors, they often learn intimate details about each other.
“Everyone is so on top of each other that I hear about STDs or someone’s love life,” said Dr. Miggie Greenberg, a psychiatrist and X93 regular. Greenberg describes herself as an “old lady” along with Fernandez and X93 fitness manager Anthony Ortega, both of whom have bodybuilder physiques. “They are so wonderful, so supportive and so irreverent, which I love,” Greenberg said.
X93 is a long-cherished dream for Fernandez, 46, who grew up on Broadway between West 127th and 128th Streets and then moved with his grandmother to NYCHA’s Jackson Houses in the Bronx, which he refers to as “the projects”.
At PS 125 in Harlem, “I was the light-skinned one,” Fernandez said. “So I grew up fighting with black kids because they said I was a white kid, when in reality I’m Hispanic.” Then he added: “I fought with white kids because they said I was Spanish. “I grew up with racism.”
After school, Fernandez worked in security details for Diana Ross and rapper/actor DMX, became an account manager for a security consulting company, and later worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, transporting inmates.
He then became a recluse himself.
One night in 2000, while driving home, Fernandez said he stopped at a traffic light in the Bronx when he saw his younger cousin being brutally attacked. “There were 10 guys on top of one, trying to kill him,” Fernández said, so he went out to try to stop the fight. Instead, according to Fernández, he ended up in the middle of it, and one of the men he was trying to arrest later died in the hospital. Fernandez believes he saved his cousin’s life, but he was convicted of second-degree murder. The sentence: 20 years to life in prison.
Fernandez served eight years in various New York jails. While incarcerated, he said, he regained his faith in God and became an instructor for Aggression Replacement Training, a program aimed at teaching teens to control their anger and develop moral reasoning skills.
Fernández was freed in 2008 after a federal judge reviewed his case. He became a trainer, and then a top master trainer, at New York Sports Club, before opening your own gym.
X93 has no membership fee; Clients are charged per session and can schedule appointments for personalized coaching sessions, where they can work one-on-one (or two-on-one) with Fernandez.
“I’ve never been in a place like what I built here in X93,” Fernandez said. “What I built here has nothing to do with 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, we’re all one here.”
Upper West Side resident Dale Mandelman, 77, a nurse at Beth Israel Medical Center, credits Fernandez with fostering a culture that also makes older citizens — some in their 90s — feel comfortable working out alongside young bodybuilders.
“People relax because of who he is,” Mandelman said. “He has great energy and we adapt to that.” Mandelman also helps coordinate outside events for X93 clients to gather for drinks and food. On one outing, patrons celebrated Fernandez’s birthday at e’s Bar in Amsterdam, between West 84th and 85th streets. (Fernandez is sober now but he still enjoys being with everyone).
Another client, Krin Gabbard, 76, said he didn’t know Fernandez’s background when he first joined the gym. As they got to know each other, Fernandez humorously suggested that Gabbard write his biography (Gabbard is the author of a book about jazz luminary Charles Mingus).
Gabbard said she is an atheist and “distrusts people who claim to be deeply religious, but Chris makes it work.” And “for that I have a lot of respect for him.”
Another long-time client, Abigail Rubin, began exercising after knee surgery. Now, she’s been at X93 for so long “that it’s not just about the personal training; They are the relationships. HE [Fernandez’s] “Right now, we are the whole family. When you spend so much time with someone, it’s so much more than just working out,” she said. “Plus, he is a great personal trainer.”
Fernandez now lives in Wayne, New Jersey, with his wife and three children. “I feel like my faith in God has led me to this chapter of my life. “I have become in tune with myself and with this world we live in,” he said. Then, echoing the atmosphere he seeks to foster in the gym, he said, “I appreciate everything life has to offer me. I accept it with a positive attitude. Learn from it and move in the right direction. I think their success comes from drive and ambition. Don’t let anyone stop you. It does not matter that.”
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