Now Open in Levittown: Royal Fitness

If you are looking for a new, low-cost gym with a friendly atmosphere and knowledgable staff, then Royal Fitness of Levittown could be the spot for you. 

Royal Fitness opened on December 1 at 148 Gardiners Ave., the site of the former Total Sports Performance. The gym is open 24-hours and is offering a sign-up special until the end of January - just $99 for a six-month membership. 

Patch recently spoke with Royal Fitness owner Salvatore Tese and General Manager Matthew Del Grosso to get a background on the new fitness center.   

Q: How long have you been open?

Sal: We've been open about six weeks, since Dec. 1.

Q: Sal, can you tell us about your background?

Sal: I’ve been a personal trainer for the past couple of years. I have a big passion for personal fitness. It’s been my life and dream to always own a gym. I started working out when I was 17 and I fell in love with it.

I’ve always had the dream of owning a gym and I came to the realization when I moved back from Miami, Florida, when I was trying to set my life together, what I wanted to do. And this was my dream so I figured, why not try to take a chance while I’m young enough?

Q: Matthew, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Matthew: I was a manager at a Vitamin Shoppe for about three years.

Like Sal, I have a passion for health and wellness, passion for helping people. That’s why I got involved with the Vitamin Shoppe, to help people reach their goals like I reached mine. It started out with just lifting weights and then achieving my goals and reaching for my dreams, and living it out. 

And I like to see other people reach their goals, I have a passion for that. If I can do that, nothing makes me happier. And that’s what this gym is about.

Q: Have you and Matthew known each other for a while?

Sal: We’ve been best friends since the seventh grade.

Q: Are you from around here?

Sal: We're from Merrick. But my father lives in Levittown right on Gardiners Avenue. 

Q What is it about this location and Levittown that made you choose it?

Sal: It’s the epicenter of Long Island, there’s a great history here.

Matthew: Great people, great community, very friendly and very hard-working, blue collar people. They are just very normal people and we like that, seeing them come everyday.

Q: Is there anything about the gym here that local residents should know? 

Sal: We’re family-owned and we’re a 24-hour gym. We’re about fitness, wellness and health, we have a passion for getting keeping people healthy and we just want people to feel better about themselves.

Q: What are your promotions/deals? 

Sal: Right now we’re running a high school special for local kids, it’s just $17.99 a month. That’s just with your first and last month down, no enrollment fee. And we have another special right now to the end of the month, for the New Year – 6-month special, $99 paid in full.

We offer group exercise too, studio classes, really good personal trainers in here. 

Q: Anything else you want to add?

Matthew: Like Sal said, we have a passion for health and wellness and it’s a family-owned business. We’re not a corporation and we’re here for the community. We just want everybody to reach their goals and achieve their dreams.

We’re starting actually, tomorrow our first Yoga class. We’re going to have kickboxing, Pilates, Zumba, stuff like that, every week. 

For more information, call 516-857-6925 or visit the Royal Fitness Facebook page.