Johnny and Frankie Ferrentino stand inside their facility at 80 Denslow Road.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
EAST LONGMEADOW — A pair of brothers from East Longmeadow are owners of their own gym three months after graduating from college, a move that the two cited as “the best decision we’ve ever made.”
Johnny and Frankie Ferrentino both graduated in May — Johnny from Western New England University and Frankie from Central Connecticut State — and have opened XLR8 Sports Performance at 80 Denslow Road.
XLR8 is a branch under CrossFit Iron Legacy, which is open mainly as a CrossFit gym. The brothers specialize in youth, high school and college athletics training but have a goal to eventually add general fitness, HYROX and physical therapy.
“We want to make it the premiere athletic and training facility around,” Frankie said. “You can come in and do everything you could think of, and sort of cater to everybody around here in the area.”
Both brothers are former collegiate athletes who received business degrees and studied in athletics, athletic development and training conditioning throughout their careers.
Johnny said they always had a love for the trade and knew they wanted to get into training as soon as possible after graduating.
“We started training with high school kids and it was going great,” Johnny said. “Eventually, this place popped up for sale and we jumped on it.”
Frankie said he fell in love with training while he was in high school and that opening their own business “means everything.”
“I love writing programs, I love training, I love trying new things,” Frankie said. “This is our passion and watching people succeed and do good, like this summer was probably the biggest success we’ve had. Our personal athletes have grown to love it and they want to come back.”
Frankie said that he wants to have a great environment with all things fitness to build a community. Johnny added that it will be a place where everyone will be able to get a great workout while building connections with the people around them.
“We just love building that vibe, that community, and I just love helping people especially because we’ve been there and done it,” Frankie said. “I was a Division I athlete so helping out the kids, there’s nothing more I want than to see kids get scholarships and play at the next level. For the athletic side, kind of what we’re hoping to get is building that premiere athletic facility where people can come in, do everything, and then from a general fitness standpoint where people can come in. It’s a place where people can come in if you want to get in shape, lose weight, look better, feel better and just be a part of a great community.”
They can be found at crossfitironlegacy.com, along with @crossfitironlegacy on Instagram and Facebook. Frankie also posts athletic training content on his Instagram, @frankie_ferrentino.
