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Creative Problem-Solving: How to Open a Gym With No Equipment

A former felon and entrepreneur turns cons into pros

By Rain Noe - April 12, 2016

in Design Business | Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur Coss Marte started work at age 13, and by 19 was making $2 million a year. The problem was that his job was selling drugs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. No stranger to jail, before the age of 20 Marte was arrested again and looking at his longest stint yet: Seven years in lockdown.

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While in prison, the then-overweight Marte had another problem: The prison doctor told him that his cholesterol had reached life-threatening levels. Marte was determined to beat it, but spending the majority of your hours inside a 9-foot by 6-foot prison cell doesn't leave a lot of room for exercise, and a series of locked gates prevented him from signing up at the local SoulCycle.

Thus he began exercising in his cell using body-weight exercises that he'd picked up from prison guards and cons, ex-military and otherwise. He created his own variants and routines using what was in the cell, which is primarily bars and a floor. Within six months he'd not only shed 70 pounds, but gained a following of cons who wanted to emulate his workout routine.

Marte was released after five years and unsurprisingly, could not find work. Disclosing that you have a criminal record tends to shorten job interviews. But as we've seen, Marte is an inveterate problem-solver. "I've always known how to hustle," he told The New York Times. "It's what makes me succeed, but it's also what put me in prison in the first place." Marte got a legitimate job cleaning toilets in a hotel. He spent his free time working out in a local park, where a passersby observed his pull-up routine, and asked if he could join in. Marte told him he could join in all month long—for $200.

The man agreed, and a business was born. Marte began renting local studio spaces and training people in his series of body-weight-resistance exercises, which he dubbed ConBody (motto: "Do the Time"). As his business grew, last year he secured a lease on a basement space on the Lower East Side, contracted with an architect and designer to fix it up, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund it:

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The campaign reached its target, and today ConBody is a going concern, with thousands of clients passing through their doors:

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"ConBody blew up, big time. And our classes are popular, [like] sold-out-fast popular," says their website.

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Marte, for his part, is trying to improve the situations of others besides himself and his clients. He makes it a point to hire ex-cons, guys who have the same problem finding work as he had, and credits his time inside with awakening him to the mission of helping others. "I helped 20 other inmates collectively lose over 1,000 pounds," he writes. "From then on I knew that my purpose was to give back instead of destroying individuals around me."

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Joshua Terrell

8 years ago

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Two words: lifestyle design.

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Lignarium Lignarium

8 years ago

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Good on him!! There is alway hope to rebuilt your life, help others and succeed. Great story!!!

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Sean Horita

8 years ago

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I love that these owners have taken what the public would construe as a 'weakness' and turned it into their 'strength'. Great human story and creative business minds, completely owning the 'prison' aesthetic.
At $100/month this bootcamp is comparable to a CrossFit or other bootcamp type workout groups, relying on trainer personalities and word-of-mouth to drive membership numbers. Agree with Adora that most fitness club employees aren't worth their free polo shirts in terms of what they provide the exerciser; even the 'personal trainers' at big clubs can be pretty underwhelming.

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Grant Parrinello

8 years ago

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If you cheat on your diet, they give you a "lunch room shanking". Never cheat on your diet.

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