Joseph Sabino Mistick: Bloomfield gym saving lives for 40 years

Mark “Marco” Machi will tell you that he is the richest man in Pittsburgh. Forty years ago, Marco and his wife Christine, both avid bodybuilders, had a chance to buy an empty industrial building on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. The money was going to be tight, but they bet on themselves and started the Exercise Warehouse.

“It was always a dream to own a gym — the old-school kind, with free weights and machines and boxing and martial arts,” Marco says. “But it had to be more than that. It had to be a neighborhood place where everybody is welcome.”

As for the gym part of the dream, one recent TikTok post by a “gym influencer” called the Exercise Warehouse “one of the coolest gyms in the U.S.” and said that she could move to Pennsylvania just to train there. And the fittest competitors in America work out there when they are in town for national bodybuilding meets.

The walls tell the history of the city and the gym. Shelves near the ceiling are packed with trophies and awards, many from the earliest days. There are photos of contenders and champions everywhere, many of them Pittsburghers who started in the ring or with barbells and rose to success.

There are guys like Joey Laquatra, who became a leading labor leader, and John Connelly, who owned the Gateway Clipper fleet, both young boxers back in the day. Bruno Sammartino has his own wall. “Jumpin’ Johnny” DeFazio is there, along with Paul “The Pittsburgh Kid” Spadafora. You can spend hours just sorting out the sports history of Pittsburgh and the nation.

From the sidewalk, before you enter, you can hear the rhythm of the speed bag, the cracking of the heavy bags, the clanging of steel bars and plates and the grunts and groans that are the natural result of muscle versus weight. Inside, serious people move from one station to another, keeping out of each other’s way.

And they’re all here. Cops and tough guys. Corporate managers and community organizers. Business owners and college students. Bosses and workers. Laborers and lawyers. Husbands and wives. Public officials and those who are at odds with them. Younger people and older ones who are looking to buy a little extra time.

If you have ever been knocked down and are struggling to get back up, this gym is the place for you. “Parents will bring their kids here if they have stumbled a little or are struggling to fit in,” Marco says. “They need something honest, something that makes sense. Sometimes it’s lifting weights or maybe a little boxing.

“Or sometimes they just need to hear from one of the guys here who’s been around, who knows what it is to make your way back. Guys who’ve been there.”

There have been hundreds of people like that over the past 40 years, and not just kids. Anyone looking for a place that has been shaped by hard work and discipline and the resolve to keep moving forward has been welcome.

As Jim Morton, retired Allegheny County homicide chief and my workout partner at the gym, said, “Mark has saved as many lives here at the gym as they’ve saved at the hospital up the street.”