New Fitness Center Fires Up Sturgeon Bay

The Dorners. Submitted.

Members lift tires, climb ropes and swing hammers during intensive workouts at FIRE Fitness Camp

Sturgeon Bay’s newest fitness center, FIRE (Functional. Intensive. Resistance. Exercise) Fitness Camp, doesn’t look like your typical gym. It doesn’t function like one, either.

Besides rowing machines and dumbbells, the center doesn’t have much in the way of traditional exercise equipment. Rather than exercise bikes or treadmills, FIRE Fitness Camp is full of monster-truck tires to lift, ropes to climb, punching bags to hit and hammers to swing. And instead of just offering members unstructured gym time, owners Adam and Kristi Dorner lead them through half-hour workouts that focus on every-day movements, combined with weightlifting and intense cardio.

“We crank up the intensity level so you literally only need to be in the gym for 30 minutes,” Adam said. “[With] the functional movements that you’re doing, you’re getting a good range of motion. Instead of being locked in a position only focusing on one muscle group, you’re working the whole body.”

Plus, it’s more fun than a typical workout, Adam said. That’s part of the reason he and Kristi were interested in running a FIRE Fitness Camp in Sturgeon Bay. As members of the franchise’s New Franklin location for two years, they saw firsthand the unique sense of community that emerges from the group workouts.

“Members help each other,” Adam said. “They motivate each other. They become such good friends.”

That sense of community is already growing at the Sturgeon Bay location, which is one of 23 FIRE Fitness Camps in the state. Since its grand opening in March, the new center has grown its ranks largely through word-of-mouth, with many new members bringing their friends or partners to work out with them. Participation grew close to 100 members by the end of the gym’s first month in operation.

This rate of growth has been unexpected for the Dorners. The Casco couple knew Sturgeon Bay’s population skews older, and they weren’t sure how that would impact their numbers. But they’ve seen people of all ages in attendance at their camps.

“I’m surprised by the number of people that are a little bit older that have come in with a great mindset,” Adam said.

During camps, the Dorners typically ease new participants into the more atypical workouts, starting off with simple body-weight exercises like squats and lunges, before grabbing any hammers or weighted kegs. As of April, they lead workouts Monday through Thursday at 5:30 am, 5:45 am, 6:30 am, 8:30 am, 12 pm, 4:30 pm and 5:15 pm; Fridays at 5 am, 5:45 am, 6:30 am, 8:30 am, 12 pm and 4 pm; and Saturdays at 7 am and 7:45 am. In the future, the center might offer more specific workouts, like stretch classes, Adam said.

While weight loss is a goal for some members, that’s not the case for everyone. Rather, the majority come in hoping to feel better and get stronger, Adam said.

“[We’re] not focusing as much on the scale, but focusing on small victories, being able to do a box jump, being able to climb a rope, do things that they never thought they’d be able to do,” Adam said.

In addition to running FIRE Fitness Camp, Kristi is continuing to work part-time as a registered nurse, while Adam is managing his business, Dorner’s Cleaning Service. Both are also operating short-term rental properties as well as the newly-opened Dorner’s Spin Cycle, a laundromat in the same plaza as FIRE Fitness Camp.

The couple had been preparing to open the new location – located in the Clearwater Plaza, home of El Sazon Mexican Restaurant and West Marine, on Sturgeon Bay’s west side, south of Target – since last May. After they officially bought it in early July, it was time to remodel. The bare-bones central section of the plaza had been unoccupied since it was built over 20 years ago, and had only dirt floors when the Dorners started work on it.

Having previously worked as a personal trainer, Adam didn’t envision himself returning to work at a gym. But he’s glad he did. 

“For me, it’s seeing people improve,” Adam said. “The first day that they come in here, they might not be able to do a certain exercise, and then the next time they come in, they overcome any kind of fear that they were facing, and then they do it.”

Potential FIRE Fitness Camp members are encouraged to try out a camp and make sure they enjoy it before talking paid membership options, Adam said. Membership deals are available for spouses of existing members, fire department workers, paramedics, police officers and students.

The camp is located in Clearwater Plaza, 1449 Green Bay Road in Sturgeon Bay.