This article was originally published in Boro Magazine in November 2018.
Jonathan Borrajo is teaching New Yorkers you don’t have to be a soccer star to get into soccer shape.
As a professional soccer player who has competed around the world, Borrajo has been exposed to all kinds of dynamic workouts. Now he is sharing those moves with players and non-players alike in a new type of fitness class.
Borrajo and his partners, Mason Trafford and Rhett Bernstein, who are also professional players of about a decade, started SoccerShape last year in Miami, where they were playing soccer at the time. They thought with their combined experience, they could create a program that helps people get strong and toned.
“We put together a class to help people look like soccer players, soccer-inspired fitness,” Borrajo said. “Through all the years we’ve been shown so many cool and different ways of getting in shape.”
The cofounders all studied business in college, so creating a startup seemed like a natural progression to plan for a career after playing professional soccer. They started testing the fitness concept –an hour class of high-intensity workouts, relays and competition – in 2016 in Miami. It took off and started officially in 2017, with classes expanding to three different locations.
When Borrajo joined the New York Cosmos, he brought the fitness classes with him to New York City. He started with test classes this summer and officially launched in August. He now teaches on the fields at Upper 90 Soccer Center in Astoria as well as at outdoor fields in the Lower East Side, Brooklyn and the Upper West Side. He said by partnering with soccer league NYC Footy, he was able to get started quickly.
Borrajo, who now lives in Astoria, said the culturally rich area is “on brand” with soccer, a sport that is popular with billions of people all over the world.
“I really like the feel of Astoria,” said Borrajo, who is originally from New Jersey. “It goes along fantastically with soccer because it is such a diverse sport.”
He said participants are mostly 24 to 35 and range from professional soccer players to people who have never kicked a ball before. Classes are $20 for a drop-in and various packages are available.
The classes he teaches aren’t soccer matches. They start with a dynamic warm-up and include competitive games to “switch the brain on” and relays. Players participate in dynamic, 360-degree movements that involve balance, shifting weight, strength and toning.
“You can’t get this type of workout in a gym or cycling bike or a treadmill,” Borrajo said. “You can’t get the same team vibe.”
On a Thursday evening at a park on the Lower East side, dressed in a bright pink soccer shirt, he instructed his class through a relay involving running through ladders on the ground, reaching a cone, holding a plank, doing pushups and squatting holding the soccer ball. As the two people raced to finish first, their teammates sitting and waiting for their turn, cheered them on, reminiscent of gym class.
That’s the idea, according to Borrajo. He creates “gamefied” exercises that build a community, where people encourage each other to be their best.
“We’re all big kids at the end of the day,” he said. “It’s fun to be part of a team.”
Later, he led the participants through a circuit where they paired off — some were doing squats with a restraint band around their legs while others passed the ball. At the end, he set up a goal, and they took turns kicking on the line to try to make it. He said he always ends with a game with a wager. In this case, if his participants got the goal and he didn’t, he agreed to do pushups.
“It’s all about building a team, a community where people can come to a fitness class and there is no judgement,” Borrajo said. “They push each other, empower each other and support each other.”
Nicholas Alexandrakos, a high school physical education teacher and a director of athletics, found out about SoccerShape through other Cosmos fans. He said he started taking classes this summer in Astoria, and found they help improve strength, endurance and agility on the individual level, while incorporating team and partner activities.
“Even when you are working out alone, you are always part of the community,” he said. “There are also mental strength and mindfulness activities that you would not expect to be associated with a high intensity fitness class. It’s so much more than an hour-long soccer bootcamp course.”
Borrajo said one of SoccerShape’s unique selling proposition is that all instructors are professional athletes, which puts them in an exclusive group. Classes are purposely not overbooked so instructors have the capacity to check that everyone is doing the moves correctly.
He said one challenge is creating workouts that are appropriate for all levels, so he creates a regression and progression for each move to fit the needs of all participants. A lot of times, Borrajo said he is literally thinking on his feet to accommodate everyone.
Alexandrakos said this class is different from others because of the instructors and their access to the soccer community.
“Jonathan Borrajo is a warm presence,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you are a fitness instructor or a fitness novice. He makes everyone feel welcome. Barrajo meets every one of his students where they are at physically and challenges them responsibly.”
Alexandrakos adds that Borrajo has invited current and former players to his classes to train with them like Penn FC assistant coach Daniel Sanchez and former Cosmos midfielder Rafael Garcia.
The classes are not just fitness-focused, but also build community. He said in Miami he held a “no shower hour” after class, where he and the class participants went straight from the workout to get a drink or food afterward. At his own Cosmo soccer games, he has seen SoccerShape members in the fitness company’s shirts cheering in the stands.
A professional player who has games three times a week, Borrajo practices in the morning, creates workouts in the afternoon and leads classes in the evening. He teaches SoccerShape at Upper 90 on Sunday mornings, but hopes to add more due to demand. He wants to expand Soccer Shape to host more open plays and fitness classes in New York and more classes all over the country.
“I like that we don’t have a brick and mortar. “Can we be the first fitness class without a brick and mortar?” Borrajo is staying focused on his goal.
For more information, visit www.soccershape.com.