LEWISTON — Two summers ago, longtime friends Jonathan Brown and Trevor Brooks, inspired by a story about Captain Kidd’s missing treasure, hopped in a 14-foot aluminum fishing boat and motored four miles out to Jewell Island in Casco Bay looking for gold.

They hiked, they dug, they accidentally beached their boat in low tide and figured out a crafty way to roll it back to water.

The 30-something friends filmed themselves, hoping to kick off an adventure-based Web series. The series hasn’t taken off, yet.

The next adventure for the Edward Little grads in the meantime: Opening a business together, on top of full-time jobs (driving a forklift for Brown, working in high-tech for Brooks) and parenting three kids (Brooks) and heading two nonprofits (also Brooks).

“Jonathan and I are notorious for coming up with ideas,” said Brooks, 33. “We decided it was time to get serious.”

They opened Key Fitness and Conditioning in December. Standing in their new space this week at 675 Main St., Brown and Brooks, both personal trainers, said they wanted to present one-on-one training and small classes that are social and relaxed.

“We didn’t want to call it Muscle Factor or The Power House,” said Brown, 34. “We don’t have metal blaring” — and, as if on cue, Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” kicked on.

So far, clients have mostly been women in their 20s to 50s.

The two men have been friends since middle school. Staying fit and working out has been a theme over the years. After graduation, Brown joined the Air Force and Brooks the Navy. Brown left the state briefly to work as a police officer in Florida and Brooks has a background in martial arts training. 

“He had one old guy in the parking lot a month ago call him a ninja,” said Brown. He hasn’t stopped teasing Brooks since.

They signed the lease for the 1,100-square-foot storefront in November, making over former Alcoholics Anonymous space, patching and painting the walls, laying rubber flooring and building a small refrigerator into one wall. 

The space is outfitted with equipment such as a heavy bag, free weights, a squat rack and a Versa Climber, a machine that looks like you’re perpetually climbing a ladder. There’s an in-house contest to see who can climb to the top of the Washington Monument fastest on the machine, a length of 555 feet. The record is held by a professional mixed martial arts fighter and personal trainer they’ve hired to round out the staff, Jesse “The Viking” Erickson, at 3 minutes, 3 seconds.

Erickson plans to teach conditioning and self-defense classes. In addition to one-on-one training, Brooks’ specialty is cardio kickboxing, Brown’s couples and team training.

“I don’t yell at you. If you start slowing down, I’ll jump in with you (to finish out a set),” Brown said, who added that the draw to opening the business was “just making everybody happy. That’s what I hated about being a cop — when you left, nobody was happy.”

Clients so far have been at different fitness levels, Brooks said. Some “aren’t in peak performance shape. They’re looking for some motivation. We all have weaknesses and will issues.”

So what if you ate four pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday? he asked. “That’s why you’re here, to get you back on track.”

They expect to start offering more classes in addition to cardio kickboxing soon. Rates start at $25 for a half-hour of personal training and $8 for a half-hour class.

Brooks jokingly blamed the two of them watching too much “MacGyver” as kids as the inspiration for their outdoor exploits. They’ve filmed a few episodes for the Adventure2Education web series and have plans for more.

“I’m going to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed we didn’t find (Captain Kidd’s gold),” said Brown, laughing. “One of our goals is to get people working for us so we can go off adventuring.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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