Why CrossFit?
By Ben Tyler, Owner and Head Coach
If you read our blog on 925’s Vision, you have a good idea of the driving force behind our decisions. As a reminder, 925’s official Vision Statement is:
Our vision is to help as many people as possible get fitter, healthier, and happier so they can have a greater positive impact on their families and communities.
Once we decided we wanted to start a gym, why did we land on using CrossFit as a foundation for the program we wanted to build?
Diana and I had both been in and around gyms most of our lives. I had been in sports my whole life and enjoyed powerlifting, bodybuilding, and pretty much any sort of training that would help me get stronger. Diana loved lifting (still does), spin, tennis, volleyball and barrel racing and being able to use exercise as a great outlet for stress and overall well-being.
When I tried CrossFit in 2009, I was blown away by the way it challenged me. I had been bodybuilding and powerlifting, swimming and running for my entire life, yet CrossFit workouts challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before. And they also had a remarkable way of showing me my weaknesses and helping me repair those holes in my fitness armor.
After a short few months of CrossFit, I was in the best shape of my life, and surprisingly enough, the workouts required just half the time as my bodybuilding and powerlifting sessions.
As I got into coaching CrossFit after earning my CrossFit Level 1 in October of 2010, I was once again amazed at the variety of people, of all ages, from former couch potatoes to avid runners, to bodybuilders and new mothers… literally every kind of person and shape you can imagine, and ALL were able to benefit far faster that I had ever seen.
When you look at the CrossFit training methodology, which I’ll go into more detail in a later blog, there’s nothing like it. Yes, there is HIIT, olympic weightlifting etc, but no one had brought all the best together into one cohesive, elegant program like Greg Glassman did with CrossFit.
There was also an x-factor to CrossFit outside of the training methodology: The community.
I loved that I was meeting people from all areas of life, different careers, different socio-economic levels, far different interests, beliefs; everything you can think of. But, due to the small-group environment (for us, we cap our classes at 12) and the one-on-one nature of that environment (you will NEVER go through a class without the Coach spending plenty of one-on-one time with you), we all got to know each other incredibly well. We encouraged each other, we genuinely cared to see each other succeed, and of course we had a little healthy competition with each other to go a little faster, move a little better, to help everyone keep going.
There is something special about working hard in a small group of people all trying to better themselves. Everyone is there to learn, to get better, to improve, and to test themselves and see what they can accomplish. It’s the most healthy (not just physically) environment I’ve ever experienced when it comes to fitness.
When we started 925, like our vision statement says, we wanted to help as many people as possible and from what we had experienced with CrossFit, we believed (and still do) it was the best vehicle for that vision.
We knew we could take CrossFit to anyone. It didn’t matter where they started, how old they were, or any other variable , as long as they were teachable and wanting to change, we knew we could help them.
925’s version of CrossFit sticks to the core principles of what CrossFit was built on from a technical standpoint (I’ll also cover each of these soon too):
With this as a solid technical foundation, we designed 925 to never be a gym with massive classes where once you pay, you disappear into the woodwork. With CrossFit, it’s already pretty hard to not know your Coach, but some have chased quantity over quality. For us, 12 people is the most we wanted to Coach at once. We run 925 as professionally as possible, from how we run our classes to how we handle our membership and communication.
We start every person at 925 with personal training to ensure they start with the best foundation possible. We added one-on-one Goals Sessions to what we do in order to make sure we got time with each client to talk - and have a real, honest conversation on how we could continue to help them. Not just set goals and move on.
We applied solid technical movement and training knowledge with a “never satisfied” approach to what we knew. Every team member continues to take courses and we teach each other how to get better. We have regular, honest discussions on where we are doing well and where we are lacking and what we can improve. Our programming is very well thought out, far ahead of time and reviewed by multiple people for quality.
Finally, we built a strong community based on consistent event options, time outside the box, nutrition challenges, and perhaps surprisingly to you, filtering those we allow to join 925 so we are sure they fit the culture of motivated, genuine, people who are willing to support each other and not just show up, work out and go home.
Something to note, 925 is a CrossFit affiliate, which means we pay a yearly fee to utilize the CrossFit name and training methodology. 925 is NOT a franchise. Why this is so important is due to the fact that we are able to make every decision for 925 on our own. We have never, since we started in 2012 had to consult CrossFit for any decision on how we run our business or the service we provide. This is one massive benefit to CrossFit gyms - we can build a place to help people in any form we choose. As a family owned business, this is a critical difference from other franchise gyms, and why 925 is so unique.
Because of this foundation, CrossFit has been an amazing tool that has helped us change 100s (getting close to 1000s!) of lives. You can read some of those stories here. We’re looking forward to helping many more people learn how they can use 925 and our programs a catalyst for positive change in their lives!
