THE LOVE OF FITNESS
“What are you training for?”
I had been asking myself that same question for a while, and to be honest, I didn’t have a good answer. So, I said, “Uh, nothing. I just like to work out…”
A fellow college senior gave me a perplexed look, shook his head, and walked away. In his defense, I was one of only two people in the gym making use of the often-neglected squat rack. The other was walking toward me.
“What was that about?” asked my identical twin brother, Nick.
I shrugged and said, “He was just wondering which one of us is stronger.”
“What’d you tell him?” “What do you think?”
Nick chuckled and began his next set.
The year was 2012, Nick and I were attending Montana State University, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and on track to attend physical therapy school the following year. In addition to an academic trajectory, Nick also shared my lack of purpose around training.
We had been working out together since the seventh grade, our longest shared activity. Back in those days, our goal was to become better athletes. So, we made the gym our second home and quickly fell in love with the process. So much so that we began to question what we enjoyed more: playing the sport or training for it?
Our days as athletes came to an end after high school, leaving Nick and I with a large void in our lives and a crisis of identity. We continued to show up to the gym, day after day, just as we always had. But with no upcoming season to prepare for, what reason did we have to train? We were young and hungry for a new challenge.
Enter CrossFit.
It was a random stroke of luck that changed mine and Nick’s lives forever. We were channel surfing in front of the TV when we stumbled upon something that gave us pause. Actually, it wasn’t so much something as it was someone.
“Who is that?” Nick asked with a sense of awe.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But he looks glorious.”
The man on the screen was shirtless, highlighting one of the most impressive physiques we’d ever seen. He wore a headband, sunglasses, and had a tattoo running down the side of his torso. But the most impressive thing about him was what he was doing: acts of fitness we’d never even seen before. We would later discover that we were watching the broadcast of the 2012 CrossFit Games, and the man on the screen was named, Rich Froning Jr.
For hours, Nick and I stayed glued to our seats, marveling at this cool new fitness program called CrossFit. It claimed that the ingredients for world-class fitness were constantly-varied functional movements performed at high intensity. At the time, I didn’t understand what that meant. I just knew it looked cool as hell, and it was just the thing we’d been looking for.
I turned to Nick and said, “I think we should try this.”
He smiled and said, “You read my mind.”
A couple days later, we were fighting over a trash can in the college rec center as we barfed our collective brains out. Nick and I had just completed our first attempt at the CrossFit benchmark workout, “Fran.” After a combined ninety reps of very questionable ninety-five-pound thrusters and pull-ups, our bodies were experiencing a lactic hell they’d never felt before. It took us over an hour to recover. Needless to say, we were hooked.
After several more weeks of dropping weights and flailing around on the pull-up bar in the college rec center, we were finally reprimanded. The trainer in charge said to us, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but you need to stop.”
As she walked away, Nick shrugged and said,
“Well, looks like we need to find an actual CrossFit gym.”
We researched several gyms in the area and landed on Bridger CrossFit. Nick and I showed up to a “Bring a Friend Day” and were welcomed with open arms. That’s when we discovered the real magic of CrossFit: the community. Working out amongst this group of positive, like-minded people was what tipped us over the edge. This was no longer a hobby. It was what we wanted to do with our lives.
In the months that followed, Nick and I received our CrossFit Level-One certifications, turned down our acceptance letters to physical therapy school, and moved back to our home town to open our very own gym, CrossFit Miles City. We started small, renting a racquetball court from the community college, and we used every inch of those eight hundred square feet.
Most people around town thought we were nuts, but there were a few who were curious enough to give CrossFit a try. After a couple weeks of onboarding our first clients, we held our grand opening with a total of eleven members. We couldn’t have been more thrilled.
In the beginning, Nick and I coached every class together. Even if only one person showed up, we would both be instructing and cheering them on. Looking back on it now, I’m sure this was a little overwhelming at times. But people must have sensed our passion, because over the next two years, our little crew of CrossFitters steadily grew until we were able to move out of the racquetball court and into our own larger space. CrossFit Miles City had a home of its own.
The next few years passed in a blur of early mornings and late nights. What began as a group of eleven people had grown into a thriving community surpassing triple digits. Nick and I were doing what we love: Bringing people together and improving their lives through fitness. It was everything we dreamed of when we first opened our doors. However, we couldn’t shake this sinking feeling that we were leading our members down the wrong path.
Hundreds of hours of high intensity and scored workouts had taken its toll on us as well as our members. Despite our best intentions, CrossFit had created a culture built around competition. And with that, came a cascade of negative side effects: constant comparison to others, rep shaving, sloppy technique, cherry-picking workouts, gym drama, and needless injuries, all in the name of topping the leaderboard. But worst of all, we began to lose our love of fitness.
Nick and I tried to address these issues directly, but we realized they were just symptoms of a bigger problem. CrossFit, as it is defined, was no longer the best option for us or our gym. If we stood any chance of realigning with our vision, some big changes would need to be made.
First, we identified what was working in our current model: group training, functional movements, and mixed modalities (a blend of weightlifting, endurance, and gymnastics). Next, we identified what wasn’t working: constant variation and daily high intensity. Finally, we identified what was missing: training periodization, bodybuilding/accessory work, and aerobic training. We kept what worked, got rid of what didn’t, and added in what was needed.
The end result was something very exciting – a structured, well-thought-out program that centered on three tenets:
look good.
perform well.
and have fun.
As Nick and I admired our creation, I turned to him and said, “It’s not really CrossFit.”
“No,” he said. “But I don’t really care.”
I smiled and said, “You read my mind.”
The new program was implemented immediately. We stopped scoring every workout and started varying the intensity of our workouts. We added in bodybuilding/accessory work and removed some of the higher skill movements. We got back to rewarding movement quality and effort over performance. The change was scary at first, but if paid off.
Within weeks, we began to see results. People were showing up to the gym more consistently and in a better mood. Movement quality improved, and nagging injuries healed up almost overnight. Our membership numbers and camaraderie amongst the gym reached an all-time high. And best of all, it restored our love of fitness. We still follow the same training model to this day and plan to for the rest of our lives.
Every now and then, we’ll have someone drop in to our gym and say something like,
“That didn’t feel like CrossFit, but I loved it.”
To which we always say, “That’s the goal.”
It’s hard to believe that this year will mark CrossFit Miles City’s ten-year anniversary. In the decade that’s passed since we first opened our gym, Nick and I have improved the lives of hundreds of lives, created a life-long community of friends, and grown leaps and bounds as individuals. Reaching ten years is something we take great pride in, and it’s the kind of milestone that makes you stop and ask, “What’s next?”
It’s something we have thought long and hard about, and the answer we’ve come up with is… more of the same! We want to continue doing what we love: bringing people together and improving their lives through fitness. However, just like at the start of our journey, we find ourselves hungry for a new challenge.
Nick and I were just two dumb, young kids when we started our business, and CrossFit gave us a sense of direction, a path to follow. And while that path has taken us to some amazing places, we are now ready to forge one of our own.
So, we are excited to announce that following our ten-year anniversary, we will no longer be affiliated with CrossFit but will continue to do business under a new name.
As soon as the words came out of Nick’s mouth, I knew we had our name.
“Say that again.”
“The Love of Fitness.”
I closed my eyes and began to visualize it.
“What are you doing?” Nick asked.
I shushed him.
“O-kay…”
He waited patiently as I envisioned this new direction, the path it would create, and where it would take us. After several moments, I opened my eyes and said, “That’s it.”
His face filled with excitement. “Yeah?!”
“It’s perfect.”
“Right?!”
The Love of Fitness is meaningful to Nick and I for a number of reasons, the most obvious being that it incorporates our last name. But more importantly, it will light our path moving forward and serve as a constant reminder for why we do what we do.
It’s not to win.
It’s not to be admired.
And it’s certainly not because we hate ourselves.
We train because we love it.
And that’s all the reason we need.
So, the next time someone asks me what I’m training for, I know my answer.
