Our Story

Amanda and I found CrossFit in 2004, while living in Portland, Oregon and we were immediately impressed with the program and its concepts. To better perform CrossFit workouts in our backyard, we built a pull-up station in our gazebo with 6×6′s that had bars and rings, mounted a wooden target on a tree, 10′ off the ground, to throw Med Balls at, and juggled kettlebells on the grass. By the time we returned to Bloomington in the Fall of 2005, CrossFit had become part of our daily lives.

At that time, there were no CrossFit Gyms in town, so we decided it was our job to start telling people all about CrossFit. We owned a rower, some kettlebells, a set of bumper plates (which, when stacked, also doubled as a box-jump), and some medicine balls.

We preached about the benefits of CrossFit for a while to everyone who would listen, and we eventually had a closely-knit group of friends and co-workers training with us in our garage. In the mornings, we had an “Early Riser” session before we all left for work. After work, Geoff would take off his pharmacist’s lab jacket, and drive home to lead the folks in the Evening Group. Every available spare minute and dime went into outfitting our Garage Club and leading workouts. It was officially “no longer a garage,” when we dismantled the electric door opener… We lived and breathed CrossFit every day and it was totally exhilarating.

In 2008, Amanda and I, along with our son, Joe, flew to San Diego and became Certified CrossFit Trainers. We were so energized, after spending two full days with 90+ other attendees, mostly marines and sailors, that the three of us also went to Coach Mike Burgener’s CrossFit Olympic Lifting Certification and Coach Mark Rippetoe’s CrossFit Basic Barbell Certification. After each Cert, we talked non-stop in the hotel and on the plane, about how we couldn’t wait to bring back what we learned to the members of our Garage Club.

Eventually, our group became too large for our garage. (we had a few close calls, while swinging kettlebells..). So, despite that we each already had demanding jobs, we decided to take the plunge and “go public.” We licensed the name “CrossFit Bloomington” and rented a 900 sq ft room at the corner of Walnut and Hillside, with a 9′ ceiling. To help pay the Gym rent, we started charging our nearly a dozen Members $75 Monthly Club Dues, deciding that was as low as we could go, and still meet our expenses. From a Garage Workout Club, we had become a business. And Bloomington finally had its first CrossFit Affiliate.

That first location was close to the street, and motorists driving on Walnut Street could see us doing Burpees and swinging Kettlebells on the grass next to our building. We got phone calls from folks saying things like, “I keep watching you guys doing crazy things on my way to work. Tell me.. is there a name for that??”

During our first year, we grew exclusively by word of mouth and by being listed on CrossFit.com as Bloomington’s only CrossFit Affiliate. We had no time available to plan an advertising campaign. We were too busy building Bloomington’s first CrossFit Affiliate, from the ground up. With no other local CrossFit gyms to model and learn from, we shot from the hip much of the time, making many mistakes and learning as we went. Much of our programming ideas came from what we had learned while following the Main Site’s programming the previous five years.

The organizational structure of CFB has been continually evolving, and is still a work in progress. It is still, in fact, very much as we used to describe it a few years ago: a “labor of love.” Early on, we must have appeared like a rudderless ship to people accustomed to Gyms that followed a more traditional business model. From our early “garage days,” our basic management approach has been to keep a close ear to Member/Trainer feedback and “morph” accordingly, as much as possible.

They say, “it takes a village to raise a child.” Similarly, the development of CFB has been a team effort. Being a full-time retail pharmacist, my available time to lead workouts has been limited from the beginning. We have been very fortunate to have had the help of a number of folks who rolled up their sleeves and helped keep CFB afloat. People that we have sent to Certifications have subsequently helped us by leading workouts, so that we could offer 7 days of classes, and attract Members on various schedules. Some of those folks are still with us, and some have moved on to other pursuits. All of them occupy a special place in our hearts, and always will.

At CFB, we are passionately committed to encouraging and helping our Members continually improve their strength and fitness levels. And, to practice what we preach, we are just as passionately committed to continually improving the quality of training that we offer our Members.