Wright-Patterson opens CrossFit gym

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer
  • 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Wright-Patterson opened one of the first fitness centers in the Air Force specifically to support CrossFit training classes January 7 at 6 a.m.

The facility, known as the Jarvis Gym, is located in the Kittyhawk section of the base and has been closed for a number of years. Col. Brad Spacy, 88th Air Base Wing commander, decided to invest in renovating and reopening the facility with this specialized purpose to help dramatically improve fitness levels for Airmen. He tasked Chief Master Sgt. John Hoffman, 88 ABW Command Chief, to take the lead on this project.

"We have Airmen deployed all around the world where they are asked to perform physically exhausting missions in some extremely difficult environments. Whether it is an arid desert or at high elevation in the mountains, these Airmen have vital missions to perform. They must be physically fit to be successful," Chief Hoffman said. "We have found CrossFit to be at the cutting edge in terms of preparing Airmen to perform a variety of missions."

The total cost to equip and renovate the 3,000 square foot facility was approximately $35,000.

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning fitness methodology that capitalizes on the theory of muscle confusion, by performing constantly varied, functional movements at high-intensity. Some of the workouts include Olympic weightlifting, kettlebells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars, and many calisthenics exercises, all of which are scalable to the individual athlete.

In addition to adding equipment and renovating the facility, Wright-Patterson certified a number of Airmen as CrossFit instructors. These instructors, who are assigned to units all across the installation, will be able to teach classes in the newly renovated facility.

Immediately after the ceremony, more than 25 athletes registered for an intensive CrossFit competition that took participants from station to station doing as many repetition of a specific exercise in 60 seconds.