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New buffness biz could find niche
DAN VOELPEL; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: November 7th, 2008 01:31 AM (PST)
As a four-eyed wisp of a kid, if the bookwormish Morgan Hepfer went to the beach, the buff beach bully mostly likely would single him out to kick sand in his face.
Today, the 30-year-old Tacoma entrepreneur has launched a niche, buff-making fitness center as an alternative to the big-box big boys in the commercial gym arena – L.A. Fitness, All-Star Fitness, Bally Total Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym and the YMCA.
At Hepfer’s one-month-old CrossFit Tacoma, in a spartan wood-beamed warehouse, you won’t find any $10,000 elliptical machines or treadmills equipped with televisions so you can tune out as you sweat.
You will find an old tire from a massive earthmover to jump on, green Army surplus duffel bags filled with rock salt to carry across the room and a 10-foot length of white, 4-inch PVC pipe half filled with water to improve your balance.
This isn’t your grandpappy’s workout.
I tried it – once. You get personalized intensity, meaning you push yourself as much as you can. So intense to me would look different than intense to my 71-year-old father or my 19-year-old son.
Workouts vary from 10 minutes to 30 minutes a day. No two workouts look alike – a key strategy to prevent the body from adapting to a routine, which inhibits fitness-building. You record how many reps of each movement you can do in 30-second to one-minute increments. All while Hepfer watches, coaches your movements and offers encouragement.
“Purity through suffering,” Hepfer joked, sort of, describing the workouts.
“You have your ‘firebreathers,’ the guys in top-notch shape, elite athletes who want to be in the best shape they possibly can. Then you have people like Shannon, who when she came in the first time, she couldn’t do one full squat,” he said.
CrossFit, a full-body workout philosophy developed in Santa Cruz, Calif., in the 1980s by former gymnast Greg Glasman, aims to prepare one’s body to better perform everyday activities. Glasman opened his own gym in 1995. His method has grown in popularity with the military, firefighters and law enforcement officers.
The philosophy has boomed organically through the Internet’s ability to post and share workout routines. And CrossFit-certified trainers like Hepfer have opened affiliated gyms across the country – including CrossFit Pierce County in Parkland and Rainier CrossFit in Puyallup.
If you saw the V-shaped, six-packed actors in the Hollywood film “300,” and wondered how they got so hunky for their roles as Spartans and Persians battling for Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Answer: CrossFit training.
The idea to open a gym came to Hepfer nearly two years ago while he and his wife, Lisa, taught at an international school in Bangkok, Thailand.
Hepfer, a 1996 graduate of Bellarmine Prep, decided he wanted a better workout. A friend in Seattle, who opened his own fitness center, started e-mailing daily workouts to Hepfer in Bangkok.
“I started doing them in this tiny closet that was our gym,” he said. “I got better results in six weeks than I had in a whole year with my previous training.”
Then Lisa got into it. Other teachers at the school noticed the Hepfer’s body-shape improvements and asked what they had done. So Hepfer started training the teachers.
He soon found he had more passion for preparing daily workouts than he did the lesson plans for the middle schoolers.
So when he and Lisa came back to Tacoma for good in July, Hepfer discovered the vacant warehouse for rent in the burgeoning St. Helens residential district. He figured that, over time, the growing number of people who live in the area would find him.
Thomas Kuljam, a local banker, happened by three weeks ago and peeked in the picture window fronting Fawcett Avenue.
“I’m sold on it now,” said a breathless Kuljam, after his 15-minute Wednesday morning workout. “I feel like I’ve just run five miles.”
Kuljam has worked out for years – running and swimming, mostly – at the YMCA but has noticed a distinct improvement in three weeks with Hepfer.
“I can squat down and tie my son’s shoes without any problem,” Kuljam said. “I couldn’t do that very well before.”
“I like to hear that,” Hepfer said. “That’s what it’s all about. If you don’t get a fitness you can take with you, outside the gym, what good is it?”
The business has yet to turn the corner on profitability. Hepfer figures he needs a solid membership of 50 to 60 clients to make it go and has gotten roughly halfway there.
Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785
dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com">dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com
CrossFit Tacoma
Owner: Morgan Hepfer
Where: 411 Fawcett Ave.
Hours: 7-10 a.m., noon to 1 p.m., 3-7 p.m. Mondays through Friday; one class at 9 a.m. Saturdays
Online: crossfittacoma.com
Contact: 253-310-1940, crossfittacoma@gmail.com">crossfittacoma@gmail.com
Cost: First class free; $125 per month for unlimited visits; 15 percent discount for military, law enforcement, firefighters
Other South Sound CrossFit affiliates: Rainier CrossFit, 5403 Milwaukee Ave. E., Puyallup, 253-686-9994; CrossFit Pierce County, 1828 112th St. E., Parkland, 253-380-7102
More on the CrossFit movement: crossfit.com
Originally published: November 7th, 2008 12:44 AM (PST)
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