Capital City CrossFit is breaking the status quo

The quest to get fit often yields disappointing results. Enormous efforts lead nowhere, and frustration ensues. Too often, the same goes for Illinois state politics.

CrossFit has taken that frustration and turned it into an opportunity by offering a totally new way to do fitness. By breaking the status quo, CrossFitters are getting results.

This new disruptive workout routine has now arrived in Springfield — the heart of the Illinois’ business-as-usual political scene.

Capital City CrossFit, run by partners Brian Chandler and Dr. Brian Moore, is one of the largest CrossFit gyms in the United States.

“This was an old distribution warehouse for wholesale seafood. It stood vacant for six years,” Dr. Moore said. “So the owner was delighted someone wanted to use it.”

So was Brian Chandler, original founder of Capital City CrossFit, whose space at the time was far too small for the size of his classes.

“We were packed in there like sardines and couldn’t take it anymore,” Chandler said. That was when Moore, a medical doctor, professor and enthusiastic CrossFitter approached him about finding a new location to expand.

They found it in the 8,000 square foot warehouse.

CrossFit’s insightful method of community training has shattered the status quo for what Dr. Moore and Chandler call the traditional “Globo-Gym experience.” Instead of being isolated on an exercise machine, athletes are required to interact with each other.

“CrossFit creates adversity within a community environment, tapping into our impulse to be part of a group striving toward the same goal,” Dr. Moore said. “As we grow up and get jobs in the real world, the importance of shared adversity is forgotten.”

Many CrossFit insights are applicable outside the gym in Springfield.

“In Illinois, adversity is all around us — economic, social and political,” Dr. Moore said. “If we, through our gym, can remind people that banding together is what we are meant to do in such situations of adversity, then we have accomplished something.”

CrossFit also adds a competitive element to workouts.

“There is not only friendly competition with other people but competition with yourself,” Dr. Moore said. “It’s a motivating experience.”

CrossFit has proved addictive across the country — also in Illinois, where more than 100 affiliate gyms have opened. Although Capital City CrossFit was one of the first downstate, Springfield is now home to three CrossFit facilities. Dr. Moore and Chandler welcome the growth and competition in their community.

“I don’t think it hurts us at all,” Chandler said. “It actually helps us with name recognition. I was always pretty confident people would take to it because we have a good product.”

This attitude mirrors how CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman defines business — “the art and science of presenting uniquely attractive opportunities for other people.”

Illinois is full of such opportunities — as well as energetic people, like Chandler and Dr. Moore, to capitalize on them.

They are an example of entrepreneurs who are disrupting the status quo in Illinois and nurturing a stronger business environment. Dr. Moore and Chandler have the vision to see an Illinois with a future that nurtures competition and faces adversity head on.