We take great pride in the community that we have cultivated at Recursive. As many gyms are closing (24 Hour Fitness announced their plans to file for bankruptcy yesterday) and a worldwide poll suggesting that most gym goers won’t return to the gym post-COVID19, the reality is that many CrossFit gyms are actually seeing growth. The reason for that? Community.
Over the last few months we have worked very closely with our business mentor to really define what we wanted out of our business, and then how to best do that. It all started with clarifying our Vision and Mission Statements. We have then used these 2 simple (but very important) guiding principles in all of the difficult decisions we’ve had to make these last few months.
Recursive’s Vision:
To provide a safe community for people to improve their health and wellness.
Recursive’s Mission:
Create a unified and holistic approach to mental and physical health through personal training, nutrition, and group classes.
Our community is very important to us. It always has been. The gym is our business and our livelihood, but it is also the place we spend many hours every day. And we always wanted to make sure that we were proud of ourselves and the people in the gym. We wanted to make sure that we enjoyed walking through the doors every day and never let it get to a point of dreading it.
We also wanted to make sure that every person that walked through our doors felt welcomed and safe in our space.
From time to time over the years we have had to have very difficult conversations with members (and even staff), and help people find a gym that was more suited to their values. No hard feelings, we aren’t for everyone. It is always difficult to lose that revenue, but it was always important to us to keep the gym a safe space and supportive community for us, our members, and our staff.
The last few months of quarantine and the on-going global pandemic has shown all of us that the value of a gym membership is really more about the value of a community.
People can work out at home. There are plenty of free workouts and programming to follow. What you get from being at a gym like Recursive is quality coaching, accountability, consistency, and a great community of like-minded people that are all trying to be a little bit better than they were yesterday.
You make gym friends, and those people end up being outside-of-gym friends too. You find people that you connect with and can use to push yourself a little bit harder than you would at home in the driveway. You find people that you would like to hit a workout hard with, and then go grab a beer afterwards to talk about how hard that workout was.
These are the same people that will notice if you’ve missed a few days at the gym. They will help you stay accountable and consistent. And when they find out that you have been gone for a bit due to an illness or death in the family, they will be right by your side to help in non-gym ways too.
Community is important. And I think that the recent quarantine and isolation has shown people just how important it is to have people in your life that support you. We hope that you always feel supported at Recursive. And we want you to know that you are always welcome in our community.