Notes
Kevin: Mixing It
Up With The Fitness Community is a podcast created by Fit Mix that introduces
you to local health and fitness individuals along with their stories.
Kevin: Episode
13. Amy Payton with Bear Canyon CrossFit. In this episode, Sara talks with Amy
about her passion for helping people. The tight-knit community Bear Canyon has,
how they're keeping members and staff safe from the Coronavirus after
reopening, and more.
Sara: Hey, Amy,
how are you doing today?
Amy: Hi, Sara.
I'm great. How are you?
Sara: Good, thank
you. So you are one of the owners of Bear Canyon CrossFit. Is that correct?
Amy: That is
correct.
Sara: All right.
In a nutshell, talk to me about Bear Canyon CrossFit and what all you guys
offer.
Amy: Well, Bear
Canyon CrossFit is obviously a CrossFit gym. But in the last five years we've
owned it we have expanded into, not only the CrossFit classes that we offer
starting at 5:30 in the morning going throughout the day. We also offer a
full-body body workout class, which is called My Sweat Class. I teach that
three days a week at 9:30. And then we also offer a functional body-building
class, which is the class that focuses on the upper body. It's only upper body.
And then on Thursdays, Beth coaches the lower body. So it's glutes and the
lower body workout on Thursdays. And then also we've incorporated Olympic
lifting in the evenings. We also do Strongmans on Sundays, although currently,
that's kind of on hold right now. So we try to hit all different areas for
people that don't or they're scared of CrossFit. Then we try to offer more than
just a CrossFit gym.
Sara: I feel like
something that sets you apart as all of the different classes that you guys do
offer. So it's like more, maybe like you said, more friendly. The classes that
aren't so CrossFity that maybe people are scared to take. You have a a lighter
version of.
Amy: Yeah, I
would agree with that. I think one of the hardest parts of owning a CrossFit
gym is there's this perception that you have to be a certain kind of person to
be able to walk into our gym and be able to workout. Like we're gonna ask you
to clean 135 lbs. And so one of the things that we did is we offered this Sweat
Class; really with a focus of not just CrossFit. Not just barbell stuff. And
just to kind of reiterate, very few people are walking through the door and
doing 135 lb cleans. So we try to make it a safe environment, no matter if
you're coming from walking as your source of exercise or you've been doing
CrossFit for 10 years. And so, yeah, we try to make sure that the doors are
open for an 18-year-old kid and also for a 60-year-old person that just wants
to feel healthier. So, yes, we try to do that.
Sara: I agree.
There's definitely this misconception. I get it all the time. Every time I try
to talk one of my friends into trying CrossFit. Well, I'm not in shape yet for
it. And I'm like, when I started CrossFit 5 years ago I was not in shape for it
and I could barely deadlift, you know, at 95 lb bar. I could barely snatch a 55
lb bar. It's like, were you in shape when you started playing CrossFit, I mean
playing soccer when you were 5-years-old. No. It doesn't go like that. Walking
through the doors the first step.
Amy: One of the
things that I love about what I do is that sense of accomplishment, when people
are sitting in the parking lot and they want to come in and they're nervous. I
mean, how many times have I had people say, well, I came here for two weeks
straight and I, you know, every other day and I sat in your parking lot and
then I just drove away. Then that one time when they did walk in and then that
feeling that they have when they finished the class and they're like, oh, my
gosh, I can do this. Yeah, I was on an empty bar or yeah, I was on a train. A
bar. Yeah. I had the wooden blocks on my bar to help me with the deadlifts, you
know, but I was able to do it. So I think there's a sense of accomplishment
when people get the courage to come in here and then they have the courage to
finish the class. That's what I love about what we do. You know, it's these
little teeny changes that we do in people's lives or put into people's lives.
Sara: Absolutely.
So do you find your members doing the functional class or do you find people
doing the CrossFit class also doing the functional class as well?
Amy: Well, so the
functional bodybuilding classes is a pretty popular class. We have child care,
so we have a lot of the same people that come into my Sweat Classes. If they
want to train five days a week. They'll come 9:30 Monday, Wednesday, Friday in
my Sweat Class. And then Tuesday, Thursday to Mark and Becs, functional
bodybuilding classes. So, yes, but we also have our CrossFit athletes that want
to work on their upper body and they want to take an hour once a week and just
focus on upper body. So we have a full range of our CrossFiters doing it. And
then we have, people that are what we call the Sweat Functional Bodybuilding
people. To be honest with you, it's amazing. In the last what I've done Sweat
for maybe two years now, almost 95% of them have a full CrossFit membership
because they started out with a Sweat and Functional Bodybuilding. And then
they're like, well, I can do CrossFit now. I mean, because Sweat is
incorporating CrossFit and Functional Bodybuilding. It's incorporating both of
those movements. We find that people are switching their memberships on that.
So, yes, we get full range of people that are doing both.
Sara: So with the
Strong Man class, I know you said it isn't happening right now. Talk about that
one.
Amy: Well, we've
had this epidemic that's been going on. I don't know if you're aware of it.
Sara: What?! I've
been living under a rock.
Amy: It has taken
the world a little bit. So we've been open now for three days when we were
closed for three months. And so trying to figure out how to open a gym and make
sure our members feel safe has been an unbelievably difficult puzzle. And I
will give major kudos to Mark, who has been thinking of almost everything. So
obviously, Strongman is flipping tires and keg lifts and heavy movements.
Trying to do that in their block where they're working out is nearly
impossible. So just like CrossFit Kids, the Strongman classes, we've had to put
those on the shelves right now until everything kind of settles a little bit.
Sara: Definitely.
What is one thing that you think separates yourself or makes you unique from
the other CrossFit gyms in Albuquerque or New Mexico.
Amy: We're very,
very lucky. We have a really strong community of CrossFit gyms here. From CrossFit Abq
to Big Barn. I mean, there's a lot of really good, Duke City. And we have
really good relationships with all of those, all of the CrossFit gyms. And I
don't know if I would ever say that we are better than anybody. I think that we
kind of keep our nose to the ground. We try really, really, really hard to not
get caught in any of the gossip or get upset when somebody takes one of our
ideas. We kind of are in this thinking as if somebody takes one of our ideas
that we started with. It must have been a really good idea. And so I think one
of the things that's made our gym successful, we have with Fit Mix included
dropping in over, I think we had about 250 members. And I would say that we try
to make this a really, really great community of people, but we leave the,
excuse the expression, the bullshit out the door. So if there's drama or
bullshit that's going on, we tried really hard to not get involved in that. We
also want to be seen as more than just a CrossFit gym. We want to be seen as a
gym that will get back to the community. We want to be seen as when a member
walks through the door and they've lost their job or their kid is sick or
they're going through a divorce and they can't pay for their membership. We
know deep down that they need to be here will waive memberships. And so that
gives me chills because really, truly, that is why I'm doing it, There's a
sense of community and caring. I do a lot of the nutrition consulting here and
the joy that I get from somebody that walks through the door that, you know,
has an eating disorder or hates their body or feels yucky about themselves and
they can express that and clean up their food and get off sugar. And, you know,
whatever they do, whether they're like just watching what they eat and then the
transformation mentally, maybe not even physically, but mentally is so
gratifying that it's worth the time and effort that we put into the gym. So I
would say that we care. And I think that all the other CrossFit gyms care too.
So I wouldn't say that we are any different. We're just trying to continue to
do what we're doing because what we've been doing has been successful.
Sara: Yeah, and
community is a huge part. I think that's why almost everyone gets into
CrossFit. They just recognized that there is more of a community aspect than
you could at other gyms.
Amy: I think
there's a sense of support. Like right now we're having showers put in, which
is a really big deal for our gym. We are putting hours in, which is something
we've been wanting to do for a long time. But we used our member, who is a
construction guy. When our AC goes down, we send a message out and one of our
AC guys, that's our member, does it. If we need a reupholster. We just redid our
couches and we had one of our members reupholster the whole entire couch. So we
really try to stay within it to help run this gym so we can support our members
financially as well because they've supported us. We've had very, very little
turnover during this time. Most of our members have stayed with us and a couple
of them had to freeze their accounts for a month or so just to kind of get
ahead and make sure their family was taken care of. And we completely
understood all of it. We've continued to do Zoom classes and all that.
Supporting people that aren't comfortable about coming back into the gym.
Sara: Yeah. And
one thing maybe people may not know is you put on a decent amount of
competitions throughout the years too. Talk about some of the competitions that
you have.
Amy: Well, let's
hope that continues. Right, Sara? We're right in a dilemma. I was just talking
to Mark about our newest one, The Classic and how we're going to handle that
and how we're gonna, you know. Yeah, we would love to throw huge competition to
have everybody in here and see the different gyms come together in this amount
of community. And I mean, we would do that in a heartbeat if we felt like it
was safe. And those are the right thing to do. So trying to figure out what the
right thing to do is the biggest question, right? Yeah. I mean, Autumn Games
has been unbelievably successful. We've had, what are we, year five. Are we in
year five already. Four or five. And it is as seamless as we possibly can do. I
mean, last year those logs, those weighted pvc pipe logs to transport those
from the gym to the field will never happen again. Let me just tell you, we've
dropped one cleaning up on the way out of the competition. And I swear to you,
I think we kept on driving. I mean, it was just like, which we didn't. But,
yeah, you live and learn. We've had really great success with it. We love doing
it. Feels like there's a sense of accomplishment when we get done. We try to do
at least once a year. Open has been a huge thing at this gym, pulls a community
together. We do always an in-house Christmas workout where everybody from a
very, very new beginner of CrossFit is encouraged to come out and, you know,
work beside somebody that's maybe got a little more experience. So we try to
separate. So, yeah, we definitely try to do as many comps as we can. And I
don't know what that looks like right now, but definitely in the past is
something that we've definitely focused on.
Sara: Yeah, I
hope it can happen. I miss those days.
Amy: I know we're
just talking about it the other day. Whether we do with a classic, whether we
do one event a day or what, I don't we're not really sure how to do it because
we also have to be super respectful and careful of the situation right now.
Right? If we open the door right now, we're allowed we're allowed 60 people in
our gym, but we're allowing 16 in here right now. You know, can you imagine if
we had a competition? You know, I mean, what do we usually have a thousand
people? So we have to just be careful about all of that right now.
Sara: Definitely
a tricky situation because you still want to go back to normal, but you also
have to be respectful of the current situation. Everyone's health obviously is
first and foremost.
Amy: For sure. We
have one of our coaches here who's mom has cancer. And, you know, one of the
members came in and, you know, high fiving, and one one of them left. This
coach just looked at me and I said, that's it. This is the new rule. The new
rule is no coaches are allowed to hug or high five or touch anybody. So there's
a standard across the floor, across the room with all of the coaches right now,
for right now, even though we're so happy to see everybody. We're gonna keep
the social distance across the board. So that the people that really need it
because they're going home to people that are sick, that we respect that. And
it's been hard, but we've been able to maintain it. You know, so far. We're
hoping to be able to continue to do that.
Sara: Well, on
another note, on a positive note. Favorite CrossFit workout? Go!
Amy: Favorite
CrossFit workout. Oh, my God. What would I choose? Well, I did DT Yesterday, I
love, love, love, DT. I'm a big wall ball. I love wall balls and cleans. So you
put those two movements together. I think in quarantine, I was doing wall balls
and cleans everyday. I'm a little sick of them. Max effort on the rower. I love
being able to challenge and try to get, you know, max effort on the rower in a
certain amount of time. So, I mean, I just think that anything where you're
moving and getting your heart rate up in the community. Bring it on. I've been
watching you, Sara, and your workouts. And I take pictures of the ones that I
did. I dont know. I did one of yours a couple of days ago. And yeah, I was
like, well, that just kind of killed me. Anything like wall balls and cleans
and a quick session of Fran. I mean, I think all that's great, right? I
probably could stay away from the snatch, although I should probably be doing
it more. We did front lunges today and I realized that I kind of suck at those.
Love double unders until I can't get a double under and I whip myself and then
I'm crying in the corner.
Sara: I'm here
with you. With the powercleans. Love powercleans or cleans.
Amy: Me too. All
day!
Sara: Oh my gosh.
My first day back in the gym. My traps have never been this sore in my life. I
mean maybe they have but I'm like, oh my gosh, this is CrossFit.
Amy: Think of all
of the people who haven't done wall balls. Think about that full-body squat and
then drive that ball overhead and then catch it as you're going down into squat
again. I mean, you haven't done that for three months and then you do maybe a
round of 50 wall balls. You can't walk the next day. I love it all. I mean, I
love working out. I have since I was a little girl and I think that CrossFit is
awesome. Right? I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't love it. I love the
variation of all the moves. I love that everyone posts their workouts. You can
take a picture of their workout and then do it at home or do it in the gym. So
there's so much versatility in CrossFit that it's awesome. Everybody should be
doing it right?
Sara: 100%
Amy: It changes
people's lives. Yeah. I mean, I remember the first time I came in, I was like,
oh, I can't do this. And now I'm like, oh, my God, I can't not do this.
Sara: Exactly.
Drank the Kool-Aid as they say.
Amy: Yes. It's
that special Kool-Aid. Everybody needs a sip of it, because even if you're a
beginner. You drink that Kool-Aid and you become and we say that when people
sign up. Oh, I think I'll try it for a month and then you'll always hear Mark
say, oh, you'll sign on. It's addictive. And it is addicting. There is
something about adrenaline and just sweating it out. Whether you're a beginner
or not, you still feel better when you're done.
Sara: Definitely.
Well, anything else you'd like to add about Bear Canyon CrossFit?
Amy: Just that
we're here. You know, we're here. We're doing everything we can to keep people
safe. We welcome new people coming in and checking out the gym, you know, if
you haven't done it before. You're welcome to drop in. Fill out the waiver
online. Come in and try a class. Why not try it? I guess that's what we always
say to people. Why not? What do you have to lose with trying it out? And we're
here to support people and we just continue to do the best that we can every
day to help people feel better about themselves. But I'm excited. I'm glad you
guys are putting this together. I think it's super cool. And, you know, it's a good
way to do it for us to kind of talk about our gym and how special important it
is to us. So thank you for having me. Come on. I appreciate it.
Sara: Our
pleasure. Thanks for sharing so much with us.
Kevin: Thanks for
listening. If you enjoyed the Mixing It Up With The Fitness Community podcast,
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Kevin: Next week,
Sara talks with Sean Plake from Elite OSM. We get to hear about what makes
Elite OSM special, Sean's experiences, and what the future holds for them.
Sara Yingling Instagram: Yingers1
Bear Canyon CrossFit Instagram: bearcanyoncrossfit
Intro/Outro Music: Jack McCarthy