Memberships Only $65 a Month at Illinois Affiliate Subsidized by Medical Center
How can we make CrossFit more accessible?
It’s a question that has been circling in recent years, and often leaves the affiliate owner stumped. Because the reality is, most small business owners need to charge upwards of $200 a month—often more than that—just to be able to make a decent living themselves, arguably pricing many people out of the market in the process.
Such is not the case at CrossFit KMC in Monticello, IL, a gym located on the campus of Kirby Medical Center. Their membership fee is just $65 a month.
How they got here: Kirby Medical Center’s CEO Steve Tenhouse found CrossFit, loved it, and knew he wanted to build an affiliate at Kirby, a traditional medical facility that’s also home to a team of dieticians, occupational therapists and physical therapists, among other health professionals.
Six years ago, with the board’s approval, Tenhouse opened CrossFit KMC, and today, the 200-member affiliate located in Kirby’s 5,000 square foot Therapy and Wellness Center, is essentially subsided by the medical facility. Essentially, this allows the gym to charge just $65 a month for members, as well as pay their eight coaches well.
One big thing: For Jordan Barney, the gym’s manager, one of the biggest benefits is how he can develop relationships with dieticians, occupational therapists and physical therapists and work together to “collaborate” to help their clients get the best possible service and coaching.
- “We can connect with each other and refer (clients) both ways,” Barney said, adding that the model also allows him to focus entirely on coaching, rather than being pulled in multiple directions, such as is often the case for coaches at traditional affiliates.
- “I still have (quantifiable) objectives, but not having to worry about other roles allows me to put everything into my coaching and provide a better experience…It’s a dream job,” he added.
The big picture: CrossFit KMC is the perfect example of what CrossFit LLC is trying to do with their CrossFit Health initiative, an initiative that focuses on preventive medicine, rather than the reactionary medical model that waits until people are sick before using medical treatments and interventions to help combat disease.
At CrossFIt KMC, this means introducing CrossFit’s sickness and wellness continuum right in their prep course, their ultimate mission being “to make the country a healthier place to live,” Barney said.
“And we know the CrossFit methodology can do this,” Barney concluded.
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