Rhode Island Firefighter Credits CrossFit Program ‘Move to Heal’ In Helping His Recovery
Firefighter and father-of-two Joe Potenza abused alcohol and drugs and reached a point of no return four years ago. It wasn’t until a friend helped him get back on track and along that road he found ‘Move to Heal’ at Ocean State CrossFit North.
The gym, located in Smithfield, Rhode Island, has partnered with a program that provides resources for individuals dealing with substance abuse, depression, addiction, mental illness, among other things. Jen Jasper and Ray Fleser are co-owners of Ocean State CrossFit North and have seen the program flourish since its inception.
Some members, like Potenza, have taken advantage of the new program and while it’s anonymous he has chosen to share his story publicly in hopes of being able to help someone else going through a difficult time.
“I’m not proud of my addiction, but I’m proud to share about my addiction,” said Potenza. “I hope, in my eyes, by me showing I’m strong enough to go there, I’m hoping someone else in the dark can come to me and I can help them.”
Potenza said he dealt with an abusive and alcoholic father growing up and found himself in a bad group of friends around the age of 20 and “so started my life of alcohol and drug use.”
While becoming a firefighter was a highlight for him “with the love and passion that came with the job, also came more trauma that I suppressed.”
“The old way of dealing with the difficulties in the fire service was one of two ways; one was to push it down and not to talk about it, or make jokes to hide the pain.”
Potenza adds, he found CrossFit in 2012, prior to his recovery and fluctuated with his progress. But it wasn’t until Move to Heal meetings began in July of 2022 that he saw real change.
Jasper and Fleser explained the way the program works is that those who want to attend just show up and do a 30 minute group workout to start, followed by a 60 minute meeting. The entire meeting is free and open to the public and completely anonymous.
“Our first class I think we had about 20 people, a lot of friends and family. I really wanted to make sure people felt welcome. And honestly it’s never dipped lower than 20 people,” said Jasper.
When it comes to those who attend the meetings, Jasper adds, “you have the whole end of the spectrum. You have some people that are fighting for sobriety. They’re coming there—it’s kind of like an off-site thing where they’re in an inpatient rehab. And then you have people with 15 to 20 years of sobriety. There’s a couple of high school kids, it’s a pretty mixed bunch.”
Fleser, who coaches some of the Move to Heal meetings, says he programs so that anyone can do the workouts, “the fitness is always designed to be somewhat low skill, high cardio, get the endorphins flowing. We’re not going to teach the snatch or double unders or anything like that. It’s inclusive, they’re doing burpees, kettlebell swings, running, maybe jump rope, maybe box jumps, it’s infinitely scalable.”
A perk of attending the meetings at least once per week are two free counseling sessions with a licensed therapist per month and free nutrition counseling consultation. If someone attends the meetings twice per week they get an unlimited gym membership at Ocean State Crossfit North.
Move to Heal, a non-profit organization, currently lists seven locations throughout the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island region.
Jasper and Fleser point out that CrossFit can be an expensive sport, so being able to have people come to their gym at no cost is a really great way to give people the whole experience.
“If coming to this meeting once a week is giving you enough of an opportunity to get to the gym and that’s keeping you in line enough to help out your life then that’s an honor to be able to do,” said Fleser.
For Potenza, he has plans to keep attending the meetings and have CrossFit and Move to Heal as a big part of his life.
“It will be my outlet to maintain the best me that I can,” he said. “If I go a week without attending a meeting I feel a heaviness on me, after I attend I feel the weight released.”
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Quarterfinals are coming: The next stage of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games season is days away and we’ve got you covered with Morning Chalk Up’s guide to the quarterfinals.
Congrats!: Morning Chalk Up’s very own Teaganne Finn qualified for Quarterfinals and we’re like super proud of her. 🥳
Wow: Tia-Clair Toomey (pregnant) and Sam Briggs (retired) both still made Quarterfinals, because sometimes beast mode never gets turned off.
Interesting read: The BBC explores the link between physical and mental health and how staying healthy keeps the mind in check.
CROSSFIT GAMES
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Just for Fun: Quarterfinals Predictions
The floor plans for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games Quarterfinals were released yesterday and we’re going to have some fun by giving predictions based on what we know from previous years.
Event 1: My original thought when glancing at the floor plans, was that this workout would be a Quarterfinals version of Nate, with strict muscle ups and heavy deadlifts instead of kettlebell swings. I then saw the 25 foot tape lines and that was thrown out the window.
Ommyx Breaks Through Confusion of Wellness With Computer Learning
CrossFitters and fitness enthusiasts are constantly on the lookout for new ways to better pursue improved health. They now have a brand-new option in Ommyx, which uses computer learning to break through the confusion of wellness like the Kool-Aid man going through the wall.
One big thing: Gathering data and clearly translating it is the key focus, and Ommyx works with a wide variety of outside sources. The app has native support for several wearable devices, pieces of fitness equipment, and data services.
The list of supported connections includes Apple Health, WHOOP, Oura Ring, Strava, Fitbit, Peloton, Garmin, Concept2, Eight Sleep, Polar, Suunto, Tempo, Wahoo Fitness, Withings, and Zwift.
The Ommyx app gathers data from these devices, and it uses computer learning to examine it all. It “generates hypotheses about your current physiological condition” and makes recommendations for optimizing that condition.
Ommyx also narrows the focus down to each individual user. What works for one person will not work for everyone. Ommyx examines body type, gender, age, and goals while determining how each body will change based on certain tweaks.
Kassandra Hobart, Ommyx Co-Founder: “It’s the season of life, it’s how your body’s changed, grown, and developed. It’s your stress capacity, it’s your perceived sleep versus your real estate. There’s all these other factors that go into it.
“So that’s what I love about Ommyx is that it evolves with you. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. But the app actually will help you in whatever season of life you’re in. It’s not just looking at your historical data, but it’s looking at what you’re doing right now too.”
Hobart is a co-founder of Ommyx – joining CEO David Mehlman and Benjamin Chaikin. She is also one of multiple experts that have helped bring Ommyx to market. Hobart’s focus is on nutrition and fitness, and she joins a group of experts brought in to pursue the goal of providing a product that can benefit everyone regardless of background.
“Our product is system agnostic,” Mehlman said. “We don’t care whether you wear a WHOOP or Oura, or are paleo or vegan, or do CrossFit or Decathlon.”
“We are using data and your historical individual experience to guide and determine what things can have a causal impact or a causal relationship with other things that you do.”
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Coaching Beyond the Whiteboard for a *Seemingly* Boring Workout
Getting ready to coach a workout that you aren’t all that enthused about is a mental battle. These are the special tricks you learn about in Invictus University, and they’re giving us a sneak peek!
If you’ve ever wondered which lifts you need to keep a full grip on the barbell in the front rack, and which lifts to relax your grip on, then this coaching cue is for you!
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