Q. What is Crossfit?
A. Jesse: Short duration, high intensity workouts – incorporate weight lifting,
gymnastics, body weight movement, functional movements. Always changing, never the same workout.
Q. Do you have to be an athlete to do Crossfit?
A. Jesse: Absolutely not, our members range from pregnant women to 67 year
olds to Special Forces members. The range varies, anyone can do Crossfit.
Q. What would you tell someone whom is interested in doing Crossfit?
A. Jesse: Give it a go; the coaches are great at scaling the workouts to everyone’s current fitness level. It really surprises a lot of people how well they like it. Even yogis, people who do yoga, become addicted to it because it’s a great workout.
Q. How or why did you choose to open a Crossfit gym? And how many do you own?
A. Jesse: Well we own 3, with one soon to open. I started Crossfit through my husband, and he started doing it because of his job as a Para-rescuer. I am a big runner, and I thought there was no way that this 10 minute workout would get me in better shape than running. But it did, I am in better shape now through doing Crossfit than I was just as
a runner.
Q. What is your typical “Work Day”?
A. Jesse: (laughing) Work day? Nothing typical. It all really depends on our trainers and if I need to teach a class, or if there is a new person I need to work train. It really ranges from training, to paperwork, and even taking care of Brodie and Slade (their daughter and son).
Q. Now since you do have two young children, do you have to put them in childcare?
A. Jesse: No daycare, they come to work with us.
Q. What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
A. Jesse: I would say their (our clients) transformations. Watching their confidence grow, watching their strength improve and seeing them be able to do their first pull up, or even muscle up by themselves.
Q. What education requirements did it take to open your gyms?
A. Jordon: Just to open a Crossfit, You must be a Level 1 trainer, you have to be accredited, and you pay your affiliation fee then you can start working people out in your garage if you want to. In order to take it to the level that we have taken it, you have to be super effective, be able to change people’s lives without hurting people. It’s really easy to take someone that is not in great shape and never hurt them, but if someone is getting stronger and increases the weights and loads that they can handle, it becomes really easy to hurt people.
Q. What are the most important skills and abilities required for you as a trainer
and owner?
A. Jesse: To be able to effectively communicate, because everyone learns in different ways. We have to be able to change and communicate these workouts in ways that everyone can learn in a safe manner.
As I walked up to the Crossfit gym in Fort Walton Beach, Florida I see children outside running through an agility ladder with a trainer off to the side, cheering them on. I step through the open garage like doors to see a large group of people warming up for a workout of the day (WOD). To the left, owners Jesse and Jordon Bowen are standing with a few other trainers talking and laughing, Jesse is holding their 3 month old daughter, Brodie. I am greeted with a huge smile from both and a “Nice to see you again.”
We go sit outside, away from the loud music, quickly overtaking the speakers as the workout begins. Jesse and Jordon sit on a large semitruck tire in front of me, with Brodie on her lap.
Crossfit Q A
Jesse (top) and husband
Jordan Bowen (bottom) own 3 Crossfit locations in Florida.
For more information on Crossfit gym visit their website at www.militiafitness.com
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