About Us

Crossfit Tacoma and Tacoma Strength and Conditioning are two gyms which are united in their mission to provide the absolute best training programs to Tacoma.  Membership at one gym provides access to the other and includes events and special programs at either location.

We believe that exercise should be fun, challenging and productive.  It should be something you look forward to, we want to be the best part of our members’ day ever day.

A good training program includes hard work, which is a good thing.  Anyone telling you that you can get great results without great effort is more interested in selling you something than in helping you.  The truth is we work hard, we constantly learn new skills, we address our weaknesses and in the process we get stronger, fitter and more durable.  An additional benefit to hard work is the mental growth that accompanies it.  Our members will tell you that the psychological toughness that they’ve gained through their training has been the most rewarding aspect of our program.

The bottom line is that you need to see results.  You should look, feel and perform better as a result of your effort.  If you’re not improving in these area and your gym isn’t helping you do so, it doesn’t deserve your patronage.

We actually care if you show up.  We design the program, teach you movements daily, assist you with nutrition, and support your pursuit of your goals.

Class Format

Between the two locations we have 13 classes per day.  Classes consists of small groups (no more than 15) who are led through a complete workout by an experienced certified trainer.

Every class begins with a guided warm-up.  The warm-up changes depending on what skills we are focusing on that day.  Warm-ups also include an individual element where you spend time working on an area of particular weakness under the guidance of the coach.

Following the warm-up we progress to the skill or strength portion.  Three days out of the week we spend a significant portion of our time on strength development.  It’s our experience that everybody benefits from getting stronger.  To this end, we have a strength-training program we overlay with our general conditioning.  On other days we work on speed, agility, balance, lateral movement drills, and many many other general physical skills.

Following this, the trainer reviews the movements and standards of the conditioning workout.  This is the time for instruction and personal feedback.  This is where individuals find weights and modifications that are appropriate for them.  We often suggest weights and movements which we call “prescribed” but there is absolutely no obligation to abide by this.  In fact, the vast majority of our members modify the workouts in some way.  Prescribed is meant to be difficult, if you can do a workout as it’s written on the board, you’re doing pretty good.  However, we insist that you do what is appropriate, regardless of what is written.

When people are set-up and all questions answered, it’s 3-2-1-GO time.  The class works side-by-side.  As people finish, their results are tallied on the whiteboard.

When everyone is finished we end the class with a guided cool-down/recovery segment.  Your ability to maintain long-term performance and health depends on how well you take care of your body post-workout.  We take techniques from massage, physical therapy and yoga.

The entire class from warm-up to cool-down is intended to take an hour or less.  On rare occasions we may go longer.

Our Training Principles

  • Quality Movement- The quality of your movement matters more than anything else.  We don’t care how much you can deadlift, if you can’t maintain a stable spine, it’s bad.  We don’t care how many push-ups you can do or how fast, if you don’t get full range of motion, they don’t matter.  The quality of your movement is directly responsible for its transferability, reduces injury, and leads to more work being done overall.
  • Groups- We do offer private training, but we prefer to work with groups.  This is because training in groups provides accountability, competition and support.  You will come more often and regularly if you have training partners.  You will commit yourself to the workouts more when others are present.  You may not be competitive, but you will inevitably find someone of similar ability to you.  This person will be your rabbit, that person who you try to match or surpass.  Lastly, there is something undeniably uplifting about cheering for others and being cheered for.  Furthermore, the people around you have insight and advice to offer.  They’ve been where you’re at and can help you through it.
  • Functional Movement- Functional means useful.  They are essential, natural human movement patterns.  We all squat.  We all press.  We all learned to crawl before we walked.  We should study and practice these movements since they have the greatest carry-over to life outside of the gym.  We want what we do in here to be relevant outside.  Functional movements tend to be multi-joint complex movements which require and develop core stability.  They are where we get the greatest return on our efforts.
  • Variety-  Variety applies to the movements themselves.  We take from gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, Parkour, sport training, endurance training, Strongman, etc.  If it works, if it has a demonstrable carry-over effect, we’ll use it.  Variety also applies to the duration of the workout.  We deliberately program workouts as short at 2 minutes to as long as 60.  The benefits of variety are that you never plateau.  There is always another way to challenge yourself, another area to grow.  It also keeps it interesting.  How many people stop working out because they’re bored?  That doesn’t happen here, there is always something new and something to learn.
  • Intensity- We’re not afraid to work hard.  Intensity means different things to different people.  It requires that you be tuned-in to what you’re doing and honestly evaluating whether you can do more, go faster, or go farther.  The body responds to stress.  If you can read or watch tv while you workout, you’re wasting your time.  It is worth pointing out that we aren’t trying to drive people toward exhaustion or injury.  More often than not, the trainer is reducing weight or reps, or even shutting someone down if their movement quality cannot be satisfactorily maintained.
  • Fun- At the end of the day this stuff is fun.  Although it’s challenging, you should leave the gym feeling refreshed and happy.  This is reflected in our culture and the attitude of the coaches.
  • Personalizable- A feature of a good gym is a wide variety of skills among the members.  We have fire-breathing special forces and recovering couch potatoes.  We manage this by customizing the daily program to fit the needs of the individual.  Every movement has a progression.  We find where you’re at on that progression and get you on the path toward improvement.

To keep reading, see How to Begin, or see our Schedule.

If you have particular questions, don’t hesitate to email us at info@crossfittacoma.com

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