Box of the Week: Thomas Madden of CrossFit Lake Parsippany talks scaling fitness for every kind of person at his box.

Thomas Madden of CrossFit Lake Parsippany shared some information about running his box and talks about scaling fitness for every kind of person at his box. 

What is your name? My name is Thomas Madden

How would you describe your title? (owner, trainer, coach). I am a professional coach and co-owner of Heroes Journey Fitness

Where should we send visitors? (website, IG handle, etc) You can send them to Heroesjourney.com

What is the name of your box? Our box is called CrossFit Lake Parsippany, we are currently doing business as Heroes Journey Fitness.

Are you a Crossfit Affiliate? If so, how many years have you been affiliated? We are indeed a CrossFit affiliate. We have been affiliated for 4 years.

How many years have you been in business? We have been in business for 4 years.

How many members do you have? We have about 150 members.

What sort of training do you offer (personal training, group fitness, etc)? We offer individual design programs, personal training, group fitness classes, and group fitness classes (lite).

How would you describe your community? Our community like all other fitness communities, has a uniqueness to it. We noticed from the very beginning that we were serving people who had bad experiences at other gyms. We have always catered to people who were intimidated or turned off by other fitness experiences. Our demographic is mainly folks who just want to be fit for the future. Our clients understand the major flaw that is intensity for intensities sake.

How would you describe your training style or philosophy? This is a tough question. Training philosophy varies depending on the client, and the goal. If we are talking about general philosophies as far as general good practices, I can offer the following:

• Train with a purpose: People should understand their "why" so that training has a big picture value.
• "Assess, don't guess": Imbalances and weaknesses have implications on program design. Don't train without knowing them.
• Fundamentals: Do the unsexy work of always going back to the basics.
• Sleep, stress, food: If these aren't dialed in- you will not achieve anything. As my mentor James Fitzgerald says: "You should not train to feel good; you should go into training feeling good."

Do you offer nutrition advice? We certainly do. Anyone who is doing personal training or an individual design program goes through AT LEAST our phase 1 nutritional protocol. This mainly includes understanding nutrient absorption, digestion and food hygiene practices. After someone shows us they can be consistent in complacency we move forward.

Tell us about your box. Our box was built around the idea that we want to serve as many people in the world as possible. This meant finding ways that create access to fitness for every kind of person who walked through our doors. We all know that movements can be modified and workouts can be scaled, but let's face it- client experience cannot be modified or scaled. Our mission is to serve people through every wellness facet available- starting with lifestyle and finishing with proper fitness protocols. We started quite humbly in a park in Boonton Township, and moved into a facility where we offered ONLY group fitness classes. Knowing our mission was much larger, we finally implemented individual design programs through my relationship with Opex Fitness. Since then our membership basis has broadened immensely.

Describe your best source for getting new members. Our best source for new members is referrals, and the internet. If a member does not come to us from a referral, they are invariably a google source.

Is there anything that you found for member retention? Yes- implementing individualized memberships. Retention for group fitness classes is poor at best. The only way to change that is to develop personal relationships with your clients on a COACHING end...not just shaking hands and kissing babies, but also ensuring EVERYONE has a coach.

Are there any marketing channels that you hate or are very poor? Groupon, Living Social, and "challenges" are all a race to the bottom and devalues even the surrounding gyms with similar training styles. I wish people would stop doing these and address their real problems.