Orillia CrossFit owner and trainer Matt Spencer has had many challenges throughout his career, but nothing compares to the current challenge at hand.
The 33-year-old Spencer grew up in Alcona and Keswick and started his journey in CrossFit shortly after moving to Barrie 12 years ago.
“My journey getting into CrossFit is no different from anyone else. I have never been a gym rat or anything like that, but I always wanted to work out and be strong, be fit but I never knew how,” Spencer explained.
Spencer decided to get involved in Barrie CrossFit after being invited to try it out by a co-worker while working in the marketing industry.
“I thought ‘OK, I’ll do this to get in shape for the summer’ and it quickly turned into a lifestyle change,” Spencer remembers.
After a year of training at CrossFit in Barrie, Spencer began to achieve great individual success and was enjoying the community atmosphere at the gym.
In his personal life, Spencer decided he was going to start his own video production business and was going to need a part-time job on the side. He got his level 1 CrossFit coach certificate which ended up being a life-changing decision.
“Once I was coaching more and seeing secret superheroes like a single mom who looks no different than anyone in a grocery store, but then comes into CrossFit and puts 100 pounds over her head or can do 10 pull-ups in a row and gets out of her comfort zone to accomplish something on her own effort, to see that wave of emotion is so cool and it’s what kept me coming back for more as a coach,” Spencer said.
As soon as Spencer started coaching, he became more passionate about CrossFit and became motivated to play a bigger role in the industry.
After six years of studying, note-taking, and trying to learn from as many different people as possible, Spencer started working towards becoming a certified CrossFit Level 3 trainer which is a designation that less than 1% of trainers in the world have achieved.
“It was something that motivated me right from the beginning and it took me years of dedication for the craft,” Spencer said.
“To get to that level you have to care more about other people than you do yourself.”
Spencer also became the only operating Level 3 trainer at a CrossFit gym north of Toronto when he became the proud owner of CrossFit Orillia this past September.
“The community in Orillia welcomed me with open arms and the one thing I’ve noticed is everyone here cares about each other, and I don’t take that for granted whatsoever,” Spencer said of his new home town.
Spencer’s first major challenge as a local business owner came just a few months into his tenure as the COVID-19 pandemic closed his gym. However, Spencer refused to cancel his daily programming and instead scheduled live online workouts using video conferencing.
“My background in video production and marketing really benefited me in that I was able to hop online very quickly to run three classes a day,” Spencer explained.
The biggest challenge for the new owner of CrossFit Orillia during the pandemic was finding ways to keep the workouts from becoming repetitive while having trainees limited to their own homes.
“I try to make sure that everyone is doing something differently and they are challenged in a new way and leave feeling like they had fun,” Spencer said.
To help make the workouts from home have the atmosphere of the gym, Spencer trusted members to borrow all his equipment.
“CrossFit isn’t about the exercise right now. They are coming to CrossFit to see a familiar face, for a smile, a laugh, to take their mind off things and break out of the funk ... it makes people realize that we can do this,” Spencer said.
While Spencer seems to have things under control and has adapted smoothly to training his members over video conferencing, like most other local businesses, CrossFit Orillia has been hurting financially with revenue down 60%.
Being a small business owner in a time of struggle sparked an idea for Spencer to try and inspire others using the idea of struggle.
“Everyone right now is struggling whether it’s emotionally, financially, physically there is a struggle going on especially with small businesses, so to show solidarity I’m going to struggle physically,” Spencer said.
Spencer started his inspiring journey this past weekend by rowing a half marathon on video conferencing.
“To show that we are in this struggle together, I’m going to do some sort of demanding physical challenge every Saturday until businesses either get enough support or re-open,” Spencer explained.
This weekend, Spencer will be hopping on the bike to crush a thousand calories and will continue to choose other physical challenges as his journey continues.
“Hopefully, this will inspire people to move, inspire people to support small businesses and hopefully, raise awareness,” Spencer said.
The next goal for Spencer’s CrossFit Orillia coincides with the company mission statement to empower the community to be their best. For Spencer personally, once life returns to normalcy his goal is to teach future trainers all across Canada and North America.
“That’s how I can exponentially help more people and have my circle of influence significantly increase,” Spencer said.
