Garage Gyms are Great!

Garage is home to hardcore gymnasium
by Monica Orosz
Daily Mail staff
Gallery [+] Enlarge

1 of 4 Photos Tom Hindman
Dr. Dan Stickler, 42, lifts bar weights, the only lifting equipment at CrossFit. Stickler, a surgeon who runs the wellness center Medabolix, said he was skeptical about the CrossFit program until he tried it. He and his colleagues opened a gym in Kanawha City to accommodate the program.
Buy This Photo More Photos »
CHARLESTON, W.Va.--In a big garage tucked away on Kanawha City's 50th Street is Charleston's newest fitness facility, affectionately known as "the box" by its clients.
The space, home to the new CrossFit, is utilitarian, to say the least. There's an actual garage door on the front end and concrete floors inside. Lighting is dim and the facility just recently got decent heat.

Construction-grade metal pipes serve as pull-up bars. PVC pipe is formed into contraptions that sit on the floor to be used for handstands or tricep dips.

A group of weighted medicine balls, as they're called, are lined up in front of a wall that has plastic "men" and "women" signs used in public restrooms mounted on it at varying heights. The signs mark the spots where clients have to toss the weighted balls in a series that has them squat and toss, squat and toss.

The only traditional weights are some barbells. The only traditional cardio equipment is a couple of rowing machines. There are no mirrors.

A huge dry-erase board that lines one wall lists workouts of the day (WOD), and stats from various clients, including one guy who got an honorary award for "puking."

"This is hardcore gym," said Dr. Daniel Stickler, who with his partners opened CrossFit this past summer.

Stickler also is head of Medabolix, the Northgate Business Park facility that uses a scientific approach to health and fitness, counseling its clients on everything from nutrition and diet to exercise. The affiliation with CrossFit, a nationwide trademarked program, is another piece of their wellness philosophy.

In just a few months of operation, CrossFit has changed bodies, with statistics such as weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and body fat ratios backing that up.

Stickler said he's proof. Clad in sweatpants, a tank top and a warm cap during his Thursday morning workout with a handful of other clients, Stickler said he was certainly fit, with just 11 percent body fat, when he started CrossFit classes.

"I'm down to 8.7 percent in three months," said Stickler, 42, also a surgeon who performs weight-loss surgery for morbidly obese patients. Trainer Micka King, a longtime fitness advocate and runner, had 21 percent body fat when she began the program, quite respectable for a woman of 41. She's down to 13 percent.