"We're not the most polished, but we're certainly sincere."
“We're not the most polished, but we're certainly sincere.”
These are the words of Bobby Kwasny, owner of CrossFit SubZero.
Located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, SubZero takes pride in their level of client retention. Members refer to themselves as “Zeroes” and refer to each other by nickname even when meeting outside the gym. One member even got a SubZero tattoo.
“Marc Lambert went out and got 'CFZ' tattooed on him,” Kwasny says of one of the members. “I got my black Zero on June 19 for my birthday. I'm very proud of it. But he was first.”
Friends know Kwasny as “Fun Bobby” far and wide. He calls himself a Zero, too. He trains with his athletes often and follows the same programming as everyone else.
“I wanted to show everybody that it's their gym, not just mine,” Kwasny says. “This is bigger than just me. This has to keep going even if I'm hit by a bus. We're Zeroes for life.”
Most members have a nickname, and it gets posted on the daily scoreboard at SubZero. “It's a weird gift that God gave me,” Kwasny explains. “I just come up with these names. I used to be bad at names when I was younger, and now I just use word association to give them a nickname. Now I remember everyone.”
Isaac Morgado, or “Boom-Boom,” says, “CrossFit SubZero is more then just a standard gym. It's a community of people who have one goal in common: fitness. If I had to describe CrossFit SubZero in few words it would be my family, because we all look out for each other and care for one another.”
Anita Pravatti, who finished first in Latin America in the CrossFit Games Open, recently moved to Thunder Bay and started training at SubZero with her husband, Alberto. Drawn to the heavy emphasis on strength building, they now call themselves Zeroes.
Of 75 members, 12 male Zeroes have a CrossFit Total of more than 1,000 pounds. Two have more than 1,100 and one is more than 1,200. “Not many gyms have that kind of strength numbers, and we're no slouches when it comes to conditioning,” Kwasny says. “It starts at the top. [My wife] Andrea and I take the sport very seriously. We walk the walk. We compete ourselves; we maintain a competition feel for our gym every day. We're beside them in the workouts.”
CrossFit SubZero runs on an open-gym model. The box is open for several multi-hour blocks at a time, and members arrive to train on their own schedule. Coaches take them through warm-ups, strength work and met-con individually. “No one's booking class times or appointments. We have 1,100 square feet. We wouldn't run classes because of equipment and space. Instead, people can space themselves out. It's almost ridiculous how well it works out,” Kwasny says.
The overwhelming feeling in the gym is love for the clients. As their website proclaims, “Everyone Is Always Welcome,” a credo by which Kwasny lives. “We'll put you through a workout if you just walk in off the street. I like to remove excuses. If some dude comes in and he's got his gym stuff in the car, he's working out.”
With a new nickname, a Zero is born.
