Finding health and fitness opportunities are priorities in Central Oregon — a popular destination for an active, outdoorsy lifestyle.

Oregon CrossFit instructor and owner Sean Wells is doing his part to help by taking a proactive, hands-on approach to building a foundation for strength and conditioning for all ages.

“I’m passionate about training kids to play sports at the next level because they have this huge opportunity in front of them,” Wells said. “I’m inspired by the 71-year-old who comes in here and still wants to train because it makes them feel alive. If you’re around people who are working hard, it is going to make you want to keep pushing yourself in whatever it is, and that’s why we do what we do.”

Wells didn’t always know that he wanted the life he has now, he said. After graduating with a degree in history and a minor in political science, owning a gym was not at the top of his list. His progression into the role happened naturally.

Oregon CrossFit first opened in 2009. Wells began his CrossFit training soon after. He became certified to coach in 2010 and bought into the gym later that same year. In 2013, Wells became the sole owner. He now collaborates with various health and fitness outlets to operate and coach in the new 11,000-square-foot facility on NE Second Street.

When Wells began coaching CrossFit, his focus was with middle-school aged kids. He started with a group of 22 area sixth graders. Of those original 22 athletes, 15 graduated in 2017 and are playing various sports at the next level.

“We have been proven to be successful in training kids to be stronger,” Wells said. “It makes sense that if you’re stronger, you will get better in your sport. If you are stronger, you will remain healthier longer. Because if you can remain healthier, you can go further in your career.”

There’s also an advantage to CrossFit for seniors who want to remain active in their older age. Building strength is one way — if not the best way — to remain healthy and independent, Wells said.

“If you buy a ski pass at Mt. Bachelor, you want to get your money’s worth,” he explained. “If you build your strength up, and it allows you to do something like hike Smith Rock injury-free, well now you get another day to do something else.”

Staying healthy will get you your money’s worth out of life and your ambitions, Wells said.

As host to a swelling gym population, Wells has added multiple coaches with backgrounds in CrossFit and Olympic lifting and sports performance. This includes his wife, Carly Fuhrer, who is a professional CrossFit Games athlete.

Also collaborating with the gym is Central Sport & Spine — the chiropractic and sports performance office of Dr. Jim Thornburg, and Revive Body Work & Personal Training — the studio of licensed sports massage therapist and movement specialist Ben Entenmann.

The combination of providers under one roof specialized in the body’s movement and strength at any age or physical ability has lifted Oregon CrossFit to another level of health and fitness.

“If I can get more people who are experts in their fields, it raises the level and you can keep bringing in more experts who can now help you train, say, a 75-year-old because you keep learning things,” Wells said. “If you stop learning and just train x-to-y, and keep doing that, it doesn’t do anything to better your gym or your athletes. I want a mental and physical stimulus all the time; you get that with the people you bring in.”

Wells is one of many individuals who say they have found a calling with CrossFit. He met his wife at a CrossFit competition. The two were married in 2016 just before Fuhrer went to the Super Bowl of the CrossFit world for the first time.

Her life before that? Very little drive toward anything, she said.

“After high school, I didn’t really have goals or motivations,” Fuhrer said. “CrossFit changed that. It gave me my own deadlines and now my goal is to change the general population’s view on health and fitness.”

Her training is centralized at Oregon CrossFit. While her goals are focused on competition right now, training a variety of members at the gym has also given her a sense of the impact she wants to make in the long run, she said..

“Everyone talks about wanting to be healthy and look good,” Fuhrer explained. “But you can’t do that without balance. I want to help them do that. I want to change people’s lives.”

The gym offers multiple CrossFit classes including general population classes that focus on one daily workout several times each day, a basics course that serves as an introduction to the movements of CrossFit, a women’s-only class and a boot camp.

There are also specific programs like Cascade Academy, which works with high school athletes year-round to improve strength and conditioning. The Sports Performance group is directed to 9- to 12-year-olds.

“If a little girl can look at me and see that being strong and healthy is beautiful, it can give them confidence,” Fuhrer said. “I think that if we can instill it in girls at a young age what healthy is, we can help them from the get-go”

CrossFit has developed a reputation of being a super competition full of impossible fitness challenges and six-pack abs, Fuhrer said. The side of CrossFit that often gets overlooked is the general population in classes every day who have opted to lead healthier lives.

“That’s kind of the whole point of CrossFit is to become strong because it helps you in so many parts of life,” Thornburg added. “Maybe you hurt yourself shoveling snow, and you know you need better body mechanics. We want to provide that guidance and strength.”

Central Sport & Spine came to fruition after Dr. Thornburg came to Bend from Eugene with his wife and three kids. He bought a small practice that moved locations a few times before landing comfortably at Oregon CrossFit. With a power-lifting background, Thornburg joined Oregon CrossFit as an outlet of fitness. He began working with Wells as a personal physician and the word of mouth referrals snowballed from there, landing him the gig to treat Fuhrer in her strenuous training.

“As Carly (Fuhrer) began to train more competitively, it became more routine for me to figure out how she was beating herself up in workouts and work on her more frequently,” Thornburg explained.

When Oregon CrossFit moved March 31 to it’s largest location to date, Thornburg knew he wanted to collaborate with Wells in the move to make himself more accessible and visible to people.

Individuals of different athletic backgrounds are treated at Central Sport & Spine, including power-lifting, BMX riding, acro yoga and CrossFit athletes as well as individuals who are just looking to “move better in real life,” Thornburg said.

The ability to work with coaches and athletes has been the biggest advantage for members and athletes.

“Having people who not only do good work, but are like-minded is awesome,” Thornburg said. “Being close to our community here at Oregon CrossFit helps because you can help them warm up or identify dysfunction and you’re not too far away. Our goal, first and foremost, is to keep our members healthy. My ultimate goal is to teach you how to stay out of my office.”

Educating individuals on different ways to live strong and healthy is one of the greatest rewards for the coaches and staff at Oregon CrossFit, Thornburg said.

“No one ever complains about being strong and it requires a healthy body,” he said. “They already made a good decision walking into a gym and now we can guide them so that they’re not like a lost puppy on the road to fitness.”•