Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Johnson.
Hi Nick, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Five years ago, I found myself in the worst shape of my life. Having been very active in my earlier years, I allowed having children to be an excuse to let go of my health and fitness. I finally decided to do something about it and through an invitation from a friend to try CrossFit, I somewhat hesitantly said yes. I fell in love both with the methodology of CrossFit and the community aspect. And I saw results! At 41, I’m fitter than I’ve been in my entire life, and I was a multi-sport athlete in high school. I saw in CrossFit the potential for impacting both individuals and communities. So, I jumped in and received a certification to coach and shortly after to be a nutrition coach. If you know me, you know you’re likely to hear about whatever it is I’m passionate about, and so naturally I wanted to invite my friends and neighbors into this new life-changing thing I had started. I worked at a nonprofit at the time and lived in/near a refugee resettlement area and I knew the high costs of small group fitness and nutrition coaching was going to be unattainable for many. I had experience in fundraising and building people movements and I knew that I wanted to apply that to help solve the problem of inaccessible fitness and nutrition coaching.
Next, I started, as an experiment, a gym in my garage. We raised money for equipment and before and after work I coached CrossFit classes; working with a few of my friends who were Syrian refugees. As it began to grow, I knew this was the direction I wanted to head. We eventually affiliate with CrossFit as CrossFit Liminal, and a year after that Liminal Health and Fitness was born.
Liminal Health and Fitness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers the refugees and community of Clarkston by providing access to a network of community-based fitness, nutrition, and mentorship programs. We teach imperative life skills like learning proper nutrition, moving correctly and how to take care of the human body to our athletes.
Our vision is to build healthy people and healthy communities. And our mission is to provide accessible fitness and nutrition coaching, as well as access to preventative and corrective medical interventions through community partnerships.
Currently, we have 25 adult members in our two-car garage but work with over 30 kids with mobile classes. This summer we will be partnering with Friends of Refugees to offer CrossFit Kids classes to 100 refugee children as part of their summer youth experience. We are also currently working towards opening a 4000 sq ft space in Clarkston and hope to open there in late summer/early fall.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. In fact, it’s been a bit more like a roller coaster. Covid provided both challenges and opportunities for us. We had to limit class sizes and thus couldn’t recruit new people for a year. However, because we were a garage gym and exercised ‘outdoors’ we didn’t have to stop providing service and even had a few people join because they didn’t want to go indoors. Our biggest struggle has been finding space. We began our journey to find space just before Covid hit. As many gyms were closing doors, we decided it was not the right time to open up and expand. Then we’ve been up and down trying to locate space. We’ll get really close and then the doors will shut. A big part of our mission is accessibility. Part of that for us means we want to be somewhat walkable for the refugee community. That doesn’t leave us with too many options in Clarkston. So we have had to wait until the time was right.
On the other hand, we continue to add people without doing any marketing. We purposely have not recruited new people due to space and equipment limitations in our garage, but people keep finding us. Finding a gym with a social purpose is unique and I believe a lot of people are drawn to our mission. There also aren’t typically gyms in underserved areas and so this is a plus for us in a community like Clarkston.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Liminal Health and Fitness/CrossFit Liminal?
Liminal Health and Fitness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers the refugees and community of Clarkston by providing access to a network of community-based fitness, nutrition and mentorship programs.
We teach imperative life skills like learning proper nutrition, moving correctly and how to take care of the human body to our members.
Liminal Health and Fitness provides accessible fitness and nutrition coaching through personal training and group classes that are high in personal interaction and influence. Through partnerships with other organizations (rehab, chiropractors, primary care facilities, local food organizations), we also provide accessible preventative and corrective medical interventions.
Mission and Vision
Mission: To provide accessible fitness and nutrition coaching as well as access to preventative and corrective healthcare options.
Vision: Building Healthy People (Physically, Mentally, Relationally, and Spiritually) and Healthy Communities.
I believe what sets us apart from other similar gyms is our mission. Someone’s financial situation shouldn’t prevent someone from being able to attain their health and fitness goals. Being a nonprofit allows us to provide a high-value service to anyone that is typically only available to a more affluent population. As far as we know, we are the only CrossFit gym with a specific mission towards refugees.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We believe what we do is for everyone. Many of our members came in hesitant because of what they believed CrossFit to be like. But they have all been pleasantly surprised to find the opposite, an encouraging community that empowers everyone to reach their goals. We seek to grow a diverse fitness community and have people at all fitness levels. Some like the competitive aspect and most just want to be healthy and live their best lives. I think these are the best communities. Where we can come as we are and find not only a place at the table but that it has already been set for us. We’re not perfect, but that’s who we hope to be. We hope you’ll give us a try!
You can follow us on IG: @crossfitliminal.com or check us out at www.crossfitliminal.com.
We are revamping a few things online so expect to see some exciting changes soon as we grow into our new space!
Contact Info:
- Email: nickjohnson@crossfitliminal.com
- Website: www.crossfitliminal.com
- Instagram: @crossfitliminal
- Facebook: /crossfitliminal
