When UFC fighter Jason MacDonald opened his training facility, it was half mixed-martial-arts gym, half CrossFit box.
Admittedly, it was for selfish reasons, he says, as he wanted a place to train for himself. But that led to some problems.
“My MMA career was not allowing me to be the best MMA instructor,” MacDonald explains. “And also my MMA training/MMA career was pulling me away from doing a great job at CrossFit. So instead of doing a great job at one thing, I was kind of doing a crappy job of a couple of things.”
Today, CrossFit Red Deer North—also known as PURE Fitness—is 100 percent CrossFit.
“Business is great now that I’ve been able to really pour myself into one thing,” says MacDonald, who on May 15 suffered a UFC knockout loss to Tom Lawlor in Virginia. More than two weeks earlier, he had competed in the Canada West Regional with Pure Fitness Red Deer.
MacDonald described his affiliate as “a typical box.”
“It’s got the barbells, it’s got the weights, but what’s important is it’s got a room full of great attitudes and people that are willing to come in here and work hard,” he says. “I think every day we’re changing lives in this place.”
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Additional reading: My Tribe by Jeremy Striffler, published Feb. 16, 2012.