End of An Era
Dear SSTC Family –
It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing the closure of Silver Spring Training Club later this month. Our last day of classes will be on Tuesday, August 15th.
CrossFit Silver Spring first opened its doors on August 15, 2011 and these past 12 years have been nothing short of a remarkable adventure. Building this gym and community has been a labor of love for over a decade and my greatest source of pride. I had no idea at 22 when we opened how many incredible members and coaches would pass through these doors and make this place so special and important to so many. You are all like family and I feel grateful to have created a space where we could all connect, sweat, and become better together.
For those of you that remember the early days, you’ll remember the gym’s “minimalist aesthetic”. What we lacked in equipment, we made up for in coaching and class experience. The idea for the gym grew out of a desire to create a place where people could take control of their health and fitness to lead more vibrant lives through smart, challenging workouts and intentional lifestyle improvements. Our coaches have always been passionate about fitness and helping people achieve their goals, while also instilling in them the confidence to raise their personal expectations and standards higher. Lastly, we believed in being much more of a family than a gym, with personal interaction and a supportive atmosphere as the keys to long-term success and well-being. Fast forward 12 years (1600+ clients and 120,000+ workouts) later, we have stayed true to our principles and achieved our goals.
One of the best parts about being in Silver Spring is the constant influx of new people that are often from somewhere else that have relocated to the DMV. It’s created an incredibly diverse and interesting community of athletes from different backgrounds and walks of life. Furthermore, over the course of 12 years, you witness a lot. We’ve seen so many life milestones over the years – graduations, marriages, babies, new careers and pursuits, big successes and adversity, and more. It’s been a privilege to be a part of so many of your lives for so long. It’s hard to put into words how much our lives have been enriched by you all, other than to say thank you!
There are countless people who have helped build, shape, and run this place over the years into what you see today to whom I am so grateful. Thank you to my parents who have helped in every conceivable way; to all my coaches for your passion and compassion, talent, and hard work; to my friends and family for their help and support; to my coaching mentors for their knowledge and guidance. Special thanks to Marcos Hernandez, Katie Weddle, Marcus Taylor, Guy Lopresti, Ben Chismar, Chris Scheidt, Lukas Hernandez, Craig Kilgo, Quinn McMurtrey and many others for making the gym both great and possible.
As to the why behind this very difficult decision, there are several reasons. Running a gym is a tough undertaking in any environment, but especially so these last 3 years since Covid began. We’ve experienced several structural shifts in our business from a decline in membership to loss of key staff to moving and moving on to other pursuits, among many other large and small challenges. With that in mind, we’ve also been contending with the issue of needing to relocate the gym at end of the year as our space is set to be renovated by our landlord. After many conversations over the last few months, we reached an agreement to end our lease commitment in August. Making this decision has been difficult and emotional, and while I feel it is the right thing to do, it still hurts to do it.
CFSS occupies a significance role in many of our lives, one that can’t easily be replaced. It’s the place we go to train, push ourselves, blow off some steam, see our friends, and much more. While this chapter comes to a close, we’ve got much to celebrate and reflect on as well. 12 years of amazing camaraderie, shared purpose, and community merit a celebratory cookout to hug it out and share great stories over food and drinks amongst friends. We’ve sure had one helluva run.
Thank you for an incredible journey.
Cheers,
Josh