Everything at Crossfit Haymaker has a purpose, even the name of the gym, according to owner and coach Ryan Hill. “We had to send our names in basically to get approval. And to me, I was a fighter, won a couple of titles when I was competing in martial arts, and so for us, that ‘Haymaker’ is kind of that last-ditch effort to put everything you have into it to win that match,” Hill explained. “So what I thought was, let’s do a play off of that. When I used to fight, that was my athletic background, so during the workout, I wanted people to be able to – before that last rep, before that last thing they do – dig down, throw that last-ditch effort into it and get it done. And also, another play comes into it. We’re Warsaw, Indiana. What boy or girl didn’t grow up baling hay or detassling some corn?” Hill grew up in the area and always has been in athletics, including being a sprinter at Warsaw and in college. He won two world titles in martial arts at 17. In 2004, he went out to San Diego, Calif., to work at the largest martial arts school. He managed a school and taught classes, learning how to run a facility. After returning to Warsaw, Hill said he still has his schools in Columbia City and his parents have theirs in Pierceton, but “I’m the type of person when it came to a workout I need to have a community. What drew me into Crossfit is that community aspect.” Everyone has their own goals, but Crossfit provides a supportive community for a person to reach them, he said. “When we brought this in here, that was the main focus we had, to be able to build a community that people can come to, and be able to do something that I love to do – which is fitness,” Hill said. The building at 795 W. Market St., Warsaw, was bought in January 2014. The grand opening was in late summer, and since then membership has gone from zero to 100. Hill got his coaching/training certification in March 2014. Crossfit has five levels of coaching now. When Hill got his certification, they only had one. “For a coach, you go up there, you do your training. They have to see you do everything physically. Do the workouts. Do the movements and you got to do a test to pass,” Hill said, acknowledging it was a lot of work. To get to each of the additional levels, a coach has to have 1,900 hours of teaching. Along with Hill, the other coaches at Crossfit Haymaker currently are Josh Silveus, Treasure Hood, Max Miller, Katie Palladino and Bryan Wong. They all have their level 1 certification. Hill’s goal is to have one trainer for every five athletes. At Haymaker, each coach also wears red. “The whole reason that they wear that red is that we, the coaches, want to honor that bloodshed that was lost for our country. So we always wear that red in honor of that,” Hill explained. Each day there is a “WOD” – Workout Of the Day. “Our goal is to work on the functional movement. Everybody does a squat. Everybody does a deadlift. ... So our goal is to look at what you’re doing and seeing where you’re breaking down,” Hill said. “Then we break it down by working on mobility of the joint. I care about having flexible muscles. I care more about having a better range of motion in the joint and what we do in day-to-day activity. And that goes to that high elite athlete or that goes to a 67-year-old grandmother that comes in here. I have both of those. We scale it to anything they need to do.” Crossfit stands for constantly varied high-intensity functional movement, Hill said. Every day the WOD is different. A workout could be 30 minutes or 3 minutes, but it’s always high intensity without sacrificing safety. “To me, if you ask what Crossfit stands for, it’s community,” Hill said. “The place where people get to leave their stresses, their fears aside and come in here and kind of be a big family. That’s what I wanted this gym to be like and we have that here.” Group WODs are run weekdays at 5, 6, 7:15 and 9:15 a.m., noon, and 4:30 and 5:45 p.m. Child care is provided at the 9:15 a.m. session. Open gym is available daily 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. As for fees, Hill said for a single unlimited membership is $125 a month. For a six-month committment it’s $115 a month; for a year it’s $105 per month. Each WOD includes a coach. A family duo is 1-1/2 the cost, meaning the first family member pays $125 and the second pays only half that. A family of three is just double that and will not increase any more even if there are six members in the family, Hill said. “I would not start charging you for every single person. A family that works out together – I think that’s a big unity right there,” Hill said. There are also open gym packages for $75 per month for a single person if paying by the month; $67.50 per month for a sixth-month package; or $60 per month for a 12-month package for a single person. There are also private lessons and personalized sports programming. Cailyn Bugbee, 26, has been a member of Crossfit Haymakers since October. “I really like the coaches and the different workouts they have,” she said. Her goal in joining was mostly to gain muscle tone, which she said she definitely did. Arty Garcia, 31, has been a member for eight months. He wanted a combination of cardio and strength training, and his goal was to trim down a little bit of body fat and gain muscle. He met his goals in a month, so now he’s just competing with the others in the class. “They yell at us here. They keep us in shape,” he said. A member since November, Bridget Natalicchio, 22, said, “I did Crossfit back home (in New Jersey), so I was looking for that community again. It’s just an easy place to make friends and get a good workout.” She also met her goals of getting stronger and disciplining herself and is working on new goals of strengthening and meeting times. “Just come in and do a workout. You’re gong to love it. It’s addictive,” she said.
