Members of the CrossFit Ripcord gym in Columbus collected more than 1,200 items for Love Chapel food panty, which also created a challenge for its coaches.
Photo provided
A Columbus gym has worked out a novel exercise that combines its fitness mission with a mission of different kind — collecting food and essential items for Love Chapel food pantry.
This morning, coaches, members and guests at CrossFit Ripcord, 1240 12th St., will be having a post-Christmas celebration that will include gifting to Love Chapel more than 1,200 nonperishable food and hygiene items that gym members collected for Love Chapel.
What’s more, coaches at the gym challenged themselves to do a “burpee” exercise for every item collected. They’ll make good on that promise this morning, after members, many of whom were traveling for the holidays, come in for a morning workout session.
A burpee exercise involves a full-body, fluid motion process of dropping to the floor, planking, pushing up, then jumping. Given the number of items collected, CrossFit Ripcord coach Zac Holt said it will work out to each coach averaging about 100 to 120 burpees.
“We don’t usually do this kind of volume for something like that,” Holt said of the expected workout. “We call this a chipper … a really high rep count, and we’re just chipping away at it.”
And to help with chipping away, the gym has collected a jar of poker chips, with each chip representing 10 items collected for Love Chapel. Each coach will get a stack of chips, and after every 10 burpees they do, they’ll turn in a chip until their stack is gone. Holt said this will allow the coaches to focus on the exercises without losing count and also provide them a break in a heavy cardio workout.
After today’s events at the gym, the items collected will be delivered to Love Chapel. Holt said he and the gym’s coaches and members have been pleased to be a part of an effort to give back to the community.
And the coaches pushing their limits today also will be participating in an exercise in gratitude, he said.
“We encourage them to do something and push their limits” with the Love Chapel drive as well as their fitness training, Holt said. “They can now put it back on us a little bit.”
