Originally from Big Lake, Minnesota, Joe Gonrowski is fully engulfed in QC, Palmer and OC3! He first earned his master’s in Exercise Physiology from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth before heading south. This future Doctor of Chiropractic is L1 CrossFit certified, a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) AND Precision Nutrition L1 certified. His passion is evident. “All I’ve ever wanted in a job is to help people. I believe in the methodology and really enjoy helping folks take what they do in the gym to improve their lives out of it,” said Coach Joe G.  When he’s ..read more

You’ve heard about her fitness journey having lost 85 pounds and gained the ability to outlift her husband. If not, click here.   You’ve not heard about her love of sewing quilts to the point that she used to have an industrial quilting machine that required its own room.   Now you’re hearing about her becoming one of our amazing cOaCh3s!   From sewing machines to becoming a coaching and fitness machine, we are so excited to have Michelle on Team OC3!               Michelle Hankins: When You Lose 85 Pounds & Outlift Your Husband   ..read more

In the Roddick household, learning to walk was synonymous with learning to run track and wrestle. With two parents who also coached (Mom coached track and cross country and Dad coached wrestling), sports were engrained into the family spirit and culture. We’re thinking that’s what helped John earn a spot on the mat at one of the top Div 2 wrestling schools in the country, St. Cloud State! After three years and two national championship teams, John switched gears and left wrestling to become a nurse, which is also when he began CrossFitting. After graduation, John worked in the neuro ICU at a m ..read more

Meet Coach Cat: Catherine –> Cath –> Cat “Coach Cat is what I go by in the fitness world. I introducted myself as Cath at my first gym and I guess they were too tired from working out to pronounce the h?? It’s stuck ever since!” Cat explained. Mark Beno Photography Born in Naperville, IL, her parents are immigrants from Poland and Ukraine. After getting an Applied Health Sciences degree at Wheaton College, Cat moved to Davenport to embark on a degree at Palmer College of Chiropractic.  Current life: church, chiropractic, CrossFit. Coaching since the age of 18 (23 now), Cat was a f ..read more

We won’t sugarcoat it. CrossFit can be intimidating, especially for newcomers. For some, any gym is intimidating but a CrossFit gym (a.k.a. box) can be especially tough because there are friends and clicks that can make you feel like the lost kid at lunch with nowhere to sit all over again. It’s not intentional. CrossFit is a community-based fitness program so it’s natural to build deep friendships at your chosen box. It’s easy to get wrapped up in it and assume everyone else has their place of belonging, too. After two years, Chrissy Goecke, who came in on our annual 21 days for $21 program ..read more

Meet Zach. One of our youngest, most determined and persistent athletes is now one of our cOaCh3s!! He’s been working hard with us since 2017, which is also how long he’s been working toward becoming a coach. He started out as a high school athlete with big goals in our OC3 Teens class. He joined the OC3 family in January and was voted most improved at our two-year anniversary party in October. By April of 2018, Zach made it into the CrossFit Games Age Group Online Qualifier (AGOQ). Now, he’s putting up 300+ pounds on the daily. In addition to Oly lifts and bar muscle-ups, Zach loves rowing. B ..read more

We were pretty excited to add these two to Team OC3 today! They both took on their first-ever coaching classes…with class! Brandon emulates the Hulk yet is quiet most of the time while Blair is a little more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle but known to be loud and laughing. Please help us welcome a Michigander and a SoCal gal. Learn more about both of them over on our cOaCh3s page! The post Coach Update: Brandon & Blair appeared first on CrossFit OC3 ..read more

Both raised on the SAD diet (Standard American Diet), Chad and Marisa Mansfield had neither working out nor healthy eating on their radars. Now, they are the epitome of living healthy lifestyles and an inspiration to their family and friends!  From 0 to 100: Taking the First Step & Never Stopping At nearly 300 pounds, Chad, a mortgage officer at IHMVCU, was first inspired to get moving by his boss (an ultra-marathon runner) and a coworker (a CrossFitter). His first step was to buy an elliptical machine. He worked out religiously every night for 45 minutes to an hour and lost 70 pounds ..read more

He’s been a fixture in the gym since before we were even open for business. He’s helped out with our Oly lifting classes and is pretty much always willing to lend a helping hand. He helped Team OC3 Black place at the CrossFit Games a couple of times. And the list goes on! Finally, we’re making it official! Welcome, Coach Ben! For now, he’s running the Friday 5a and 6a classes. Just please keep the running to a minimum, okay? Click through to our cOaCh3s page to attempt to figure this guy out! He wants you to know that he really is friendlier than he looks! The post COACH UPDATE: BEN KUEBEL ap ..read more

Welcome Colin Stiefer to Team OC3!! Colin began working out with us as a student at SAU but he’d only found us just before his senior year. We were infected by his personality and great attitude in a short amount of time. Needless to say, we were pretty sad when he left to head back to Crystal Lake to start his engineering career!! Two years later, Colin has made a life decision that health and fitness are his passions! We’re so excited to welcome him back and hope you are, too. Read more about his qualifications here and check out some random facts about him below! Placed 60,000th in the wor ..read more