Crossfit Wave Comes to Parsippany

We're in the midst of a weight-loss and fitness journey, so we can tell you: There are a lot of gyms and fitness centers in Parsippany. Only one, however, offers the Crossfit experience, and that's because this new place has Crossfit in its name: Heroes Journey: Crossfit Lake Parsippany.

The new gym has a question it poses: If health education were working, the American public would be getting thinner and healthier, not the opposite. What's missing?

Gym owner Stephen Silverstein has an answer: "Community-based fitness."

Crossfit seems to be the new wave in fitness. Hailed by many as "revolutionary," it's a new form of fitness being adopted by people of all ages, from NFL football players to kids to the elderly. Crossfit is based on results and offers classroom-based exercises based on functional movements, Olympic-style lifts, gymnastics, and traditional aerobic exercises such as running and rowing.

Musculoskeletal specialist Dr. Christopher Stepien, one of the leaders of the Lake Parsippany gym opening at 5 Eastmans Road, says that with Heroes Journey Crossfit, excuses for getting heavier and sicker are no longer acceptable.

"Whether you've just had surgery on your lower back, are a 70-year-old couch potato or you are 100 pounds overweight, know that there is a fitness community out there that can help you change," he said. "We want the fitness failures, those people who have failed dozens of times at pursuing health and are almost ready to throw the towel in."

If you're not familiar with Heroes Journey Cross Fit, it's because the facility is not yet officially open. That happens Saturday, when the new health center holds its grand opening. The event will include a 10 a.m. workout for the public and then a ribbon cutting and ceremony at 4 p.m. that includes the mayor, music, food and fun.

1. What is your gym's specialty? 

Functional exercises (movements that simulate everyday life) plus a community-oriented setting. [We give] faster RESULTS than anything else out there. 

2. What gives you and your staff the experience to get people to trust you with their weight loss and fitness efforts? And what is your philosophy governing fitness and health? 

Each coach is Crossfit Certified.  I'm Crossfit Level 1 certified, a certified sports and conditioning specialist and a licensed doctor of chiropractic. I oversee all fitness programming and consult with members about injury history and current pains as part of membership.

Any doctor who tells you that you can get healthy without diet and exercise is lying.  Therefore, in order to live the fullest life, one needs to move well and eat right.  The Crossfit community covers both of these health facets.  Exercise includes moving REAL weights.  HJCF strongly endorses the Paleo Diet, or a diet based on the evolutionary biology of Homo sapiens. 

3. There are lots of gyms in and around Parsippany. What makes yours stand out? 

Heroes Journey Crossfit Lake Parsippany is one of the biggest Crossfit gyms in the tri-state area at 12,000 square feet.  It combines highly trained coaches teaching functional movements and different workouts every day in a classroom-based environment.

What makes HJCF stand out? Three things:

a. Fun: People are bored with their workouts. It's not uncommon for Crossfitters tocall their Crossfit gym an "adult playground."
b. Functional Lifting: Individuals think spending 60 minutes a day on the treadmill is going to make them healthier. But those same people are there year after year and never appear to lose any weight and also more likely to land up in my office. When you have them picking weights up off the ground and squatting like they would into a chair, excess weight melts off.
c. A Tribe: Human beings are hunter-gatherers who evolved in tribes. In today's world, the majority of people don't have a community. When you give these people love and support, watch out! Spirits are lifted and fitness results flourish!

4. Many people have great intentions about working out. How does your gym motivate people to follow through on coming in and exercising?

Community drives motivation.  The only motivation people need to get the results they desire is to get their butt in the car and walk through the front door.  Once at the location, the energy of the community motivates people to work out at a relatively intense pace and keep coming back.  People fall in love with the community. 

5. Why Parsippany?

There WAS no Crossfit community in the area of this magnitude.  Now, people no longer have an excuse to ignore their health and fitness goals.  New Year's resolutions fail at an alarmingly high rate—80-90% of those resolutions fail.  It's now March and most people have already given up.  Summer is coming.  We want to change the inspire and empower Parsippany to live their best life.  They have that power to do it, they just don't realize it.