CrossFit Lead - Gainesville — Attraction in Alachua

Update to my review!

During a time when the world seemed to be falling apart, my fitness-the one constant, reliable activity in my life REMAINED because of the fantastic crew at Lead Fitness. Lead closed their doors BEFORE there was a mandate. Why? Because they care about their members and they care about their community. They made a tough decision to protect their people. We, like everyone else, went to Zoom classes but the difference here- Lead provided custom weighted bags to each member, delivered to their door, and all quarantine programming was done around this custom piece of equipment!! This was CLUTCH for those that didn’t have any equipment at home. And the moment we were able to come back, Lead had safe, sanitizing procedures put in place, mandatory masking upon entry and exit, hand washing before and after workouts and social distancing by creating walking lanes and individual workout boxes to ensure 6 feet distance. I am amazed and proud of the effort by the coaches and staff at Lead to protect us and to keep us safe but also making it a priority to keep us FIT! Our health and fitness is more important now than ever and if you want to take control of yours, Lead is the place.

Original Review: Lead Fitness is a top notch gym with an amazing community and a caring staff! The facility is clean with ample equipment, has air-conditioning (which is clutch during Florida summers) and the coaches do an exceptional job making sure ALL members get in a great workout, no matter what the fitness or experience level is. Lead Fitness uses the Level Method which gives coaches and athletes personalized scaling options and safety precautions with modifications that are easily standardized. It is truly a game changer. Instead of walking up to the board and trying to figure out how to scale a WOD, Lead Fitness assigns scaling based on YOUR level, which ensures that everyone in the class gets a good workout, finishes around the same time, and most of all has FUN! There is also excellent group mobility and warm-ups to start and end classes, programmed accessory work after class, open gym almost every day of the week, and some of the best instruction on technique I’ve ever had. It is refreshing to have a team of coaches who truly enjoy working together and that care so much about the work they do and the community they LEAD. The quality of coaching and workouts are top notch and definitely designed to get you FITTER! I love the staff and community here at Lead and feel honored to be a part of this group of first...

Something I love about Lead Fitness is its inclusivity. When I started at Lead about 9 months ago, I was in arguably the worst shape of my life, very unfamiliar with many of the movements and exercises we were doing each day, and I had very little experience in a "group workout" setting. It's easy to feel intimidated in situations like that, but Caleb and the rest of the coaches at Lead truly care about every individual's experience. They take the time to answer questions, suggest a range of options for each workout to conform to different levels of ability, and in many cases have even worked with me individually to teach me new exercises that I had never done before. You will never feel out of place at Lead.

That being said, Lead's response to the significant changes in our lives and routines caused by COVID-19 is really what made me realize how fortunate I am to be a member. They immediately started offering virtual "group workouts" via Zoom, which was great, but they also went beyond that. As a person living alone and working from home, being in quarantine and not seeing another person face to face for long periods of time was very difficult at times. Lead offered near daily virtual social gatherings, I had coaches regularly checking in to see how I was doing, and it was obvious that they cared about me as a person, and not just a customer of their business. As we've gotten back to working out in person, they have done everything right in terms of keeping equipment clean, keeping classes small to allow for appropriate distance between athletes, and doing everything else within their power to keep the gym a safe, healthy environment for us to work out in. I would absolutely, without hesitation, recommend Lead Fitness to...

Unhappy with my previous workout routine, and coming off injury after injury because of poor technique and an over-the-top "training plan" (self-devised), I decided to give Crossfit Lead a chance. That was earlier in the year. Since then, not only did Caleb take the time to help me develop a smarter and more functional training plan, but he also patiently (and still does) worked with my technique and goal of becoming a better Oly lifter. With Crossfit boxes popping up daily, it's hard to pick the good apples from the bad. Lead is a prime example of a great and supportive training environment/facility, with functional and extremely well-thought programming. Since working with Caleb and Jessie, my lifts have sky-rocketed; every single one of them. It's hard to leave Lead unsatisfied, whether it be from knowing you have an awesome support system, or knowing that you just nailed your first muscle up because the coaches catered to YOUR learning style, or because you just added 25# to your front squat in just 4 months! Patience, knowledge and community were what I was looking for, and that's exactly what I found. You'd be silly not to check this place...