Jonathan Pingel, owner of CrossFit Papio describes their gym as a Community or Family of people who love to hang out and share the same passion for exercise. One of the catchphrases indicated on their website says “Your new playground has arrived” Jonathan believes that this catchphrase is true for the people who are a part of CrossFit Papio. Everyone loves to come to the gym and gym time is considered as playtime for adults.
CrossFit Papio, just like all other gyms, conducts competitions, events, get-togethers but what separates them from the rest is their Head Trainer. She was a division 1 gymnast at Nebraska and coached gymnastics before coming to CrossFit Papio. Because of this, they have some of the best technically sound gymnastics movements. They also try to incorporate gymnastics components in every workout. They have Stall bars in their gym and two 8ft by 25ft gymnastics floor mats to practice tumbling, handstand walks, rolls.
The biggest mistake he sees other people make when they exercise is moving with a bad form which is by far the most dangerous thing anyone can do as an athlete. They have a beginners boot camp punch card at CrossFit Papio that lasts up to 18 sessions. In the 18 one hour classes the new athletes get to learn all the movements they do in the gym and get to practice them in a progression to make sure they move correctly and get accoladed to the rigors of a CrossFit workout over a span of 6 weeks.
When asked about the mistakes he notices other gyms commit, Jonathan responded “I think we are very lucky in that all the CrossFit gyms in the Omaha metro are awesome and have a good reputation in the community. I really don’t see any big mistakes with other gyms. One thing that I have seen while dropping in to CrossFit gyms while traveling was a poor lack of warm-up and instructions. I dropped into a gym in Dallas that just had the workout on the board for the day and the trainer just explained the workout at the beginning and then did nothing else but say good job when I was done.”
At CrossFit Papio they train their athletes for the full hour even if the workout is only 8 minutes long. The trainers at their gym will be warming their athletes up, go over technique and strategy for the remaining 52 minutes.
Because kids can workout too!
Jonathan also shared with me that the wild idea of opening CrossFit Papio came up while he was sitting at his daughter's’ gymnastics class. He thought of opening up a CrossFit gym in the building that was for lease just down the road. He couldn’t find time to workout at his old CrossFit gym because he works from 8:00 AM to 3:45 PM as a middle school art teacher, then he picks up his girls from school and takes them to dance and gymnastics to which lasts for several hours until evening. So there! He opened up their gym and that’s what they do from then on now. He drops off Maddie at gymnastics and then just go to his gym and workout instead of just sitting around for a couple hours.
Their gym is full of families. Kids can always be seen and they even have a second story deck where the kids can watch TV or play while the parents are down below working out. What a nice place to be, right? Go check them out!
CrossFit Papio