After 10 years as a gym owner, my mission has changed.
When I opened CrossFit Torque in 2010, my mission was simple: do something bigger than myself.
As we evolved, my mission was adopted by a team and became more complex. We wanted to introduce real fitness to Foxboro. We wanted to be counterculture. We wanted to stomp out the myths around fat loss, performance and health. Our mission, for a while, was hard to iterate.
But my friend Jay put it like this:
“If you care about somebody, you have to care about their health. And if you care about their health, you have to care about the community around them.”
So we built a caring, supportive community. We planted seeds and cut back the brambles and grew in a hundred different directions. It’s been amazing. But if you ask any member of the Torque family, “What’s Torque?” you’ll get a different answer. So here it is, the Torque Health & Fitness mission, 2020 edition:
The Torque Health & Fitness mission is to enlarge the lives of 5,000 people in Foxboro and the surrounding towns. We envision being the place where people discover their true potential through physical fitness, sustainable nutrition habits, and mental clarity.
I care about this town. I grew up in the next town over, a ‘rival’ town, but came here because that’s where my Father’s small business was located.
When I opened my own gym, I chose the name CrossFit Torque and the adopted the slogan “Training Elite Fitness,” because that’s what a gym does, it encourages the highest level of Fitness. I don’t have to bring every single resident in Foxboro to fitness and health to succeed. Because Foxboro is a great big small town, with one degree of separation, we can change the city by enlarging the lives of 1,000 citizens. They, in turn, can ask their friends to go for a walk, or share their salad and meat for lunch. We can be the town’s catalyst for health.
Now our tagline is “Train for Life” under an updated name of “Torque Health & Fitness”, because we are about more than just fitness.
You may ask why “enlarge” in our mission? Because our brand of fitness is more than life-extending; it’s life-broadening.
If you cut out processed carbs and sugar and start doing squats, deadlifts and presses, you’ll live longer. But you’ll also live better. You’ll stay independent to an older age. You’ll have strength and mobility and the will to live right up until the end—you’ll practically be your own pallbearer.
You’ll be younger for longer. And while you’re young, you’ll do more things.
You’ll Spartan Up. You’ll play more hockey. You’ll ride your bike 100 km to raise money for people who won’t. You’ll get down on the floor with the kids, up on your feet to dance and over the walls of diabetes and depression. You will go, you will see, and you will conquer. You will live a larger life.
The Torque mission is to enlarge the lives of 5,000 people in Foxboro and the surrounding towns. What’s yours?
-Amanda & Sara Chace
#TorqueNation #TorqueHealthAndFitness #TrainForLife #TorqueCommunity
Inspiration provided by our friend and mentor Chris Cooper at Catalystgym.com.