Celebrating Five Years of Sobriety, Jeremy Plummer Returns Home to “Smash the Stigma” of Addiction
Five years ago, Jeremy Plummer got sober. To commemorate this milestone, the now CrossFit L1-certified coach and founder of the recovery-centered organization, Recovery through Repetition, is returning to the first-ever gym he attended, CrossFit Top Fuel in Crown Point, IN, to hold a community event focused on the connection between fitness and sobriety.
His story: 10 years ago, Plummer attended his first CrossFit class. It was something he and his sister – a nurse Morning Chalk Up met in 2020 when she was working to prove that fitness is an effective tool for sobriety – tried to get him out of the addiction rut. But, Plummer said, he was an active addict at the time. CrossFit “didn’t take.”
Six months into his sobriety, Plummer made his way back to the sport. He found a home at CrossFit Dimensions in Florida, where he says the “community rallied around” him; the owner of that gym elected to pay for his L1 certification.
- “There’s no denying that CrossFit has had and still has a big influence and impact on my life. [Top Fuel] was my first intro to CrossFit. It set the tone, planted the seed for what was to come,” Plummer said.
Now, Plummer works at FTX Wellness in Florida, where he created Recovery through Repetition. The organization is on a mission to “connect those in the recovery community through a shared passion for fitness, fellowship, and service.” They offer donation-based yoga and fitness classes to anyone while creating a “safe, supportive environment for those affected by addiction.”
- Recovery through Repetition uses class funds and donations to pay for professional certifications – personal training, yoga, and more – of individuals with a year or more of recovery.
- The organization, started at the beginning of 2020, has already paid for six different certifications, five in personal training and one in yoga.
The event: Plummer’s celebration event will be held on September 25, two days before his official sobriety date in 2016, September 27. Dustin Shurlow, the owner of CrossFit Top Fuel, plans to program a workout with simple movements, using the significant dates from Plummer’s sobriety: five five-minute workouts on a 9-27-16 rep scheme.
Though the workout is a centerpiece of Plummer’s sobriety celebration, the event goes beyond just getting a sweat on. Not only are Plummer and his sister returning to the first box they went to, but also their hometown, a town Plummer says is “struggling in the addiction and alcoholism space” and is “in need of someone to come and shed light on what’s possible and available to them.”
- “We’re going to go back and have a fitness event,” Plummer said,”[But] I’ll tell a bit about my story and [my sister] will tell her side of things from a family perspective because the families struggle too, not just the addict or alcoholic.”
- “We’ll give both sides and offer resources in case they or someone in their family is struggling,” he said, before doing a workout to “shine a light on what CrossFit has to offer people from a community aspect.”
The bottom line: Plummer expects this homecoming to be an emotional experience and hopes the event helps “smash the stigma” around addiction.
- “I was a three-sport athlete in high school, and then everyone just had to watch me fall apart after graduating and the years after that,” he said.
- “I always had everything that I needed, [and]I ended up in that same headspace where I’m homeless and hadn’t bathed or showered or brushed my teeth in weeks.”
He added, “Everyone has a story of where how [addiction] started and why it started. Knowing what I know now, I think that sharing that information with people will soften them.”