When Amber Leonard stumbled across Athena Perez’s story, she was inspired to start a program for those suffering from obesity and Type 2 diabetes at her gym, Geaux CrossFit, in Baton Rouge, LA.
Remind me: Perez owns Scaled Nation CrossFit, which educates coaches on working with larger-bodied athletes. She’s also the author of Lifting the Wait, a book that details her long struggle with being overweight.
- Leonard became inspired when she started following Perez’s recent journey working with CrossFit Youtuber Andrew Hiller, who became Perez’s fitness coach in January 2024. Perez documented her very emotional journey — dubbed “My Hiller Challenge” — with the Morning Chalk Up.
Leonard is from Louisiana, where obesity and Type 2 diabetes rates are some of the highest in the country. According to the American Diabetes Association, 13.8% of the state’s population has diabetes, while 40.1% are obese. This gave Leonard some extra motivation to do something.
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The Result
Geaux CrossFit is currently accepting applications for the “Geaux Transformations Program.”
- Once all the applications have been received, the gym will provide three individuals with a free six-month membership. These recipients will be individuals who are contemplating weight loss surgery or who have recently undergone the procedure.
- The individuals will be teamed up with two accountability coaches starting at the end of October and will begin attending CrossFit classes three times a week.
- Geaux CrossFit is also teaming up with a Registered Dietician to help them with nutrition.
One Big Thing
Before launching this initiative, Leonard and her coaches did Scaled Nation’s Seminar with Perez to educate themselves about best practices for working with larger-bodied people.
- “I realized we really needed training to make sure we understood the struggles and the things that might come up with this demographic,” Leonard explained.
The seminar brought to light some things that might never have occurred to Leonard and her coaches, such as ensuring that they have chairs without arms available at their gym and that they look into any equipment they have with weight limitations.
Perez also dove into sensitivity training and “understanding the words you’re using and how they might be triggering,” Leonard explained.
Ultimately, working with Perez gave the Geaux CrossFit team “the tools to feel confident moving forward,” Leonard added.
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The Big Picture
The short-term goal is to help these three individuals make progress with their fitness goals, but the long-term goal is for Geaux CrossFit to become the place to go for larger-bodied people looking to reclaim their health.
- “One of our biggest goals at Geaux is to represent overlooked populations, and we want everyone to feel welcome. We want people to open up the doors and feel this place is for them,” Leonard said. “We want to become the place to go for larger-bodied athletes.”
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Featured image: @geauxcrossfit / Instagram
