Dawson CrossFit

Dawson CrossFit Family friendly fitness business

By Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com

When a veteran and fitness buff decides to open up a gym for CrossFit, a workout specifically designed for highintensity workouts, some might assume that it would end up with environment too intense for just anyone to be a part of.

But over the past seven years, Chip and Lynn Sweatte, owners of Dawson CrossFit in Dawsonville, have worked hard to build their local business into an accessible, family friendly space, where anyone can learn to be fit.

“I’m very humbled,” Chip Sweatte said. “It’s quite an honor. We all have the same mentality of it being a blessing that we get to provide a service where we can make the members and the community as healthy as possible both mentally and physically. We are blessed every day that we get to open the doors.”

Seven years ago, Sweatte’s doctor encouraged him to get into a more intense workout after discovering his blood pressure was running high.

Chip Sweatte speaks of his journey to start Dawson CrossFit and how his staff worked through the COVID-19 quarantine.

A friend brought him to Dahlonega CrossFit to try it out, and the rest is history.

Sweatte said that aside from the ‘grace of God,’ his staff is what makes the Dawson CrossFit a home for so many Dawsonville community members.

“That’s our big secret,” Sweatte said. “Our coaches are so phenomenal. It’s a larger staff than you would normally expect to see, but they’re phenomenal young men and women that have other jobs. They do this one because they love the community, CrossFit, and the results that they’re helping provide our community members.”

Sweatte is one of 16 coaches at Dawson CrossFit and said the entire coaching team has pitched in on the Zoom classes that the gym has started offering during the quarantine period of the COVID-19 outbreak. Members of the gym can continue to interact with their coach at home and ask them questions about the workout.

The gym’s head coach, Luke Syfert, also films a warmup and a CrossFit workout of the day. This pre-recorded workout is open to the public for anybody to try out, whether you’re one of the gyms’s 70-year-old members or a 6-yearold participating in the kid’s workout.

“CrossFit is for everybody,” Sweatte said. “That’s one of the big fallacies that people have. I’ve got to get in shape before I get into CrossFit. That’s not true at all.”

Sweatte said that during the COVID-19 outbreak, the gym would not have been able to continue functioning without support from the community.

“It’s not just the physical health of everybody that we’re looking but it’s the mental health that happens right here in the lobby,” Sweatte said. “People work out, but then they’ll stand around and socialize. It truly is the best hour because people can forget about whatever they want to forget about and enjoy their CrossFit family, which sometimes is their actual family.”

Sweatte said the entire staff worked hard to get the word out about CrossFit when they first decided to open the gym. Once popularity surrounded around CrossFit grew globally, more people would

stop by the gym and notice how loving their coaches were.

“We try to learn what motivates every person that comes into the gym,” Sweatte said. “Some people like to be encouraged, others don’t like to be looked at and some stand in the corner and wave their hands until you notice them. Once we learn that, we try to implement that.”

Sweatte said he knows that loving one’s neighbor is a common theme in Dawsonville.

“All you gotta do is walk outside and see the community,” Sweatte said. “People want to help people. This is still a community where when you drive down the road, people will stick their hand out the window and say hey as you drive by. Everybody just looks to help everybody.”

As for the future of Dawson CrossFit, Sweatte said his staff is not afraid to get as creative as possible to provide the service that the gym is so passionate about.

“We are going to continue to try and evolve for as long as we have this situation going on different ways that we can get involved with the community different things that they can do to stay active and healthy,” Sweatte said.

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Through his kettle bell exercises, Sweatte shows that you have to love your business to be in business.

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