About Us

CrossFit 5 Flags

email:
service@crossfitfiveflags.com

phone: (850) 572-6879

address:
4115 Warehouse Lane
Pensacola, Florida 32505

Our Staff

Chad Beck, Co-Owner, CF Level 1 Trainer

Email Chad: chadbeck@crossfitfiveflags.com

Chad Beck is a CrossFit Level 1 Certified Trainer with seven years of experience coaching athletes and clients from all walks of life. He has been training in martial arts since his youth and has experience in gymnastics, track & field, and weightlifting. His passion for fitness and human movement has made him into an excellent coach and he works very closely with his athletes/clients to ensure their success. Competitive martial artists, strongman athletes, fire fighters, soccer moms, and senior citizens have benefited tremendously from his coaching and his drive and commitment to his athletes/clients continually make him a better coach. Chad describes his experience before and after CrossFit below:

My athletic background started with martial arts when I was about seven years old. I have been fortunate to train with many excellent instructors from various styles of martial arts, including Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do, Arnis, Shotokan Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Capoeria, Aikido, Iaijutsu, Naginata Do, Kendo, and Judo. This background has always kept me open to general preparedness program (GPP) training in addition to sports-specific training because of the need to be fit to perform well in these styles. I also added track workouts and weightlifting to my workouts after exposure to it in high school.

Shortly after starting college, I took a job as a floor trainer at a “globo gym.”  Along with some useful techniques I witnessed some strange stuff and after about six months I decided to get certified and become a full-time trainer. The association through which I was first certified was, and still is, a joke in my opinion. Their measures of fitness are poor at best and I always felt that there was something missing. I kept asking myself, "Why is this training style the norm, when I got so much fitter doing things at the dojo or in my garage?" For a couple years I researched different training protocols and shared the useful ones with my clients. These additions helped my clients and me but only marginally.  I still felt there was really something missing.

Then I came across crossfit.com. I believe the first video I saw was one of Coach Glassman talking to a group of CrossFitters about “capacity at random tasks” (CrossFit Journal, The First CrossFit Cert, December 2008). This is when the light bulb went off in my head. I started looking at all the information on the site, reading all the journal articles I could, watching every video (over and over sometimes!) until I felt I could do the workouts of the day (WODs) effectively. My experience with CrossFit has been amazing! I began seeing, and continue to see, results in my clients and myself that I never thought possible. Working at the globo gym became annoying after starting CrossFit due to the lack of proper equipment, gym policies, and having to constantly defend the CrossFit style of training in comparison to body building for “physique” and long, slow distance training/cardio for “health” and “fat burning.” I began training clients in my garage gym and trained them exclusively using the CrossFit WODs. I eventually expanded to a 1,000 square foot space with little equipment, but more people kept coming. In January of 2009, Kristie joined me as my business partner and her investment allowed us to expand our equipment and in April 2009, we attended a CrossFit Level 1 Certification and became even more addicted. After attending the certification I came back with even more passion for what I was doing. I applied myself harder and I figure I must be doing something right because people are getting fitter, having fun with it, and in October, we upgraded again into a 2,000 sq ft space. We would love to have you and your friends, family, co-workers, etc, join us as well!  As long as people want to work out here, we’ll keep expanding to accommodate them.

 

Kristie Willhoit, Co-Owner, CF Level 1 Trainer

Email Kristie: kristie@crossfitfiveflags.com

Kristie Willhoit is a CrossFit Level 1 Certified Trainer and a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. She has a Master's degree in Exercise Science and has been a personal trainer since 2001.  She has been a life-long athlete, competing recreationally in swimming, running, triathlon, and volleyball.  She taught nutrition and personal health at the university level and keeps her knowledge up-to-date with current research.  Kristie also has experience working with injured individuals from working under the direction of a physical therapist and chiropractors. Her experience in training, competing, rehab, and teaching make her a well-rounded coach who can train a diverse population. Kristie explains:

My first official CrossFit workout was run 400 meters plus 50 air squats, for 4 rounds. I remember it was July, it was hot, I was sweating buckets on my garage floor, and I thought “Holy crap, I am NOT in shape. How could my definition of fitness be so wrong all these years?” But I wasn’t convinced I had been.  So the next workout I tackled was Helen: Run 400 meters, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pull-ups, for 3 rounds.  “I’m supposed to be able to do 12 – wait, 36 – pull-ups?? I haven’t done one since the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in middle school!”  It was official.  I wasn’t actually fit.  But once I started doing the CrossFit workouts, it didn’t take long until that improved – immensely – and then some.

To me, CrossFit means the ability to achieve optimal wellness and not just the absence of disease.  It is the ability to break past the barriers that you perceive that you have to the realization that you can do a lot that you think that you can't.  It is a mental transformation that can make the timid, the insecure, the self-defeating into assertive, confident leaders.  It can take the diabetic, the hypertensive, the hyerlipidemic, and otherwise diseased and get them off their medications to live life without limitations. CrossFit forces you to understand what it means to be accountable, and not just in the gym where others can witness what you're doing, but also in every other aspect of your life.  I became a certified CrossFit trainer and joined Chad to open CrossFit Five Flags because I wanted to have the opportunity to educate others so that they can make these changes.  I grew up a timid, shy, insecure girl and grew into an assertive, outgoing person through sports, but CrossFit is what gave me real confidence to realize my true potential.  Running a CrossFit affiliate provides me the opportunity to transform others' lives in the way that mine has been.

 

Josh Thomson, CF Level 1 Trainer

Email Josh : jthomson@crossfitfiveflags.com

Other than a few stints in martial arts, Josh's background as an athlete was limited to short ventures into soccer and baseball, and extensive playground time.  After years of no real exercise or formal training, CF5F Co-Owner Chad Beck introduced him to CrossFit. Josh's first CrossFit workout was an attempt at "Angie". At the time he was doing jumping pull-ups, full push-ups, and squatting to above 90 degrees. He finished half the workout in 20 minutes and could not go any further. He decided then that he was not where he wanted to be and began changing what he did not like. Josh found that there was not much about his personal fitness that he did like and began trying all sorts of different exercises. Unfortunately, he was unable to work out at CrossFit at that time because of school. After trying the “typical” strength-building routines, Josh returned to CrossFit with Chad and Co-Owner Kristie Willhoit. He found a proverbial second family and an immense passion for fitness within the CrossFit community that allowed him to improve all aspects of his personal fitness. While working out at CrossFit Five Flags, Josh was offered a position to intern. He jumped at the chance and approximately a year later, he obtained his CrossFit Level 1 Certification. Josh is now at the gym as often as possible training himself and coaching others. You can usually find him hanging from something, jumping over something, or trying something new and odd.