Andrea Sellers Moves Jefferson City CrossFit to a Bigger Gym Where an 84-Year-Old Still Squats

• Jefferson City CrossFit, a Missouri gym featured in the Jefferson City News Tribune, has moved from 728A Heisinger Road to a larger building at 1327 Missouri 179 with two open rooms and three big garage doors.
• Every class on a given day follows the same workout, scaled to each member’s level, and a vitality class serves adults ages 65 to 85, with its oldest member at 84.
• Newcomers get two free trial classes, and individual memberships run $95 to $135 a month with a 10 percent discount for military members, first responders, teachers, nurses and students.

The Oldest Member of This Missouri CrossFit Class Is 84 and Still Squatting

“The oldest member in that class is 84 and he’s still doing air squats,” Andrea Sellers said. An air squat is a squat with no added load, typically one of the first movements CrossFit coaches teach to new athletes. The class Sellers describes is the vitality class at Jefferson City CrossFit, built for adults ages 65 to 85.

Sellers is co-owner and coach of the gym, which she runs with her husband, J.C. The two moved the business out of 728A Heisinger Road, its home for the past few years, and into a larger commercial building at 1327 Missouri 179 on the edge of Jefferson City, Missouri. At the gym on Thursday, Oct. 22, Sellers watched Sam Hamm do toes-to-bar.

What the Bigger Building Changes

The new gym is larger and has two open rooms, which gives classes that run at the same time more separation from each other. Taller ceilings in the commercial building open up more opportunity for rope climbing, a popular CrossFit exercise, and three big garage doors improve air circulation and sunlight.

Parents get something new as well. Children who tag along have a small, dedicated lounge with toys and a television, and a fenced-in gravel backyard is open to them if the weather permits. Sellers says the gym intends to add a recovery area in the near future, a spot where members can cool off after class.

Sellers compared the new site with the old one off Missouri Boulevard. “The traffic is much less here,” she said. “So it feels more peaceful and calming, which when you’re going for a workout, you just want a space to escape.” The gym is no longer near Last Flight Brewing Co., which Sellers joked was a popular post-workout hangout. The Mexican restaurant El Espolon is not too far from the new site.

From Founders to Members Who Bought the Gym

Jefferson City CrossFit opened in 2012, founded by Sam and Natalie Casey and Maria and Jake Holee. In 2023 the founders sold it to the Sellers, who were members at the time. The Holees still coach and attend classes.

Today the gym teaches close to 30 classes across six days a week, Monday through Saturday, with Sunday off. On most weekdays the first class starts at 5 a.m. and the last one ends at 7:30 p.m. Some CrossFit owners elsewhere hold on to their communities by adding Hyrox classes alongside the regular schedule.

One Workout, Many Levels

Each day of the week carries its own workout, and every class that day does the same one. Thursday, for example, is burpees and GHD work. GHD stands for glute-ham developer, and the exercise is a harder ab workout. Coaches can scale it down, so members who need an easier version do sit-ups or V-ups instead.

The result is a room with a wide range of experience. A first-timer can land in the same class as someone with 10 years of CrossFit behind them. “While we all have a workout that we’re doing everyday, we have lots of scaling modifications to make it fit any level,” Sellers said. “So everybody gets a great workout, no matter what level they’re at,” she said.

Rachel Collins shows how that plays out. She is new to CrossFit, and on Thursday at the new location she was doing wall balls with an 8-pound ball. A wall ball is a squat followed by a throw: the athlete stands up out of a deep squat and sends the ball to a target, typically 9 to 10 feet high, catches it, and squats again. Collins said she is pleased to have moved up a couple of pounds. Other gyms teach scaling as a skill too. Auburn University students take a CrossFit class for credit at a local box in Alabama and learn to scale as part of it.

What a Vitality Class Looks Like

Most classes at Jefferson City CrossFit are meant for adults, so the gym also runs classes for children and for seniors. The vitality classes cover ages 65 to 85. They use mostly dumbbells and kettlebells, and they run at a different pace with different workouts than the regular schedule. Sellers says members of the class have minor surgeries here and there and recover faster as they stay active and moving.

Vitality is one of several names CrossFit gyms give programs for athletes 55 and older. Others are seniors and legends. Nuno Costa, a CrossFit Level 3 trainer who built a seniors program at Outlier CrossFit, calls these classes a very friendly introduction to CrossFit for an older athlete who might be intimidated by regular group classes. The movements stay the same. The loads sometimes get lighter and the reps sometimes run fewer, and Costa says a seniors program “only differs by degree, not by kind.”

The coaching takes skill. In his classes it is not unusual to have eight to 10 athletes who all have different ailments and injuries, so Costa wants coaches with deep knowledge of scaling and usually advises against handing the class to a new coach. His own program launched online in 2020, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 10 a.m., moved to in-person classes that July, and grew mainly by word of mouth. He suggests other gyms start with two days a week.

Heidi Moody, a Level 3 trainer at CrossFit INVICTUS Boston who started CrossFit at 43, describes what the sessions can look like. Warm-ups run longer and build slowly, and mobility work such as hip openers, shoulder rotations and ankle stretches is “non-negotiable.” A brisk two-minute walk can stand in for a 400-meter run. Athletes who struggle with balance can use a wall or the rig as a railing, or a PVC pipe as a cane. The class can end with a group walk to bring heart rates down.

The point of all that adjustment is daily life. Moody says being able to bend, twist, reach and walk with ease is key to aging well and staying independent. Costa points to the risk of a fall, which can leave an older person wary and less active in everyday life, and says practicing functional movements in a class builds strength and confidence. Recovery is a theme at other gyms too, including a Minot coach’s ACL comeback at a North Dakota CrossFit box.

What It Costs and How to Try It

Newcomers can try Jefferson City CrossFit free with two trial classes. Individual memberships range from $95 to $135 a month, depending on how many classes a week a member takes. Military members, first responders, teachers, nurses and students get 10 percent off, and the gym offers couple and family discounts. Classes run Monday through Saturday.

New athletes also complete an On Ramp course before joining the daily workouts. The gym’s rate page lists it as two 60-minute personal training sessions that teach the basic movements, priced at $99. Once a newcomer is through On Ramp, the daily workout scales to whatever level walks through the door, so a first-timer can share the floor with a member who has trained for 10 years.

Andrea and J.C. Sellers were members when they bought the gym in 2023, and the building they run now has more room than the old one. The Sellers plan to add a recovery area, and the 84-year-old in the vitality class is still doing his air squats.