Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Beer City Crossfit, which opened in Asheville in August 2015, has found a new home in a West Asheville business park. The gym, known as a “box” in Crossfit lingo, is tucked away at the back of the Westside Industrial Park off Emma Road.
Owners Abby and Jeremy McDonnell and Juliet and Josh Ice plan to celebrate with an open house event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 18 at the gym, located at 70 Westside Drive. The event will include sports nutrition info, professional massage, kid-friendly events, music, food and more.
The Crossfit name brings with it a regimen that mixes high-intensity workouts with Olympic weightlifting moves. The name can also be intimating to some, but Abby McDonnell says anyone who’s interested shouldn’t be intimidated.
“I know people can be worried about being thrown in with the lions with Crossfit, but that’s not the way we do things. We have a fundamentals class, and once you progress through that, you move to the next level,” she says. “We don’t just throw you in.” 
McDonnell, who grew up in Arizona, says she got hooked on Crossfit after meeting her husband, who at the time was an Air Force Special Operations pararescue specialist. (Jeremy was also a member of the University of Tennessee’s Swimming and Diving Team from 1998-02.)
He honed his training workouts, and the two moved on from Arizona to open South Charlotte Crossfit in 2010. As the couple grew that business, they decided to open a second box in Knoxville in 2014.
Still looking for just the right spot to land and raise a family, the two grabbed an opportunity to open another gym in Asheville in August 2015. “Everybody wants to be in Asheville. We love it,” Abby McDonnel says.
The first Beer City Crossfit location, inside Asheville Community Movement’s building on Riverside Drive, still wasn’t ideal, so the two made the move to the west side of town three weeks ago.
“It’s private. We have a ton of space and parking. We really like it here,” she says.
Beer City Crossfit is a “strength-based box, with Level 1 and Level 2 programming” and an Olympic weightlifting course that’s required to progress, she says. Classes are held weekdays at 6 a.m., noon, 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. There’s a 10 a.m. Saturday non-technical class, meaning there are no barbell movements. (There’s a 9 a.m. barbell club on Saturdays.)
The first workout is always free, and McDonnell (who is also a coach) encourages anyone who is interested to come check them out.
“We like to say that we’re more than a gym. We’re a community,” McDonnell says. “We laugh and we sweat and we cry together.”
Check out the Facebook event page for more information on the Beer City Crossfit community open house event, set for June 18.
Correction: The original version of this story made an error of omission by not noting that Beer City Crossfit has a four-person ownership team: Abby and Jeremy McDonnell and Juliet and Josh Ice.
I LOVE BCCF! I had been doing CF for almost three years when I started at Beer City and I’m so happy I did. I’ve made huge improvements in my technique and strength all because of Jeremy’s programming. Abby, Jeremy and all the coaches are down to earth, knowledgeable, and encouraging and there’s just an overall good vibe. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of experience or ability.