Our Story
To celebrate our 6 year anniversary,
we’re taking a trip down memory lane:
November 2016
In November 2016, we began training athletes at the Balneario de Rincón. We borrowed equipment from good friends, bought the rusty dumbbells we could afford, and got CREATIVE with every workout!
Vanessa and her friends never missed a day!
Chelsea and Evan, power couple! They're now a healthy and beautiful family of 3!
Coach Reese demonstrating the medicine ball squat clean. We lost this medicine ball a few weeks after that...
Meet Nico! His mom and dad were two of our very first clients. Nico never missed a workout!
Deborah and Josue also joined our community on day 1! Today they are a beautiful family of 3!
Did we mention we had to get CREATIVE?! Just because we didn't have a bar, or a rack, didn't mean we couldn't squat :)
Fabi and Nina (who didn't like the sand one bit!) yet still made it to our beach workouts! Fabi (right) would later be the person who designed our very first shirt!
What's harder than burpees? Burpees over an obstacle, covered in sand! Lissy made it look easy though!
Little by little our community continued to grow. Saturdays became "Social Saturdays", were the whole family could come train with us at the beach
Forget the barbell, we did team thrusters with a log!
What a fit crew!
Kids classes began at sunset.
The kids got to jump, crawl, climb, you name it!
Our young athletes helped us take attendance!
December 2016
December 2016 came along and we ditched the sand. RFC began hosting classes under a tent, using a shipping container for storage and a 400 sq. ft. area in the Plaza Vista Mar parking lot.
Diane visited us almost every year! She has been part of our journey, and we have watched her become an exceptional athlete!
Coach Reese teaching our athletes the "clean"
Colin and Luis taking a break after what (probably was) a killer workout
...we still have that tiny whiteboard! Our desk consisted of a few cinder blocks...
Little by little we were able to purchase a few pieces of equipment (back when Amazon shipped heavy items to PR....)
Vanessa, Lissy, Hope and Jasmine, the 8am crew!
Peewee (Nico's dad) showed up every single day!
Meet Jorge! He was there from day 1! Today he is one of our instructors, and has lost over 50lbs since this picture was taken!
Hi, Peewee!
Part of our crew! We didn't all fit under the tent, but we made it work.
Social distancing? There was no such thing...
Coach Blake made us a pair of rings out of PVC. They worked great!
Sifu Jorge Castillo!
This is when we realized we needed more space....and a stronger roof!
March 2017
The tent no longer kept us dry from the rain, so we began working on our new facility: a 1,200 sq. ft. studio in Rincon Shopping Center.
By late February, we hosted our first indoor classes!
Hope, Mitch, Cassandra, Alejandro and Kjartan were the ones who built our homemade rig! We couldn't have done it without them!
Angels that the universe put in our path! This fit couple were in Rincón on vacation, and helped us build the gym!
Our facility started coming together!
Chikako, owner of Rincon Paddle Boards. We love working with her amazing team!
Classes quickly began to fill up. It was a good problem to have!
Meet Jackie! She loves pizza and squats! Today, she still loves pizza and heavy squat day!
Our afternoon crew! Nico definitely needed a nap after that workout...
WOW! We are grateful for this group of people, who we still get to train every single day!
Hi Marcos! Marcos is a phenomenal athlete and now a coach in South Florida. He visits PR every so often!
Our first shirts, designed and printed by Fabi!
This was during our first In-House Competition, which was organized to raise funds for Peewee. He was in a car accident and we helped him get through these tough times!
Colin and Nina during an Open workout
Betsy and Nico! Betsy moved to San Juan, but she was one of our first clients! Come back to the West side Betsy!
Coach Elvin joins the crew! Five years later, he is still part of our staff, and now has a beautiful family of 4!
This rig is STILL up at our gym (now painted black).
September 2017
RFC was picking up speed! And then, just one week after we signed a lease to expand our facility, Hurricane Maria hit. Our gym closed down for almost 6 weeks.
One of the things we admire the most about people from the island is their RESILIENCE! NOTHING will ever bring them down!
Last picture before we locked up for what would become the longest weeks of our lives.
Once we were able to reopen, we offered classes while it was light out since we didn't have electricity.
We applied our fitness at various beach clean-up events in town.
Our community came together and helped each other through these difficult times. We collected donations from all over the US!
Coach Reese is passionate about programming. We walked around town during the day, finding places to charge our computers.
Vivianne (Centro La Paz) and Fernandito organized so many brigades around the island. With their help we were able to deliver food and supplies around the west coast!
Coach Reese and coach Elvin helping clear up the Domes trails.
The Mayaguez Zoo needed lots of cleaning up!
The plaza of Rincón is were people met to collect water, batteries and other supplies. Rincon Beer Company received, organized and gave out a lot of donations!
November 2017
With hard work, perseverance, and the incredible support of our community, we came back stronger than ever. We moved our facility to a space twice as big, with 2,400 sq. ft.
Saturdays were perfect for outdoor workouts!
The 6am crew learning the snatch
Coach Reese coaching a class through push presses
Coach Gabby joins our team!
Jeremmie, owner of Rincon Beer Company
Coach Gabby and Erika training.
Suzanne, Hope, Sabrina, Yazmine, Chelsea and Evan!
Peewee, coach Reese and coach Valen
Our new shirts! "Más Fuertes Juntos", or "Stronger Together!"
Nico showing off his muscles!
Part of the 6pm crew! Omayra (Nico's mom), Nina and Deborah
Fit Kids became one of our most popular programs!
Rocco joins the RFC family! (insert puppy emoji here!)
Frankie, who is in various pictures, helped us build our gym. He is an engineer/contractor/superhero!
Suzanne's family has been with us since day 1! Miguel and Stephanie (now a family of 3) were also there from the begining.
Our facility was, yet again, beginning to feel too small for our athletes!
Frankie and Rocco setting up our new sign (which....we still have today!)
March 2018
In March 2018 our dream to join the CrossFit Affiliate family finally came true. CrossFit Rincón is officially established, and the town of Rincón gets the "CrossFit Bug!"
Part of the CrossFit Rincón crew! This was the day we surprised them with the CrossFit Affiliate news!
Coach Elvin enjoying (or maybe suffering through) an outdoor wod!
Our first time doing "Murph" on Memorial Day
Hi Alex!! Alex is a freediving instructor, runner, climber, he does it all!
January 2019
By early 2019 we no longer fit in our facility! So we decide to do something CRAZY. We knocked down a wall and gained another 1,200 sq.ft.
THE MADNESS! It took 3 days and A LOT of people to knock down the wall and clean up all the dust!
Peewee, Josue, Nina and coach Reese!
We got the job done JUST IN TIME for our first CrossFit Open as an Affiliate!
Soto and Nicole getting through the lunges!
Coach Elvin and Tomas
Coach Reese (left) and coach Valentina (right)
Our FIRST official Open in the books! Life was GREAT, our business was thriving, and then...
March 2020
COVID. We cried, we cursed, we cried again. Our business shut down for almost 6 months. We did everything we could to stay afloat, although at times it seemed like the only thing left to do was sell everything and shut down the business. But, we kept going!
We sent our members a Zoom link and started hosting "Coffee dates" online. We got to chat and check on each other during quarantine.
The "marquesina" became our new gym!
After a few weeks of lockdown, coach Reese began to offer outdoor personal training
Chris joining our at-home workouts!
Our community was stronger than a pandemic! We immediately began sending at-home workouts via email, and our members sent us their workout scores every single day. THAT kept us going!
Yazmin doing wall-balls outside
Colin getting some barbell work in
In September 2020, we reopened at 30% max capacity and with strict protocols.
March 2022
Fast-forward to March 10th, 2022. Our community stands STRONG. RESILIENT. HEALTHY. We are beyond grateful to CELEBRATE the POWER of our HEALTH and the MAGIC of our COMMUNITY!
Luis (Tomas' brother) finishing Open workout 22.3, and coach Gabby, Reese and Valentina cheering him on!
We can't explain how amazing it felt to see everyone back at the gym!
Nadia, Juan and Juanito!
Part of our crew!
Peewee and Nico! It has been amazing to watch him grow through the years!
Part of the 6am crew with coach Shelby
Alejandro proudly holding the Puerto Rican flag
Marangely and the girls cheering her on while she gets her first set of pull-ups!
Julie! She loves rowing...
Geoffrey, who never misses a day!
Part of our 5pm crew learning the snatch
Coach Reese showing off her new haircut!
Coach Shelby rocking our "00677" shirt
Carlos and his grandkids Inti and Anuk (sons of Vivianne and Ricardo, from Centro la Paz!)
Nico and Peewee
Miguel with his beautiful family!
March 2023
March 2023, we celebrate the 6th year anniversary of Rincon Fitness Center, 5th year CrossFit affiliate anniversary, and our BIGGEST CROSSFIT OPEN yet! Over 90 athletes enrolled to make this a NEW RECORD at CrossFit Rincón. Congratulations athletes!
Coach Reese AKA Deejay Reese hosting the Open workouts
Young Magnus looks up to his dad, Miles!
Rita's family came to support her during her first Open! Three generations in one picture
It turns out it’s true: couples who do CrossFit together, do, in fact, stay together🫶🏼 We recently celebrated our biggest “life PR” yet and want to say THANK YOU to our community for being supportive, respectful, and inclusive since day one. We hope that, all fitness goals aside, we can inspire you daily to dream without fears and love without limits -Coach Reese and Valen
Whether you joined RFC back in 2016,
dropped-in during your vacation, purchased a shirt, or simply liked one of our social media posts,
we thank you!
You supported our small business, our VISION, our dream, and you helped make it a REALITY.
Although a lot has changed, one thing remains the same:
OUR COMMUNITY IS THE FOUNDATION of our gym.
Without them, we wouldn’t be here today.
Thank you for believing in us and being part of Rincón Fitness Center!