This doctor prescribes fitness

FITNESS | Jacqueline Muhammad

Brian Moore of Springfield is not your typical doctor. Instead of relying solely on medicine, he believes in being physically fit, and teaching patients that fitness is key to health.

At age 54, he is the father of two, co-chair of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine pathology department and a doctor at Memorial Medical Center. He is also coowner of Capital City Crossfit, a specialty gym at 1615 W. Jefferson in Springfield.

Early on in his medical career he noticed a disconnect between the medical field and the world of fitness. “It quickly became apparent to me that medicine is about treating disease and pays very little attention to maintenance of health and even less attention to attainment of fitness,” he said.

He said he sees medicine moving toward encouraging people to live healthy lifestyles more than in the past.

“It’s economics. I think it’s cheaper to take care of healthier people than it is to take care of sick people and, regardless of what the reason is, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We’re trying to focus more on maintenance of health rather than taking care of people who are already sick.”

He always led an active life participating in various sports like martial arts and swimming, but after getting into a routine of using traditional gyms he was no longer satisfied.

So after his second child, Ava, was born, Moore realized he wanted better results from his workouts. He wanted his workouts to be efficient so he could use his time wisely between his medicine and his family.

Nearly two years ago, Moore found himself walking into Capital City Crossfit when it was located on Bruns Lane in Springfield.

Brian Chandler, 25, of Chatham, coowner and head trainer at Capital City Crossfit, describes it as a strength and conditioning program with the main goal to bring people from an unhealthy state to a healthy state.

Moore defines Crossfit as a “constantly varied functional movement done at high intensity.”

The two met, and Chandler said Moore was like any other beginner intimidated and not sure what he was getting himself into. As time went on, Moore began to engulf himself in the program and developed a passion for it. He decided to become business partners with Chandler and help spread the word about Crossfit.

“This venture toward co-owning a fitness facility is my overture to what I envision as a transformation in health care, focusing on preventing some of the diseases that come about as we age,” Moore said.

He has been a member of Crossfit for almost 2 1/2 years and co-owner of Capital City for four months.

Kelli Levek, 24, of Wood River, is a medical student of Moore’s at the SIU School of Medicine. But before she became his student, she met him at Capital City.

“I was a little surprised because he’s a doctor and their lives are so busy,” she said. “He’s still incredibly passionate about Crossfit. I think it’s good because he tries to recruit other people. He’s told me he tells his patients about it. It’s good to see him practicing preventative medicine.”

Moore said there was a lot of curiosity about what he was doing as a doctor in the fitness field. He said there has been much research about the efficacy of high intensity interval training and doctors are curious about what it can do.

“Research is showing me that indeed this kind of training is helpful. In fact there is evidence it may be more effective than the traditional endurance training people do,” he said.

Moore and Levek agree Crossfit is for people of all walks of life: different backgrounds, ages, occupations and levels of fitness. Everyone does the same workout but it’s scaled to fit each person’s fitness level and the routines vary from day to day.

Trainers at Capital City aim to keep workouts between 20 to 25 minutes.

Chandler said this allows for athletes to maintain their intensity. Workouts are comprised of various repetitions of push-ups, pull-ups, weight lifting, cardio and body weight exercises.

Moore said the best thing about Crossfit is that it prepares you for the unknown. Every time you walk into the Crossfit gym you don’t know what the workout is going to be. He said there’s a friendly level of competition but the environment in the gym is also encouraging.

“We bring the personal training component and the community feeling,” he said. “You get the community feel, the individualized attention from the coaches and you get a more sophisticated fitness program than you would at a gym that involves simply turning on the lights and letting you get on a treadmill.”

Chandler said he has seen a major change in Moore since he joined the gym and he brings a lot to the Crossfit community. “A lot of people feel they can trust him. Most people see Brian as just another Crossfitter and he is pretty well received,” he said.

Contact Jacqueline Muhammad at [email protected].