News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
It was 6 a.m. last Saturday at Level 5 CrossFit when a group of 33 men formed a loose circle around Ryan Hudson, owner. It was an uncanny hour for such a workout, if not for the cause it represented. "Blood, sweat, and tears for those who have served our country, that's why we're here," he says. "Every rep represents a veteran fallen to suicide. Every minute stands for them."
Both men and women - 63 in total - pose for a photo between the men's and women's workout sets.
This particular workout was the first of its kind. Consisting of 22 movements, 22 reps each, over a 22-minute time frame. It stood for the average 22 veterans who take their own lives every day in America.
He quotes the Bible verse Psalms 23:4 which says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."
Looking at the men in the circle, Hudson says, "When veterans come home, they enter a new valley. But God shares in our suffering. This workout represents that journey."
After a group prayer the men split into pairs. At the trigger of the timed clock and a loud "go," men drop to the floor, hands shoulder-widths apart, into a pushup and the first of 22 symbolic movements.
Discussions around suicide are delicate, shrouded in shame or profound confusion, but for veterans of America's military the reality is more real than many know. According to a 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans are at a 57 percent higher risk of suicide over non-veterans in similar age-sex groups. In 2023 the rate of veteran suicide had increased 11.6 percent over 2021 statistics. The risk isn't restricted to only combat veterans either.
Magnus Johnson (left), and Ryan Hudson, are the brains behind the unique workout that they hope will be go far and wide into the CrossFit community.
Sisters resident and Army Green Beret veteran, Magnus Johnson, knows this reality all too well. In 2012, he lost a dear friend and veteran to suicide. It shook his perception on life and military service. "I was living a washed up Army vet life in Indiana when I had a long conversation in the mirror with myself," he says.
He was disillusioned with the military - his time in Iraq and Afghanistan, what was the point after all? Why did his friend kill himself? Why do veterans die by suicide at all? Some research into the matter revealed that in 2012 an average of 22 veterans died by suicide per day.
"It dawned on me, why am I not doing anything about this?" he says.
Saddened and inspired by this reality, he founded Mission 22 in 2013 as a way to inspire veterans and their families to engage their minds, bodies, soul, and community in a way that pulls them out of the past and into the present. They provide physical, mental, and spiritual resources to support veterans and their families.
Mission 22 also fights a powerful trope.
"There's a social value to the victimized that needs to be challenged," Johnson says. "You can't stay there in that victimhood. You need to move and move others to do the same. We need to address the trope of the 'broken veteran'."
Victor Jimeneasy, a Marine Corps veteran, performs one of the 22 movements.
Physical movement is one way to discover a renewed sense of life. When veterans participate in exercise like CrossFit it forces their mind out of their service past and into the moment.
"That's where opportunity and life is," Johnson says. "The way to live isn't by avoiding death, it's by pursuing life."
CrossFit alone isn't a cure, but it's a start.
When Hudson and Johnson met in 2021, Hudson learned of his mission and felt inspired to create a unique workout based on that grim number: 22.
"Our hope is that this workout will carryover into the larger CrossFit community," he says. "We hope this pulls people out of isolation who wouldn't normally do a partner workout. Hopefully it ripples into the rest of their life."
Twenty-seven minutes into the workout the last pair finishes their final movement. Sweating and panting, men slap hands and backs. Johnson and his workout partner, Victor Jimeneasy, a Marine Corps veteran, smile wide.
"This is meaningful," Victor says between heavy breaths. "It's not just about being in community, but being in a community that supports veterans."
For Johnson and Hudson, it was everything they had hoped for. Thirty-three men, and 30 women who performed a separate set after the men, completed the workout while dozens of spectators lined the gym. Hudson expected no more than two dozen men and a dozen women at the early hour.
Women pray in a circle before starting their own workout set with the same movements and standards as the men.
"The turnout really surprised me," he says.
For Johnson the results are encouraging but he keeps his eyes and heart on the mission: "God has given me a passion, a purpose, and a mission for this. I'm not saving anyone. God is, the program is, the process is."
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