Nicole St. Pierre was not someone who was going to do CrossFit. She grew up competing — track and field, long jump, sprinting, competitive cheerleading and gymnastics in high school — but that was a long time ago. When she was getting back into fitness years later and drove past a group of people doing CrossFit outside at 6pm, her reaction was simple: those people are out of their minds. She wanted no part of it.
Then someone convinced her to try it. She found a gym she liked, loved the coaching, got hooked. When she moved to the Hopkinton area, she joined a local CrossFit gym — but something was missing. The workouts were there. The community wasn't. No warmth, no real connection. It didn't feel like anything. Then at a book club she met someone who mentioned a gym in Westborough with a great coach named Mike. She made the switch, walked into Prototype in March 2014, and immediately felt the difference.
"Coming in at 5:00 in the morning, it's ungodly. Every day I'm like, 'It's the middle of the night. What are we doing here?' But then I see my friends and I'm just immediately so happy."
— NicoleWhat she found wasn't just a better gym. It was a room full of people who genuinely showed up for each other — laughing through hard workouts, welcoming strangers at 5am, building the kind of culture that earns its own award at the annual Prototype ceremony. She became a regular. Then a fixture. The community got into her, and she got into it.
When She Needed It Most
What happened next is something Nicole talks about openly, because she thinks it matters. Behind the consistency and the early mornings and the 2,000-plus sign-ins, there was a harder story. She struggled with addiction. And when she reflects on what her life might look like if she'd never found this place, the answer comes without hesitation: she honestly doesn't know where she'd be — and not in a good way. Without Prototype to come back to, without the people and the love she felt from those she connected with here, she says it was instrumental in her recovery. The community wasn't a backdrop to that chapter. It was an anchor in it.
Six years sober now. The gym that once helped hold her together became something she built her life around — not out of dependency, but out of genuine gratitude for what showing up every day gave her.
"I was driving to the gym one Sunday morning with my kids in the car, thinking about all of those mornings that I was languishing away with a headache, feeling like garbage — and realizing how full circle I had come. From being that mom that was, oh my god, I got to deal with the kids... to I'm so excited to be on my way to do something healthy and active and positive with my kids, to be present, to also be working on myself."
— NicolePassing It Forward
The full circle isn't just Nicole's story anymore. Her kids — 11 and 13 — watch what their mom does and want in. They want to train. They want to know what the workouts are. One of them asked if she was juicing. Nicole laughs every time she tells that story. She teaches them movements, runs them through workouts, watches their friends join in too. Her son Emmett started training in the youth program at Prototype in late 2024. The place that helped save her is now something she's handing down — and she describes getting her family involved as one of the best things this gym has given her.
On the competition floor, she's still pushing. She and Liz Nasser took first place in the female division at the 2026 Prototype Lift Off — wire to wire. She's hit a 180 lb deadlift, 153 lb front squat, and 115 lb bench press. She qualifies for the Committed Club month after month. At almost 47, her goals are to keep competing, stay mentally strong, and feel great doing it. She came in thinking CrossFit was for crazy people. She became someone her kids now look up to because of it. That's the arc. That's the full circle.
