Dominus CrossFit in Clifton Moor is one of 10 finalists in the contest after readers nominated hundreds of favourites on an online voting platform.
Starting from Monday, January 20, voting slips are appearing in The Press newspaper for 12 consecutive days – allowing readers to pick their winner before voting closes on February 1.
Each copy of The Press has been featuring a short profile on each business and why it thinks it deserves to be voted number one in York.
Readers can vote for the Best Gym 2025 by picking up a voting slip, found in copies of The Press newspaper every day, with the winner set to be announced in the coming weeks.
Dominus CrossFit has been nominated for The Press Best Gym (Image: Newsquest) Owner Rich Taylor told The Press about how Dominus has gone from starting life in a cow shed to becoming one of York’s most popular gyms.
However, the beginning of life in Clifton Moor didn’t go to plan – with the gym opening and closing on the same day – as a new lockdown was announced.
“We opened and shut on the same day, it was pretty heavy,” Rich said. “We had the televisions on in the gym watching the announcement and the members saw it as it happened.”
After reopening, Dominus quickly became a hub for athletes across multiple strength and fitness disciplines. It didn’t take long before it started to attract the attention of people competing on the global stage.
Rich said: “It’s amazing, it’s really nice when they come in because they’re just like everyone else.
“Everyone’s on with their own journey, and here you’ve got people new to the gym rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the world.”
Rich added that Dominus was founded after his business partner Zoe told him about the sport of CrossFit’s growth. “We wanted to create somewhere where all the sports could collab together and learn from each other,” he said.
“We’ve hosted quite a few competitions. We’ve had functional fitness ones, powerlifting, strongman.
“We’re growing every day and more people are finding us. We don’t necessarily do a lot of advertising but people recognise us and come along.”
Rich said the things he’s most proud of at Dominus include their charity events, which have seen the gym undertake a variety of challenges. He also raised the pre and post-natal classes run by fitness instructors at the gym, as well as their age group classes starting as early as five-years-old.
“The main thing for us is that we’re very community based,” Rich added.
