At 4 a.m., long before most of the city wakes up, Logan Priesel was at Helix Recovery & Wellness, gripping a barbell, feeling its weight press into his hands.

His repeated routines have a dual purpose: As the 21-year-old strengthens and tones a different muscle group, he’s simultaneously working on reclaiming control over his life.

Located in a 4,000-square-foot gym on Regional Drive in Concord, Helix Recovery & Wellness is more than a place to build muscle. It offers a free, 24/7 fitness space for individuals committed to transforming their lives.

Founded by Connor Boyle, a former lawyer who battled addiction, the non-profit Helix is a place to lift weights that’s equally dedicated to lifting each other up.

“The barbell doesn’t care how much money you have, doesn’t matter who you can call for a favor,” Boyle said. “You can pick it up or you can’t, period.”

The name, Helix, represents the spiritual meaning behind the work done in the gym – life force, divine connection, personal growth, balance and harmony.

“Recovery – distinct from simple sobriety and/or abstinence – is continuous, lifelong transformation and growth. There is no beginning of our growth, and there is no end,” said Boyle. “We are in a constant state of evolution and growth, and I want to impress upon our members that ‘recovery’ isn’t something we simply do, but it’s something we are, that is a growing and evolving part of us. It is in us. It is part of our DNA.”

Lifting weights is an effective recovery model because it provides building blocks, like a structured routine and tangible results. It also offers control and power over one’s body and actions and an environment of camaraderie and support.

“The parallels between recovery and strength training are numerous, almost too many to count or too many to mention,” Boyle said.

Road to recovery

Boyle’s journey to founding Helix was anything but ordinary. After nearly a decade as an attorney, he was successful on paper but spiraling internally. Substance abuse took over, leading him to walk away from his Boston law career in search of something real. That search took him to wilderness recovery programs in Montana, and eventually, back to New Hampshire, where he started Helix as a way to merge fitness with the recovery process.

Today, Helix is more than just a gym—it’s a community where recovery and resilience intersect. Volunteers, many of whom have fought their own battles with addiction, mentor and train members, fostering an atmosphere of support and shared strength. The space is open to anyone in recovery, regardless of fitness level, background or experience.

Boyle, a Littleton native, earned his law degree from Northeastern and started working at a law firm in 2009. He remembers walking in and seeing his office and desk and thinking, “I guess this is it, and then I die.”

After nine years working for multiple firms and corporations, his substance abuse worsened.

“There was no inner compass. There was no sense of purpose. I didn’t know who I was. I was really just a machine that got A’s and scored points. That was it. There was no, ‘What do I want? What do I care about? What are my values?’ There was none of that,” he said.

He checked himself into rehabilitation and left his job, and after multiple years of various forms of treatment, he started scanning New Hampshire for entry-level jobs working in treatment facilities.

He then worked in a wilderness program, received his wilderness first responder and wilderness EMT certifications in North Conway and went to Montana to work for a recovery program for adolescents in the wilderness.

That sparked an idea to start a wilderness recovery program in New Hampshire but it proved logistically complicated, so he simplified it.

He knew he wanted to remain in the Granite State, and he had been an athlete who loved lifting, so he started Helix as a personal trainer at a gym in Concord.

Over time, he started training more people and filed for nonprofit status, and in 2021, he changed locations to fit the growing number of people who trained with him.

How it works

Boyle and the volunteers at Helix, many of whom are in recovery, welcome everyone with open arms no matter their level of experience in fitness spaces. Some volunteers started as members themselves—the only requirement is having experience in the fitness industry and a commitment to understanding and helping those in recovery.

“We’re having conversations about everything from recovery to sports to relationships to mental health to politics to everything under the sun. And that is the name of the game, that connection, that community,” Boyle said.

Priesel is one of those volunteers.

“Lifting at 4 a.m., starting the day off with something positive to get your mind right, helps huge and makes you feel like you conquered the day early on instead of lifting late at night after a long day of work. Staying to help these guys is kind of another big thing because, for me, the gym started off as not so much a recovery thing but entertainment and what I enjoy doing, so being able to help someone else with the gym is a good resource,” Priesel said.

Part of the funding for the current location came from Boyle’s savings from his law career. The other part of it was mostly grassroots fundraising from private donations, big and small.

The next step for Helix is to prove its concept which, so far, it is doing effectively. In the future, Boyle hopes to collaborate with larger charitable foundations to continue growing the Helix model.

How to get involved

Becoming a Helix member is simple. Prospective members can get started by contacting Helix via email, phone or through a submission form on the organization’s website, helixrecovery.org.

Currently, the program has around 50 people coming in per week, and the space is open every day at any time for its users to come and go as they need. Recovery centers in the area such as Capital Recovery Health bring members to Helix to supplement the psychological and counseling recovery services they offer.

“It turns off stress and energizes people, so that’s just physical fitness in itself. But then when you come to a gym where there’s a bunch of people who are sharing the same affliction as you, where you feel welcome. It’s interesting,” said Justin Etling, the founder of Capital Recovery Health. “It’s really not about the ego who can lift the most – actually everybody’s welcome here – and if you can start with 25 pounds and then 30 pounds the next week, they’re progressing because they get sober. They’re rebuilding their lives from scratch.”

Seth Shackford, a 45-year-old from Dunbarton, struggled with addiction for most of his life, going in and out of rehabilitation, and heard of Iron Helix through a friend at Capital Recovery Health.

He attributed his ability to stay clean and his recovery journey to exercise, spirituality and Helix.

“It’s a gift; it’s a place where you can interact socially with people who are like-minded people who are working towards their goals. But I’ve also experienced those difficult paths of life, so there’s a common, a common thread there,” Shackford said.

Shackford, a man bulging with muscles who speaks introspectively about his life and values, attributed much of his success to Helix

“You have to work on all the different quadrants of your life – spirituality, family friends, relationships, job, physical and well-being,” he said. “You can’t put all your eggs just into working out and think you’re going to correct your life, you really need to work on all of the other facets of life.”

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.