16min EMOTM:
min 1 – run
min 2 – walking lunges
min 3 – run backwards
min 4 – burpee broad jumps
Record total distance covered.
What’s Your Story?
CrossFit aired this as a commercial during the CF Games and I thought it was a great representation of 99% of CrossFitters out there. Sure, I love watching the Games and seeing what the elite level athletes are capable of but I never forget that the foundation of CrossFit are the “everyday people” like you and me. We may not have aspirations to go to the Games but there is no denying that CrossFit has played a huge role in the people we are today and the people we strive to be tomorrow. It affects our confidence, our body-image, our persistence, patience, drive, courage, etc. And it all started on that first day when we decided to take the plunge and walk in those front doors.
What’s your story? How did you find CrossFit and how does it play a role in your life?
The short story is one of my co-workers told me he’d started doing CrossFit; he’d said it with such authority I figured I was supposed to be impressed but I’d never heard of it. He explained what it was and it sounded interesting. I thought “I should do that”, and promptly forgot all about it. About a year later I was looking for something to do since I’d quit drinking and was going fairly insane. Remembered CrossFit existed. Did foundations at another gym. Lost 15 pounds. Read a ton on CrossFit, food, health. Got my head back, gained a muscle or two, and climbed a rope. Started putting butter in my coffee. Realized the gym I was at sucked, moved to Roots. Met tons of motivated, awesome people there: coaches and athletes, moms and dads, students and teachers, jocks and geeks — all working their asses off and practicing general badassery, starting at 5:30 a.m. every day. Currently showing up at Roots five times a week for humility and inspiration, and those five hours pay dividends for the remainder, week after week. In terms of what it’s enabled me to do, it’s no exaggeration to say CrossFit has changed my life — for the better.
My first workout was Murph done at a local “regular” gym using a treadmill and a gravitron assisted pull-up machine and no weight vest. It nearly killed me and took just over an hour, but afterwards I thought to myself, “how much harder could it get than that?” Plus, it worked! I immediately saw results which was not something I could say for anything else I ever tried.
I continued CrossFit in my backyard while working as an engineer. I had 2 kb’s, a homemade pull-up bar and a slosh pipe. That held me over until I met a marine that lived nearby who did CrossFit in his garage at 4am! So I joined him until I moved back to Atlanta where there was finally a box in my vicinity. They were running a Christmas special which I cashed-in on and when it ended I started coaching part-time to pay for my membership.
I finally realized that I enjoyed Coaching more than any other job I’d ever had and often I found myself at work just watching CrossFit videos all day so I quit and went to Coaching full-time. It was quite a lifestyle change and one of the best decision I ever made.
Moved to Boulder, started coaching at Roots, like actually coaching not just setting stop watches for people. It’s become my life, (not in a weird cultish way) it’s given me friends, it’s given me confidence to tackle anything, it is my family and it’s given me control of my own health which is something I thought could never be attained when I was younger. Being able to share it with others is just icing on the cake.
Slosh pipe??
Was that used for working out – or as a post workout and totally paleo relaxer? Curious….
Haha, not quite. It’s a 10ft long giant pvc pipe (4in diameter) filled halfway with water so it’s extremely unbalanced and difficult to hold onto.
I can barely remember a time in life when I wasn’t exercising, racing or training. 34 years, and I’m 41. When Khem and Molly kept talking about CF and ‘mobility’, one night I set down my cocktail, lay down on a lacrosse ball and wondered why my arms felt frozen. Shortly thereafter I realized I was having trouble reaching for my seatbelt.
In the last few years I’ve struggled mightily to find my way in terms of exercise, health and fitness. I don’t do it for any reason other than I’ve always done it, and it completes me. But the boredom and sameness, coupled with aging, were a big problem. I’d lace up for runs, go out 10-12 minutes and walk back. Cancelled endlessly on training partners. Had a health scare.
Not understanding how CF would be any different than the wacky “ironman” workouts I’d concocted, I wandered into Roots a year ago. Despite regular trips up Green Mtn as a simple morning run and lifetime of sit-ups and push-ups, a brisk round of air squats and wall balls crushed me. I was hooked.
Movement, sweaty movement, ideally in the company of others, is honestly my religion. It is the thing in my life. The community at Roots, the work we do, the fist bumps, the fails, scales and smiles have been a gift in my sporting life.
Sure it’s a cult, a cult focused on healthy living, exercise and fellowship. Count me in.
Had been a gym rat junkie most of my life. After years of mundane workouts and injury after injury my (now fiancée) asked me what I thought about Crossfit. I said, honestly, I didn’t know enough except that I’ve heard about it too many times now so let’s try an intro class and see what all the fuss is about. One intro class plus foundations and we’ve never looked back. Its great to be in such a supportive environment.