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I quit smoking a few years back, and I eventually ended up putting on quite a bit of weight. I saw some pictures of myself around the holidays in 2013, and it was a wake up call that I needed to start taking better care of myself. I wasn't sure what to do at first, as the globo gyms were never a good fit for me, so I spent the first few months of 2014 training for and running a 5k.
As I was approaching the race date, I wanted to figure out the next step. I searched around for different kinds of classes, or adult sports leagues, but still wasn't sure. I had always been intrigued by the obstacle races like Tough Mudder and Spartan, and in reading the FAQs on one of their sites, it said that many participants were active in CrossFit, and so I decided to look into it. Found the Groupon for Jaguar, and decided to check it out. I also promised myself that good, bad, or ugly, I was going to stick it out for the full two months and then make a decision about whether this was something I wanted to continue with.
My first impression was that I bit off way more than I could chew. I was a mess. I couldn't do a pull up, I tapped out at about three pushups, and I was hopeless when it came to the Oly lifts. I really had no idea what I was doing. And I still felt like that for awhile. But I liked what I saw going on around me. There seemed to be lot of camaraderie when I looked over and saw the group working out, and it seemed like it was a motivated group of people who enjoyed a challenge, and that really appealed to me.
In time, I slowly developed confidence in what I was doing and became more proficient with my lifts. In 2016, I wanted to step up my game a bit more. I was only coming three days a week before, but now I average five days a week. I participated in some of the challenges, and got to where I was down about 30 pounds from where I was when I first walked in the door. I pushed myself to try to get some of the movements I wasn't capable of before, and didn't think I'd ever get – legless rope climbs, handstand pushups, toes-to-bar, double unders, ring dips, etc. And, I think that's carried over to other areas of my life as well.
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The first one that really stands out to me was one Saturday, we were doing CrossFit Total and before that day, I'd worked up to a 395 pound deadlift, but I was a little nervous about going heavier than that and messing with my back. I partnered up with Connor and Michael, and they both seemed far better at any of this than me. We worked up to the 395 lb mark, and I was still feeling good, so I decided to go for it and push past the 400 lb mark. Soon, we were moving past both of their PRs as well, and were all pretty excited about it. We kept going and all three of us tapped out at 455 lbs that day. I think that was the moment when a lot of things started to click for me in terms of confidence and encouraged me to start pushing myself harder.
While I still need to conquer the elusive muscle up, I have made quite a bit of progress in other areas. I'm trying to focus on improving my technique with double unders and hand stand pushups. In addition, I'm working to make sure I'm prepared for my first competition at Battle of the Boxes. After watching from the sidelines from the past two years, I decided it's time to participate. I'm really looking forward to it.
There's so many favorite moments choose from – I get really happy watching people hit a new PR or finally get the hang of something they've been working on for awhile – but I think my favorite recent memory was this past August when a bunch of us from the Breakfast Club decided to participate in the Siesta Key Triathlon just two week prior to the race. It was a physical challenge for us, which we all certainly enjoyed, but I also liked getting a chance to spend a day with Tom, Sarah, Karyn, Matt, Tyler, Rebecca, and Danny. For as much as we've bonded in the mornings, when the workout ends, we really only get a few minutes to talk before we have to part ways and get ready for work. So, it was really nice to spend a day with each other at the brewery after we'd spent the morning working hard. I'm pretty sure it won't be our last adventure as a group.