Today, I had the honor of completing Jason, a WOD for a fighting hero who gave his life so I may continue mine. After completing this difficult workout, Jeff and I had a discussion about how far each of us had come since beginning our CrossFit journey.
Many people at Brand X and those in CF community share their experiences here. They post their times and modifications as a gauge for themselves and others to use in judging their performance. There are many who routinely post WOD’s completed “As Rx’ed.” Their times rival some of the best posted on the CF site and they are worthy of praise and respect. Unfortunately, often these excellent performances are discounted as being done by people who are somehow naturally outstanding CrossFitters. I contend that their performances are the work of countless hours of pain and suffering for each and every improvement in time and performance.
There are so many success stories in this community that it is easy to overlook where each of us began our journey. I thought it would be beneficial to provide a background of our personal starting point and biography as a reference to understand the success of our entire journey.
Laura R is the only person on the forum who I know of who has posted her ongoing performance in relation to her starting point. She has also provided a very useful tool to document and update your personal performances ( http://forum.brandxmartialarts.com/viewtopic.php?t=3000 ).
Please tell us your CrossFit story… I will start in the next post.
My CrossFit journey began in earnest in September of 2004. Jeff and my wife Kim had been trying to get me started for several months; however, due to work, I was splitting time between two residences over 100 miles apart. This was basically a good excuse to put it off because I had made several visits to the CrossFit website to view the WOD. Each of us who have done this have come away with the same thought…“There’s no way I’d ever be able to do that!!
Prior to looking into CrossFit, I was an recreational runner with a variety of knee and ankle problems. I was overweight at 6’ 3” and 235lbs, but down significantly from my heaviest weight of 260lbs. I used work as an excuse to get in such horrible shape. It took nearly a year to get my weight back to #225, which was still 10-15 pounds above my academy graduation weight (I am an 18-year member of the California Highway Patrol). At my new assignment, I had allowed myself to gain 10 extra sympathy pounds for being far from home 5 days a week. I was never much of a dieter after watching my mother struggle with her weight growing up.
The final straw was the threat of surgery for plantar faciatias, which was directly related to my weight and running. It was this and encouragement from Jeff and Kim that set me on my journey to find “functional fitness.” My first WOD was less than stellar, but my stubbornness would not allow me to quit (as a side note - two years later at a CF seminar Coach Glassman spoke of the worst WOD ever posted and it was the same WOD I started with. Jeff still gets a good laugh out of this )
When I began, pull ups and push ups were nearly unachievable for me. I had the ability to run and do squats, but upper body strength was my Achilles heal. I could barely do three consecutive chin ups (palms facing my face) and they were wiggling and contorting my body to get my chin over the bar. Push ups were not much better. I was like Bill Murray in Stripes, making bets that I could do 10 was a 50-50 proposition and once those 10 were done I was shot for the day. It was my weight and lack upper body strength that limited most of my early CF work.
Initially, I decided that completing some of these crazy workouts was only a dream, but a goal none the less. I tried not to worry so much about time, survival was the goal.
Helen was one of the first named WOD’s I attempted. My lack of upper body strength severely limited my performance, but Jeff urged me to utilize a “jumping pull up” as a progression. I spent over six months struggling to jump my chin over the bar where the rock climbing wall now stands. I can still remember telling myself to jump and “slow hang” down using gravity as a strength coach. Even using jumping pull ups my first Helen time was nearly 25 minutes!! Fran was worse because it was only three sets of thrusters (a strong point for me) and pull ups. The met-con of this workout is brutal and my initial time was in excess of 15 minutes.
Although I struggled with most WOD’s, I was hooked. I began to experience changes in body composition and performance I had never experienced before. My work jumping up to the bar began to pay off and I set a goal of 10 consecutive pull ups. I was nearly a year into CF before I achieved this milestone. If I remember correctly the original “Underdawg” score for pull ups was 20!!
My progress continued to improve exponentially during my second year. I was following a regiment I still follow today of doing a CF WOD everyday except Wednesday’s and Sunday’s. It was during my second year that a new weakness was discovered, the muscle up. Jeff had attended a seminar at CF HQ in Santa Cruz and willed himself through an exercise called a muscle up. When he returned, he ordered rings and it was the new goal. I remember hanging from the rings pulling my chin up to the bottom of them and denying any ability to get any other part of my body over them. Once again a progression was begun. Jeff and I would train a couple times a week on the rings in an effort to achieve my goal of completing a single muscle up. Over six months later, I was finally able to achieve my goal and I did 1 muscle up. I remember being “spent” and thinking how do others do consecutive reps of this. Again another goal was born.
Today, at a consistent weight of 215lbs, I had the honor of completing a “hero” WOD in memory of Jason, a Navy Seal who lost his life. The workout consisted of 250 squats and 50 muscle ups. I was able to finish this workout in 26:15. It was only about 6 months ago that Jeff and I were able to finish 30 muscle ups for time in 30 minutes. This is just one of a multitude of examples of my achievements that exceeded even my most ambitious dreams.
I am proud to claim a sub 9 minute Helen and sub 4 minute Fran among my accomplishments. I also am proud to claim my wife Kim aka “Kimdawg”, daughters Darby and Delaney and sister Karen aka “Skippy” as CF believers.
In addition to this, I have had the opportunity to watch so many others exceed their own limits. People like Patrick, who I miss very much, but often rely on for strength to continue (For those who have not been fortunate enough to meet Patrick, he has cerebral palsy and still performs feats of exceptional performance. Unfortunately, he had to relocate to North Carolina, but he often posts his performances). Jeff, aka “GD”; Dan, aka “Big D”; Brain, aka “Gunner”; Nichole, aka “nichole811”; Conner, aka “topdawg”; Mikki, aka “Blue Bug of Justice”; Cindi, aka “GoIrish”; Andrea aka “Marla Singer” and Tony aka “TMoney” are just a few of the people in this community that I have had the good fortune of sharing many successes with.
It is my hope that they will share their stories too.
Steve, thanks for sharing that and this is a great idea.
Connor and Jeff are probably the perfect example of the “Of course you can do this, you are genetically superior.” or “It’s easy for you” syndrome.
Thanks to their example, though, I am now often the recipient of such comments. Go figure.
2004 - could not do a burpee, let alone a pull up. Could not run 400M in less than 4 minutes. Could not climb a rope, could not do a bar dip, could not do more than 3 push ups, could not complete any workout as RX’d let alone in a decent time. Could not do a handstand against the wall. The list goes on and on. A little research will find as Steve says, a myriad of examples of things I can do now that I never imagined I could ever do.
2005 - did my first pull up, did my first set of kipping pull ups. Could not snatch an oly bar, dealift 145, clean 70#, or finish Helen in under 15 minutes.
2006 - did maybe 20 pull ups in a row? 15 pushups. Fran in 8 minutes with 45#, then 13 minutes when the “perfect reps” were required. Went back to square one with intensity.
2007 - Fran in 5:22 with 65#, can deadlift more than 200#, can snatch 80#, can run a mile in about 9 minutes. Helen is still my nemesis. I can do ring dips, 30 kipping pull ups in a max set, 100 burpees in about 14 minutes, 100 pull ups in 10 minutes - possibly faster now. Did 350 thrusters with more than the required weight on a painstorm. Can almost catch TareBear and Karen (Skipper) on most workouts. Stil not even close to Nichole, though! Ran 400M in 2:03. Not only can I clean 95#, but I can get it over my head. A a bunch of times. And do pullups in between.
I started at the same time as all the people Steve mentioned and they have been my inspiration, along with Jason, Jeff, Connor, Mikki, Kim and Andrea. Seeing many of the kids become strong enough and fast enough to work out in the adult classes, and seeing Jeff and Connor continue to improve despite the fact that I already thought they were incredibly strong, fast and talented, these are some of the things that keep me going.
The thing that still amazes me is that I look around and everyone, no matter their level, is suffering the same amount of difficulty and struggle, overcoming their current limitations as if they don’t think they could possibly get one second faster, lift one pound more or keep going one more step, and know that in their next post, they will be reporting another breakthrough.
Well, let’s see…...Our family has had the good fortune to be friends with the Martins for almost 11 years. Candy (my lovely wife) actually started working at Brand X with kickboxing many moons ago when the old cigar shop/crackerbox on Main St. was the home base. Seeing how much fun she was having, I decided to have a go. Got to meet Jim, Dan, & others & generally enjoyed the workouts. I decided to add private instruction with Jeff & we began at his house twice a week. I kept at the usual weight training/diet stuff with him for quite a while. Result? I did lose a good deal of weight, but I still couldn’t do pull-ups, lift heavy stuff over my head or bench press any real weight. Strength just wasn’t happening.
Shortly after the move to the bigger space across from Chevron I dropped out of sight for over a year. Excuses abounded as to why I was just “too busy” & “didn’t have the time” anymore. Big mistake! Gained a bunch of weight & went back to ground zero. For whatever reason, I looked in the mirror one day & said I didn’t want to look like that anymore so I told Jeff the prodigal son was ready to return. That was March (i believe) of 2004.
Jeff told me about this great new program he was involved in & the success he had already had so being a trusting soul I hopped on board the pain train. First Tuesday I did something silly like 40 squats & some other very light work. Thursday I could barely walk. Hung in through the pain & frustration & got down to business.
I’m no superstar but I’m one of the biggest believers you’ll ever meet in the Crossfit way & the devotion to private instruction. My upper body is still the challenge, but I have achieved a great deal. 9:20 Helen, 325# deadlift, 1 rep bodyweight bench press, 37 max pull-ups (at last attempt 2 months ago) are a few of my favorites. Real life application? How about - I pulled a full grown horse from hip deep in a hole on our property with only the aid of 2 lengths of rope. All proud moments & all thanks to Jeff & the Crossfit family.
My blood pressure is 100/60, my body fat is an estimated 12% & I’m finally going to ditch that last 10 pounds of belly as I started the Zone a couple weeks ago. I’m in the best shape of my life.
My xfit story is a short one since I have only been going about a year and a half. Started out as as fairly fit by others standards… but certainly not cross fit standards!
Nichole actually got me started cause she would always talk about crossfit and say how great it was when I would complain about how my gym routine was just not getting me the results i wanted.
When I first started I had been training for a marathon so about all I could do was run. No pull-ups of any kind, horrible push-ups, pretty low on any thing involving strength. But now I just did a set of 24 kipping pull-ups (am going to try maxing out again soon cause I know I can do better). I have a sub 10 helen and am working on Fran. Since starting personals with Cyndi I have seen huge gains in my strength and form… esp on lifting. Push-ups are still my nemesis, along with ring dips, but now I can at least get my chest to the ground! And most of the time I can do the big dawg workout… something that seemed so daunting at first. I have too many goals to count cause I know I am just starting and will just continue to improve… even if it takes longer than I would like
Brand x is awesome! Now I am obsessed and actually look forward to working out.
It’s a little weird to have people say to you “I don’t think I’ll ever to be able to do the things you do.” It’s weird because of the place I started. (I like Laura’s format)
2004- I couldn’t even bend down to pick up something off of the floor. Ask Jeff. He loves that story. I could not run 200m, do a push up, a pull up, a box jump, climb a rope, do a kettlebell swing or lift anything heavier than PVC. I was #115 overweight.
2005- After a year of (Jeff) badgering me to eat meat (I was a vegetarian), I did. Then I did a pull up. A few weeks later I did 5, then 10. I could do a few push ups, jump on the small box, do some light kettlebell swings and lift some weight. I was #75 overweight. After a year of doing private training with Jeff, he told me I should go to the CrossFit certification. I did.
2006- I was now a CrossFit trainer and loving it. A whole new world had been opened up to me. By July, I had a 5:09 Fran as rx’d, could run a Brand X mile in 8:30, climb a rope, jump on the big box, do 25 pull ups, HSPU and ring dips with noticeable movement and do almost every Big Dawg workout that did not call for muscle ups. I was #45 overweight.
2007- I teach classes and do private training. After changing my mind several times on my degree, at the end of spring semester I will have a degree in Physical Education. I have found my calling. I can run for miles, do 32 pull ups, 15 with a #25 weight vest, tons of push ups, #95 thrusters, deadlift #235, back squat #205, HSPU within an inch of the floor, jump on the 24” box, do 15 hill sprints and row 500m in 1:49. I can finish any workout Jeff throws at me. Some take me longer than others, but I can always do it. I am #25 overweight.
It feels like bragging to tell you all this, but not everyone has seen my starting point. I have had a ton of support from Jeff and Mikki and all of my fellow trainers and students that started when I did. That’s how I did it. It has taken a lot of hard work and tears of frustration, encouragement from others and consistency, but here I am. So now, when a new student says to me, “I’ll NEVER be able to do the things that you can do”, I start with “Well, back in 2004”
My Crossfit experience began 3 and a half years ago I was 12 years old. My dad came home and told me get your workout clothes on were going to do Crossfit today. Before this I had been doing the same workouts every other day, we had been doing workouts which consisted of burpees and the Bass Rutten striking tapes but I had never sugnificant strength gain. I tried Crossfit that day and I liked it, we had gone through a modified chelsea and it was the hardest thing I had ever done, of course I did total gym pullups, knee pushups, and squats that in which my back had the worst colapseing form ever :oops: . I continued Crossfit with my Dad every day we would go in and workout together, I had a terrible form for my entire first year of crossfit, half of this was due to the fact that no matter what workout I refused to loose to my dad no matter how terrible my form had to become to beat him and how much lighter wieght i had to use. After the first year went by my dad had a talk with me about useing the proper technique I listened and put my nose to the grindstone, it paid off I achieved my first pullup I was delighted. From that point on my goal was to become an excellent crossfitter I wanted to be better, faster and stronger than I had ever been before. That year I pushed myself and became stronger, 3 months later I was able to do 20 pullups and Fran with 45# bar in 6:30 this was a huge achivement for me, I then found out that there was going to be an olympic wieghtlifting seminar in San Diego I begged my Dad and asked if I could go so he asked Coach Burgener and he said it was ok I went and became certified to teach olympic wieghtlifting, my next goal had then become to be a Crossfit trainer. My dad told me that I would have to do everything with perfect form conduct myself like an adult and be respectful of all the adults and trainers there I worked really hard and in april of 2004 i became a certified Crossfit trainer along with my trianing parter David. I was glad that I had reached that goal and it was a milestone in my Crossfit experience. My next memorable milestone was my black belt test in the summer of 2004 i had been in karate for 9 years at the time and had been training for this test all my life and Crossfit enabled me to go through the test unphased physically I performed better than ever before and every one of the black belts said it was probablly the best balck belt test they had ever seen. I was happy with thier coments and knew that if it werent for Crossfit the outcome of my test wouldnt have been as impressive. I trained that next year making leaps and gains across the board by the end of my 2nd year of crossfit I was able to do 35 pullups, and complete helen with a 35# kb in 10 minutes and do one muscleup. When I was 14 I reached a long term goal 50 pullups, fran as rx’d, helen as rx’d, and fight gone bad as rx’d. When I was 15 I had the most gains in one year I had ever had, fran as rx’d in 4:50,Helen as Rx’d in 8:23, fight gone bad 275 as Rx’d, 11 muscleups, crossfit total of 650, deadlift and backsquat double bodywieght,30 muscleups in 6:15, 53 pullups, 80 pushups, 95# overhead squats in workouts, pushjerk 135 in workouts, second degree black belt in Kenpo Karate, Varsity wrestler for Ramona High,and competed in the crossfit games. Ive been 16 for a couple of weeks now and i have already broken a couple of old record fight gone bad as rx’d 301, helen in 8:19, and I just got certified in Mark Ripitoe’s powerlifting and starting strength two weeks ago.
I credit Coach Greg and My Dad for my athletic success
I got started back in ‘03 sometime in the middle of the year when I met Rajesh (who is now a trainer down at CFSD) at Rimac gym, which is part of UCSD. I had previously started off at the gym in the standard bodybuilding persuasion, and achieved certain goals I was trying to reach, primarily looking more aesthetically pleasing. Alas, that sort of training proved to not align with what my long-term goals are, which are for greater strength gains and some explosive strength. I got turned on to powerlifting and olympic lifting from a friend who was in a few classes with me and we traded information back and forth. When he eventually transferred to another university, I stuck with primarily the olympic lifting. I guess Raj had seen me doing some cleans a few times because he walked over to me one day after hanging up his Haas elite rings and asked if I had heard of CrossFit. I looked at him with a relatively confused expression on my face and told him, “uhh.. what’s that?”. Anyway, over the course of the times we happened to run into each other, he convinced me to partake in a few CF workouts. Notably, my first CF workout was Grace. After finally giving into his suggestions to check out the CF HQ website, I read through the website and was hooked. He further convinced me to make my way up to some place way out in Ramona. Well…
My start at an official affiliate was a little stunted. I was off & on with going up to B-X, because I attributed the distance to and from as an issue. After a while, I figured it became such a routine that I never bothered to think otherwise. Since then, I’ve made some pretty good gains for myself. When I first started, I had some of the following numbers-
At the time, they sounded great, but after having “plateaued”, I obviously began to feel some irritation at making next to no progress. After sticking with the HQ WODs and the ritual Saturday workouts at B-X, I broke out of the “plateau” and made some great strides.
I think the turning point for me was when CFSD opened up and I had an affiliate to go to regularly where someone could watch me continuously. Add Jeff’s watchful eye, and competition with certain young adults and you have some surprising gains occurring.
Furthermore, I think the next step in training evolution occurred when Connor somehow talked me into starting Kenpo. Once that happened, I pretty much knew I made real commitments to some serious shit. With the family in B-X and some mad scientist coaching from Jeff (hi Dad!), everything is shootin’ towards the moon and we’re just getting started.
Right now, with some initial marketing in my immediate surroundings I frequent (work and outside of work), there are more people crossfitting and trying new things that they wouldn’t try otherwise. Just now, matter of fact, one of my co-workers told me she started crossfitting with another co-worker and are trying to get a third who I’ve discussed CF with to start. Disregard where they crossfit, I’m just happy she got started so she can eventually give her own autobiography!
Bobbi Salvini was the person from whom I first heard about Brand X. Bobbi approached my wife and me after church one Sunday in the Spring of 2005, talking about a gym she’d found where she never got bored, and where families were welcomed even if no one in them had thought of him- or herself as athletic before. After a couple of weeks of good reports from her, my wife and I heard Jeff Martin explain CrossFit and its emphasis on functional fitness. I don’t think he talked more than ten minutes. He didn’t have to, because the gym wall behind him was full of framed thank you letters from law enforcement agencies and Navy SEAL teams.
I’d never been a gym rat. In college, I could do 8 consecutive pullups on a good day, but there weren’t many good days. I ran a few 5 and 10K races in my young adulthood, but only along beachfront routes, and only when the race registration fee included a really nice tee shirt. My goal in those races had just been to finish.
My 1989 memory of the early afternoon view from atop Mount Whitney is not as vivid as my memory of ingesting beer and Advil near midnight at the base camp afterward. I’d gone from 155 pounds in college to 192 at my heaviest, and my consecutive pullup max had dropped to 3. I was self-conscious about having slender wrists, skinny forearms, and a lopsided gait. The taekwando that my children had started learning required more lower-body flexibility than I had. CrossFit seemed worth a try.
I noticed my pot belly in vacation photos taken in the summer of 2005, and became a 3x or 4x/week regular at Brand X soon afterward. When I joined the web forum in January of 2006, I was still doing Puppy-level workouts.
Then KATDawg started leading a 6:30 AM CrossFit class three days a week. I became a charter member of her early morning crew. Past Buttercup and Puppy workouts but not up to the Pack standard, my joke that winter was that most of my workouts were “Packuppies.” To her great credit, KATDawg managed to be both patient and relentless.
I was getting smoked in lifts by the likes of Nichole, Skipper, and LauraR (still true), but I learned from them all, and also from trainers like Go_Irish. I first posted workout results to the forum in March of 2006. They were nothing to write home about, but LargeLefty offered words of encouragement. Garddawg and BBOJ let it be known, sometimes just with their eyes, that they each believed I was capable of more.
Some months later, when I’d worked my way up to Pack workouts, I was locked out of a beach campsite one evening by a padlocked gate in a tall fence. I asked myself what any Brand X trainer would do, and climbed a nearby tree to scale the fence and drop into the campsite. I mentioned it on this site because I’d never been a tree-climbing kid. Before CrossFit, I’d have walked a mile out of the way to come back to the campsite through the vehicle entrance. Gunner recognized my successful “infiltration” for the milestone it was.
On October 10, 2006, I did my first “Big Dog” workout, running 3.2 BrandX miles in 30:22 with KATDawg and LargeLefty spurring me onward. Later that month, the best birthday present I got was from my wife, who gave me private lessons with Garddawg,
I went 12 rounds with a 45# bar in Painstorm XIX (November 4, 2006), and although it took 40 long minutes to do that, I was pleased with myself. A few weeks afterward, I did Big Dog workouts on consecutive days for the first time. I still have trouble with the so-called “men’s weights” in Big Dog scaling, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
I became a home CrossFitter by dint of moving across the country and impractically far from an affiliate in February of 2007, but by now I’ve been drinking the kool-aid too long to stop. I wondered in May whether it was possible to combine a burpee and a tabata into a “burpata.” I never used to think like that.
Before CrossFit, I thought 40 pushups in a day was a lot. Now the thought of 100 pushups in a single workout doesn’t faze me. I’m 13 or 14 pounds heavier than my college weight, but faster and stronger at 41 than I was then. I couldn’t have done a 15-round “Cindy” in those days.
My consecutive pullup max is sitting at 14 because I hadn’t mastered kipping when I left Brand X, but I was close (thanks especially to Jeff and Steve), and I’ll get to the magic 20 sooner rather than later.
And I’ll never really leave Brand X, if you get my drift. It’s waaay too late for that.
ADDENDUM from a physical, 15 Aug 2007: BP 121/65; BMI 23
I started training when I was in 7th grade. I was fortunate my grade school had exposed me to gymnastics and a variety of other sports, but I didn’t really workout until I got my first set of barbells. With the set I got a book on strongman lifts and Oly lifting. I applied myself, I knew nothing about lifting so what I learned I learned from the book. I cleaned, deadlifted, carried heavy stuff around. Soon I was considered strong. Came in second in my junior high benching contest.
Througout high school and into college I competed in swimming and waterpolo. When that was over I looked to continue training. At this point I was introduced to the “Machine and the Man”, Nautilus and Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones had come up with this series of machines that would replace weight training. Being young and not to bright I bought into the idea and started training with the new machines. I became quite a bit bigger! That was good because all of the fitness magazines were telling us that the fit guys were the behemoth bodybuilders.
I continued for years following the bodybuilding type of training. I injured my shoulders, elbows and back pretty badly, oh and along the way I got significantly weaker and less fit. At 205 I couldn’t clean what I could at 130. I wouldn’t want to anyway because it didn’t isolate my biceps.
At 43, I had quit going to the gym because I realized that I was working so hard, spending more and more time, and fighting, not to get better but to simply to not slide backwards. I had trouble accepting that I was done. That age and injuries would preclude me from getting better.
I started looking around the internet trying to find a different way to train. I ran across CrossFit in 2003. I read just about everything I could on the site. I think I got a journal subscription before I even did a workout. Everything I read made sense. More importantly I realized what a wrong turn the isolation/bodybuilding workouts had been for me.
After spending a couple of months doing the workout of the day on the front page I introduced Connor to CrossFit. One of my first posts on the CrossFit site was:
“Finished todays workout at 14:50. My 12 year old son finished about 30 seconds faster. Just a little humiliating having your son stand behind you saying, “Come on Dad you can do it.”
CrossFit Kids was born.
At the time a big day on the CF site there would be 30 posts. I remember my first cert, there were only 5 people not from Santa Cruz at the cert. Gave plenty of time for Greg, Lauren, and Eva to give you “individual” help with your form. :oops: Mikki, the kids and I visited Greg and Lauren that summer and later were invited to go to the first Colorado cert. Probably the first big cert or gathering of CrossFitters.
Over the years we have had the good fortune of helping out at many certs, and meeting so many great people through CF. Our friends in Mil/LEO, the UK crossfitters, and those on our board. It’s been great. I am convinced that suffering through a WOD together ensures friendship. :shock: It must have something to do with that old saying “Pain shared, is still pain” or something like that. Through CrossFit we have been blessed, we can call some pretty fine people, not just friends, but family.
I was fortunate enough to have a Grandfather that when I’d visit would have me work on his horse farm bailing hay, riding and everything associated with that and whatever else needed fixing up. We’d work, ride and then those breaks in “the shed”, talks about his physical feets of strength etc, handstand walking up the Capital steps, holding a 40’ ladder above head balanced vertically etc. That is when he encouraged me to train.
Train I did, in the basement religiously, but unfortunately primarily bodybuilding moves. By highschool I had pretty impressive numbers for a 160 lb kid, 350 bench, 400 squat, 450 DL. But then I got interested in Weightlifting moves practicing Power cleans.
Through college I would train in spurts, eat to get big (got fat) ballooned to nearly 220. Upon Graduating I recommitted myself to training, bodybuilding style with power lifting and weightlifting mixed in. We then Opened a World Gym franchise, I got certified and my Personal Training career started. I leaned down to a mean 165 and took 4th place in my one and only bodybuilding show. Never had the desire to try again, it was fun but something was missing. By that time we were incorporating more and more functional style movements into our training and were seeing our clients become pretty successful doing non traditional bodybuilding workouts.
Unfortunately the business failed financially, but we had this list of clients that just didn’t want to see us quit. One stepped up to help us open a 1500 sf studio, Achieve Fitness. We decided no machines just functional movements. We dug ourselves out of a whole and my client list grew to probably around 20 or so.
Then the message from a guy we trained with at the old gym who moved to Arizona, went with his buddys to a CrossFit, after his experience he said you got to check CrossFit out. We did and within a month we were Affiliate 19 and Crossfit Rockford.
I train about 80 clients now and in a month I start providing early morning CrossFit to about 40 kids at a local highschool, which I expect to probably double once they start talking.
Personally I can say one of my first WOD’s was a max thruster, at a BW of 215 I got 185lbs. Now 2 1/2 years later at a bw of 180 my thruster max is 220. Pull-ups were basically non existant in the beginning and now I got 45, and my 5k has gone from 35 min to around 24-25min. CrossFit is responsible for my professional success as well as the supplier of my hobby/addiction. The amazing thing is at 36 yoa I see no reason to not continue improving for years to come. I see as my form gets more and more refined the “Girls” times keep improving. I now see some of the great CrossFit Firebreathers perform a WOD and think I know I can and will.
Finally CrossFit and CrossFitters have become like family. Jeff, Mikki, Dan and the whole crew are awesome. And that seems to be the trend among all Crossfitters I’ve had the pleasure to meet. What a program and what a Community.
I do not have much of a biography when it comes to crossfit. However, I decided to post after reading everyones accomplishments with hopes of achieving many of my own through crossfit. I just started crossfit 2 weeks ago and I am loving every bit of it thus far. Its very tough, challenging and exciting all at once. My only regret is not starting it two years ago when I found out about it while living in San Diego. The closest crossfit affiliate to me now is two hours away. Therefore, I am training on my own. I left San Diego a year ago but I am now considering moving back and if so I will definitely be seeing some of you.
Four days ago I started the Zone and I already feel a difference. I am extremely motivated to continue my new way of life.
Since I’ve recently recommitted to doing CrossFit, I’m going to repost here my original introduction to the forum, my goals, and progress.
I guess I could tell you a little bit more about myself by giving you a brief history of my relationship with exercise: I have never had any natural athletic prowess, but I’ve enjoyed bike riding and taking long walks throughout my life. In middle school, I played recreational soccer; in college and during my first quarter of graduate school, I was on the rowing team. Three years ago I decided to get serious about running in order to train for rowing and then, after quitting rowing, decided to make it my primary form of exercise. I managed to get up to an advanced beginner/intermediate level until studying for a masters exam threw a wrench in my regimen and knocked me back to the beginner level. I’ve been trying to build back up to that advanced beginner/intermediate level since mid-July of this year.
I first heard about CrossFit through my sister, who had been doing scaled-down WODs every day after work with a co-worker. At the time, I was trying to get myself motivated to start running again and was reading everything I could find about it. She suggested that CrossFit would be more beneficial than running because it emphasizes total body fitness instead of “specialization.” So that got me thinking… Then, about a month ago, I was reminded about CrossFit in a post by a Facebook friend who is also an avid runner. That made me think it might be possible to develop total body fitness with CrossFit while still focusing on running. So ever since, I’ve been reading the CrossFit website, watching exercise demos, searching the message board, and, of course, taking a step over to eavesdrop on you folks in the Brand X community.
I’ve been doing CF consistently (again, after a long hiatus) only since late May, and so I don’t have any PRs or significant progress to report, but this is what I want to achieve by the end of this summer and the end of this year:
Goals for 9/22/2011:
Achieve Level I of CrossFit Seattle’s Skills Levels:
-50 free squats (did 50 on 6/25/11 but need to work on form, so I’ll try to be able to do 50 squats w/ good depth, getting down to 10” of the floor)
-10 traditional pushups (currently doing them on my knees)
-30-sec. static hang (I did this on 6/25 for 1 min., so it seemed too easy; I guess the next step is working toward doing a 20-foot rope climb, 1 ascent)
-30 situps
-25 kettlebell swings
-400 m run (6/24/11: 2:45, but need to knock off about 30 secs.)
-deadlift 3/4 b.w.
-military press 1/4 b.w.
-10 medicine ball cleans
-10 sitting knees to chest
-25 wallballs
-800 m run in 4:20
-500 m row in 2:20
-10” vertical jump
-3 dips
-3 pullups
-10-sec. L-sit
-2000 m row in 2:50
-10 dbell snatches per arm
-Christine in 15 min. (3 rounds for time of 500 m row, 12 deadlifts, 21 box jumps)
-1 mile run in 9 min.
Goals for 12/31/2011:
-Be more consistent with doing WODs—at least 3 per week, ideally 5 or 6. (6/30/11: Now that it’s summertime, this has definitely been achievable, but I want to keep up the consistency after the academic year starts up again on 9/22.)
-Be able to touch my head on the ground during an HSPU progression.
-Be able to do assisted pull-ups with 30 lbs. less of assistance (6/30/11: Currently at 85 lbs. of assistance on gravitron; 7/12: Just did 3 w/ 55 lbs. of assistance!)
-Learn techniques for the lifting exercises I’m not familiar with (clean & jerk, snatch, power hang, etc.) & give them at least one try each. (6/30/11: Will do this before the end of summer—i.e., 9/22.)
-Continue to lose excess body fat with a low-carb diet.
-Be able to honestly add the following as regular activities to my Facebook bio.: running/sprinting, weightlifting, jumping on things, throwing things, basic gymnastics, rope-climbing, squatting, pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and a variety of other calisthenics… all as part of CrossFit . (6/30/11: Just added CrossFit to my Facebook bio.)
-Be able to do one HSPU against the wall.
-Be able to do 3+ unassisted pull-ups.
-Be able to do good regular push-ups (10+).
-Be able to do a least one rep. of the lifting exercises that are currently unfamiliar to me with good form.
-Achieve ideal weight range with low-carb dieting.
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Ran 400M in 2:03. Not only can I clean 95#, but I can get it over my head. A a bunch of times. And do pullups in between. 
