- What was life like before you became a member?
My life before starting at Keystone CrossFit was just work and family without any kind of emphasis on taking care of myself. Normal days would include coming home from work and just sitting around not being very active. The weight continued to slowly add up and this continued for several years. I always put my activities last and this continued until I started at Keystone CrossFit.
Since joining I try to consistently come to class three times a week and complete some kind of fitness at home on the other days. Because I enjoy coming to crossfit so much I have been slowly building up equipment at home for augmenting my days at class. We added a concept rower and several other pieces of equipment over the last few years to practice the moves and become more effective.
- At the time you enrolled, were you already exercising? What was your previous background in fitness?
Before I started at Keystone CrossFit my workouts were mostly done at home. My workouts consisted of the P90X workouts and programs like that. Consistency was an issue with doing workouts because the workouts would always get pushed back for stuff to do around the house. There was no consistency and most workouts were just based on whatever I felt like doing as opposed to a structured workout.
- What originally prompted you to seek us out?
My wife was coming to Keystone Crossfit for a few months prior to my joining. She was going consistently for a few months and always telling me how great it was. I had done crossfit before but I didn’t really enjoy it because the class always felt super competitive and it never felt like I was making progress. I did that for a few months and decided it wasn’t for me. Laura convinced me that coming to Keystone Crossfit was different so she really convinced me to give it a shot. After trying it out I could see that it would be a good fit and have never second guessed my decision to join.
- What was your goal when you originally signed up?
My original goal when I signed up was just to workout consistently a couple times a week and get stronger. I wanted to be able to do some of the lifts that I couldn’t do at home like some of the Olympic lifts and some of the crossfit specific moves. Since I started my goals are constantly changing based on how things are improving. The app is a great tool to help me track my progress and make new goals.
My second goal was to start improving my respiratory status. I have had asthma for most of my life so running and aerobic exercise was never a strong point. I knew that for me to improve my fitness it was going to be necessary to focus on improving my pulmonary fitness.
5. What have you liked best about working with us?
The best part of working out at Keystone Crossfit is the fact that everyone there is encouraging each other. There is a real sense of community and everyone celebrates all the victories. I appreciate how everyday is a new challenge and that the workouts are constantly challenging and have different goals.
6. What are you most proud of achieving since you started?
Since I started at Keystone CrossFit my strength and aerobic capacity have improved. Prior to starting at Keystone CrossFit I spent no time or effort trying to improve my aerobic ability. My only focus was on strength training. Since starting my training my resting heart rate has improved and my fitness in this area is slowly improving.
7. With everything that you have accomplished, has your view of yourself changed?
Since starting at Keystone my view of myself has changed because I can now do things that I couldn’t do previously. I like the challenge of doing new things or being able to make progress on a lift and knowing that all of the small wins equal a cumulative result in all of the other parts of my day.
8. What would you say to anyone else who might be dealing with any similar struggles you did?
Just show up and do the work. Everyday you take the small victories and things start to improve until eventually you are able to accomplish things that when you started you thought were impossible. Once you reach a new goal, set the bar higher and you always have a new challenge to work for. The hard part is just starting and sticking with it. When you do the work, the progress comes with it. Just keep showing up and challenging yourself and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
9. Do you have any special moments/memories?
My favorite days on the schedule always include the one rep max lifts. These days are proof that you are improving. I always remember the days where I have improved on a previous workout. Getting kipping pull ups was a special moment for me because it was a difficult movement for me to get. Slowly stringing together new movements and learning new skills is always special because you have the ability to perform something that you didn’t think you were capable of achieving.
10. What is your favorite movement/lift?
My favorite lift has to be the deadlift. I like that this move is just pure strength and requires the use of so many muscles to be involved. The move is not difficult technically it’s just you versus gravity and the weight. The deadlift is just a move of pure determination and can be a very humbling lift. Everything has to be firing on all cylinders to get the weight into the lockout position. My second favorite movement has to be practicing double unders with the jump rope. When I started learning the move I hadn’t touched a jump rope in a few decades. Starting at the basics meant I had to learn how to jump rope from the very basic movement and slowly adding double unders after a few singles. I still have a long way to go but I know that eventually I will be able to string a few together.
