I discovered CrossFit by accident while on a 2009 work trip to San Diego, where I found Crossfit Invictus. I had never heard of CrossFit and I didn’t know that, at Invictus, I happened to be at one of the sport’s meccas. After suffering through but thoroughly enjoying a few CrossFit-lite one-on-one workouts there, I messed around with CrossFit for a few years until one night, leaving a movie at the Oriental in the summer of 2012, I saw a sign indicating that CrossFit414—“the Eastside’s CrossFit gym”—would be opening soon. I jumped on that and became one of 414’s original members.
For me, coaching CrossFit is all about taking something that has been a gift to me and sharing that gift with others. I’m not exaggerating when I say that working with someone when he or she gets his or her first handstand push-up is as exciting as when I got my own first HSPU. As coaches, our role is facilitating what we hope may be the best hour of someone’s day. How cool is that? Welcome folks, offer guidance and instruction, share some laughs, crank the tunes (I use time on airplanes to curate my own Spotify playlists), and then it’s . . . 3, 2, 1, GO, followed by some sweaty fist bumps. Whether it’s working out or leading a class, CrossFit and CrossFit414’s community improve my physical, mental, and emotional health, and it all keeps me a little younger than the truth my birth certificate tells.
Note to the newcomers: Stay with it! My own experience teaches that we don’t have to be really good at CrossFit for CrossFit to be really good to us.
