Happy New Year! Now get your bums in here.

Baby Barbara. Starting them young!

 Classes at 9am,10am,11am and noon only today.

I have been wanting to write this blog for a while, and what could be a better time than new years day?!

A little over a month ago, Chad Whittman from Reebok summoned some of the local coaches together for a round table discussion. In Chad’s email he wrote that we would be discussing the WHY, and to start thinking about our WHY.

I love getting out of the box and talking to like minded coaches about operating a box and coaching. It can be easy to get caught up in the day in and day out tasks and forget what it is all about. Talking with the other coaches made things crystal clear. Why we do what we do as coaches, is empower you all to become better humans? Now that might seem extreme, but think about it.

When I worked as a personal trainer, it was the same thing all the time. Me, begging my clients to work hard, my clients not wanting to work hard, and then my clients being a lost cause without my presence. In CrossFit, we have the ability to teach you all the tools and at the same time we are teaching you to become self sufficient. So many of you had a hard time eating right and exercising consistently before starting CrossFit, and now you are workout ninjas and eat extremely clean. The coaches and the community help you get there, but it is the will that you find within yourself to make it happen.

How many of you started doing CrossFit and all of a sudden you are a better all around person? Seriously? I remember Ben Hoogheem approaching us after his fist few months at CFS and telling us that before starting Crossfit he was battling with depression and that his relationships with his friends and family were crumbling. CrossFit helped him pull himself out of that depression, mend his relationships, and make his feel good about himself once again. And Joe Shamon, I have to call you out. When we first met Joe he was this shy, skinny, de-conditioned young man that really didn’t talk much. Now Joe is rather meaty, extremely social, very athletic and knowledgable, and confident. I don’t know a soul that doesn’t love Joe Shamon. How about Amy Cleary? Some of you never met the Amy that we met a few years back, but she has come a long way. Amy has lost 50-60lbs since she started. But that is not the real impressive part. Amy was an athlete growing up and she has ignited that athlete inside of her. Not only is Amy fit, she is fierce. Amy works really hard day after day and stays after with her little buddy Petra and works on her weaknesses. In addition to all this, she has a big position in a big job. She has told me more than once that CrossFit has helped her excel there as well. Oh and Lissa, poor thing…we dragged her by her hair to CrossFit Southie. She had trained with Chris since 2005, and she was a one on one client. When we opened the business Lissa followed us, and then result blew us both away. Lissa went from hating exercise…to actually liking it (she probably won’t admit to it but she loves it). A few paleo challenges and 2 years of CrossFit later, she is like a different person. Fit, beautiful, and confident. Lissa also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, and her new diet has kept her flare ups more under control and she is less inhibited by her disease. I could go on for days about all of you, but obviously I can’t. One last person I want to mention is JR Butler. He approached me back in August about  attaining  some goals of his. He created his own regimen for himself and saw great results. The biggest result was his sobriety. JR is sober, finally mastering those double unders, and crushing wods all over the place. Very inspiring.

I think for me CrossFit has done a countless number of things. I am more comfortable in my own skin. Before CrossFit, I was focused on being thin, and would constantly be negative about my body. I also find that I have this crazy mental toughness with everything thing that I do. I would never just stop in the middle of a WOD, so why would I just give up in the middle of a project? In times where I would give up before, I charge on through. It becomes more second nature. With and exception of this past week, I went an entire 2 YEARS without any sickness. I attribute this mostly to eating paleo, and consistently staying active. I think that being a CrossFitter just simply makes me happier, so then I am able to be better to those around me. I have patience with my fiance, I am happy and giving to my friends, and I am very good to my parents. I have exercised recreationally and have eaten “healthy” since I was a freshman in high school, so for me it has truly been CrossFit and the CrossFit community that has made the difference.

For some of you I am sure you think I am crazy, or have no idea who or what I am talking about, but stick with CrossFit for long enough and it will make sense to you too. Yes, by doing Crossfit you will look better naked, but it is so much more than that which is what makes it worth doing. I was a gym rat since I was 15 and then did a 4 year exercise science bachelors program and then went on to do 2 more years of exercise science in grad school. I feel like I have pretty much seen it all, and there is nothing like this.

Well all of that is still just a small bite of my WHY. I could go on for days. Please post your WHY to comments.

Skill
Pull-ups
Toes to bar

WOD (45 minutes)
2 Rounds
Run 800m
30 pull-ups
30 Front Squats (115,80)
30 Toes to bar
30 Power Cleans (115,80)

Level 2 (95,65) 20 reps of each
Level 1 (65,35) 15 reps of each

**Sub 1000m row for 800m run if icy! If you need work on your dubs, then that can be a sub as well. Ask your retta or goose for suggestions for numbers based on your ability level.**

7 Comments

  • Sara G

    01/03/2013 @ 2:38 am

    I think the most rewarding part of crossfit is the constant improvement and small achievements along the way. Constantly measuring what we do means we know every time we get better, faster and stronger. Lifting an extra 5 or 10 pounds, nailing something you’ve been working on for a while, getting faster at double unders – it’s the big and small accomplishments we can feel proud of every time. That’s what keeps me drinking the koolaid.

  • Amy Ferro

    01/02/2013 @ 12:33 am

    All great posts. Thanks for posting guys!

  • Stephanie

    01/01/2013 @ 11:13 pm

    Love this post, Amy! “little buddy Petra” LOL!!

    I don’t really have time to explain everything crossfit has given me, and WHY I love doing it. But here’s the big one: it gave me the courage to end a career 10 years in the making that was going nowhere and making me unhappy. I mean, who has time for that?? It was so stressful leaving my job and being unemployed for the past few months, but crossfit and the southie community kept me sane. I finally found my dream job and I start tomorrow! Oh, and I also would have never done yoga teacher training and started teaching if it wasn’t for crossfit southie (especially you, Amy!) Can’t wait for more PRs and other great things to come in 2013!

  • Mel O

    01/01/2013 @ 11:11 pm

    Why? Because walking in to the Southie box is like walking in to a
    different part of my life that is just for me. Because it is a place
    where I always know at least one friendly face in class and the coaches
    are not only encouraging, they are also friends. Because one WOD
    can give me enough endorphins to forget about work stress and enough
    strength and energy to play batman tag with my kids or pull them around
    in the sled the rest of the day. Because you can see progress through set wods we do yearly. Because I feel like when my kids watch me compete I am showing them that being healthy is important and hard work pays off. Because the community the Amy and Goose have created at Southie is just plain fun!

  • Gill P

    01/01/2013 @ 6:58 pm

    For me, Crossfit is about learning to have faith in yourself and your body. I think us ladies especially are taught to doubt ourselves, and to believe that our bodies are weak and fragile and probably too fat. Crossfit is about knocking it off, stopping the excuses, believing that we can get there, and then yes, eventually getting there! So many times, I’ve had the coaches at CFS push me to do RX when I didn’t think I could, and I’ve always surprised myself!

    Pullups are my example: when I started Crossfit, I needed two green bands to do one pullup. Without a band, I couldn’t even pull myself an inch towards the bar. Even as late a last March in the Open, I couldn’t do chest to bar pullups, so my score on WOD 5 was a measly 3 reps. If I kept doubting myself like I have always doubted myself, I would have just resigned myself to the fact that I can’t do pullups and that would have been that. But Crossfit is about breaking that attitude, and pushing yourself to discover what you can do. Today, I did 5×5 dead hang pullups for strength, and then 30 chest to bars in the workout. No bands!! And yes, it carries over – if I can go from 0 pullups to chest to bars for reps in a workout, I am pretty sure that I can do ANYTHING.

    So thanks to Crossfit and the Crossfit Southie coaches for teaching us to have some confidence in ourselves. Again, for the ladies especially, I don’t think you can get that anywhere else.

    Congratulations to everyone for all their successes in 2012 and for all the accomplishments to come in 2013!!!

  • JeffSully

    01/01/2013 @ 6:17 am

    True words spoken by one of the greatest minds I know, Happy New Years to Amy Chris and the CFS Crew, you all are awesome

    James, keep rockin dude your an inspiration to everyone at the box and a huge help to me too dude

    Well everyone knows the story about Sully joining CrossFit and driving Amy and Goose crazy with debating about signing up and all that, but after moving to South Boston in August of 2011, not having many friends and being completely out of shape after not working out for more than 6 months, CrossFit seemed like a great outlet for me, to meet people and workout without having to worry about people judging me or anything like that. Since becoming a member at CFS, this is and will always be one of the greatest decisions I made ever. I’ve been fortunate like many others to watch CFS grow, meeting some crazy people that just make my days at the box and out in the real world that much better, but most of all making myself feel better overall. To all my friends at CFS, I wish you all a safe and healthy year, keep striving to reach your goals, meanwhile staying grounded.

    Sully

  • James Saunders

    01/01/2013 @ 2:25 am

    Happy New Year CFS and awesome post Amy!

    You guys (the coaches) continue to blow me away with your dedication and focus on every member of the box. Having seen CFS grow from 10-20 people to where it is now (400, 450, 500?) is nothing short of amazing. Building anything is difficult but building a community takes more than blood, sweat, tears. Our individual success/progress is a reflection of the work put in by each of you to teach, encourage, and at times yell at us to keep moving.

    When I started coming to he box my list of “why’s” was beyond long (mainly b/c I was starting from ground zero) but now when someone ask why I crossfit my answer is simple: Crossfit forces me to stare in the mirror each day and to see who I am, to see the person I am striving to be, and to see the path to get there. Getting to do this in the supportive, competitive, and welcoming confines of CFS is what makes crossfit work for me.

    Again Happy New Year everyone and here’s hoping for even more growth and success for CFS over the coming months…

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