"My life changed in a better direction, both mind and body."
The date was May 24th 2013 when I first met the team at CrossFit Signal Hill. Since that date my life changed in a better direction, both mind and body. A work colleague told me about a gym and invited me for a work out. On the very first day, Phil had me perform a base set of functions that included pull ups. As I was dangling on the bar, he advised me to go ahead and start…my response was that I already did! At that moment I realized that my fitness from younger days had left the building. I’m happy to say that I can now perform real pull-ups; they may not be as pretty as the coaches’ pull-ups with their fancy butterfly techniques, but they are good.
I am 40 pounds lighter than when I started. I can now put on socks standing up and can unbuckle my seatbelt with my left hand when in the driver’s seat. These may seem like a small victories, but it’s the simple things in life, and with weight gain, are not simple. I have learned that with consistent effort on working out, whether you are trying to compete or just maintain your cardio, your life outside the gym seems less stressful. With CFSH, if I challenge myself at the box, the work-life balance outside of the gym is easy to handle regardless of the challenge. I have also learned to diet (mostly paleo) consistently, if consistent means good during the week and lots of cheating on the weekends…
My favorite thing about CFSH is that the camaraderie among members is always present, whether you attend daily or once every couple weeks. I also enjoy the coaches, as they will assist you with all movements and show great patience even with our 5:45 a.m. class when we don’t pay attention the first time they explain the workout.
I would recommend CFSH to people that want to change their gym routines from standing around a normal gym to working as a group with coaches where you can challenge your skills and cardio daily. They refer to CrossFit as functional fitness, and I have realized that this is true when I am moving furniture or working on my house or running with the Border Collies. Fitness really does transfer to everyday active lives.