While one parent eats with the kids, the other trains, visible the entire time through the garage doorway off the kitchen. Then they swap. “It's my favorite way to train,” says Steve Leroux, who was the first of the couple to try CrossFit.
Several years ago, while living in Manitouwadge – a remote Northern Ontario community – Steve was shown the CrossFit.com site by a coworker. “I was doing P90X,” he laughs. “My first workout was DT. I watched the video online and thought it looked awesome. I did it with smaller weights, and it crushed me.” Over the next months, he worked his way through “the Girls” – Cindy, Chelsea, Barbara and other bodyweight wokrouts – while Amy kept her distance.
“Maybe, I thought, having kids isn't the end of being in shape. Maybe we can fit this stuff into everything else we're doing, too.”
“After a year of watching Steve get stronger, I wanted to try it. Our sons were 1 and 3, and I felt I could get away with some short workouts,” she recalls. “That's what drew me in: the 9-to-15-minute workouts that just smoked me.”
After a month of asking herself if the tough workouts were really worth it, she found herself pleasantly surprised by the benefits of CrossFit. “I could suddenly lift both boys, I could do the workouts, I could stay up a bit later and not be so exhausted.”
She wanted to show other moms, too. “Maybe, I thought, having kids isn't the end of being in shape. Maybe we can fit this stuff into everything else we're doing, too.”
She started inviting friends in to train with her, and a community started to grow.
Speaking about their own relationship, Amy swears CrossFit is a positive addition. “It's something you have in common that you can talk about besides the kids.”
The boys love having a CrossFit gym in their house, too. They do burpees, swing on the rings and Steve sets up cones for them in the kitchen to race around. “I'm pretty geeky about CrossFit,” he says, “so you know I'm going to buy some of those little kettlebells and medicine balls for the kids.”
Creating a good environment with CrossFit doesn't end with their kids. Amy frequently has others training at the house with her, and she loves the accessibility of CrossFit. She says she’s a big fan of the programming in the Open so far. “I think it's been excellent. I got to do 60 snatches in 12.2, and others did better or worse, but everyone could work hard and be safe for the whole 10 minutes.”
Steve agrees. “I could push myself much further on the snatch workout than I would have if the press out had been disallowed.” Steve's increased his CrossFit Total by 100 pounds in as little as a year, and is looking forward to more strength bias, if there is any.
They've competed in half-marathons and they've done CrossFit tournaments as a team and individually.
Once every week now, the Leroux enjoy 'CrossFit Date Night,’ where they drive the 100 km to train at CrossFit SubZero, leaving the boys with their grandparents, and get coached. Then they turn around and drive home. This is how they're doing the Open, too. Sometimes, when they can't find a sitter, they take turns watching the boys while the other partner competes. As at the kitchen table, so too in the gym.
