“It teaches effort, discipline and perseverance. The results translate to every single aspect of your life.”
“What I remember the most were the doctors’ screams and the faces of my family watching me lie on a stretcher in the ER. That was my first cardiac arrhythmia, caused by stress, bad nutrition, and an undiagnosed emotional distress. My life was hell back then.”
This is the story of Salvador “Metal” Camacho, a 34-year-old, who was always involved with informal sports – mainly long distance running, football and mountain biking. Unfortunately for Camacho, he was recently the victim of a violent crime and the post-traumatic stress that went followed.
To add to the turmoil, his restaurant had gone bankrupt, his day job employer had gone out of business, and he was in serious debt. He had fallen into a deep state of anxiety and depression that was taking him in a downward spiral, until his body could not contain it any longer and sent him that first warning.
While Camacho was in recovery, he suffered two more arrhythmias and a facial paralysis. But his path to health and stability had already begun. His doctors told him on that first episode that he should return to exercise before it was too late. Camacho quickly began running again and started a healthier diet, at least with a “Neolithic definition of healthy,” he says.
Fortunately, his first arrhythmia taught him “the lesson that you can always stand up again and that helps you tons to get to know yourself, your weaknesses and strengths, and how you can utilize this to your favor.”
On June 2011, he ran the San Diego Marathon. After the race he could not bear with the pain he throughout his entire body. It was during an informal chat with a marathon coach after the race that recommended CrossFit.
After returning to Mexico, a friend pointed him in the direction of CrossFit Uno, where he arrived “somewhat skeptical and with some arrogance, believing that since I was a runner of four to five hours daily, a 15 minute WOD wouldn’t even warm me up,” he admits. “After two minutes into the WOD, I felt I couldn’t keep going, a very humbling hit.”
He was convinced CrossFit was right for him. Soon after, he changed his diet, he felt mentally and emotionally better, and he was able to suspend all medications. “CrossFit changed my life. I am in the best physical and mental shape of my life and this is just starting,” he says. “I owe it all to the CrossFit community and to my coach Alex Castro and his wife. I don’t have words to thank everyone involved. It’s like having been asleep and finally waking up, I am now enjoying every moment of my life.”
Camacho got his Level 1 Certificate in January and is currently working as a coach at CrossFit Uno. “There is no better way to learn than teaching, I want to do for others what my coaches did for me, I want to help people change their lives and become better human beings; to help people reach their goals.”
He feels CrossFit is not only for physical training, but mental training as well. “It teaches effort, discipline and perseverance. The results translate to every single aspect of your life.”
Salvador has already accomplished, in his seven months of CrossFit, a 4:20 “Fran,” a 27-round “Cindy,” a 7:21 “Annie,” and a score of 251 reps on “Fight Gone Bad.” He is currently participating in the Open and his goal is to be among the top 100, “which is more than enough for this year” he says, proudly. “In workout 12.2 I could not finish the first 135-pound snatch, something very unmotivating, but with the support of my coaches and peers, I managed to complete 23 reps at 135. Like I said, CrossFit is full of surprises, you never stop learning.”
