"If my 100 percent gets me a win, great. If not ... I will keep training to improve it."
After only four months of CrossFit, Rodrigo Valenzuela has a lot of eyes on him. A former collegiate athlete, he was discovered at age 20 by a weightlifting coach. The following year, he won Nationals.
Now, Valenzuela holds three weightlifting championships in Argentina, he is co-founder and head coach at a fitness center and is a high-performance coach for professional rugby, soccer and basketball athletes.
When he moved to Chile to be with his girlfriend, he heard about CrossFit Cordillera and gave it a try.
“I’m a creature of (one-rep max),” Valenzuela says of leaving his comfort zone to try an endurance workout with multiple reps.
Despite the unfamiliarity, he decided to continue with CrossFit. The intensity has made him more versatile, he says.
Aside from the physical gains, Valenzuela enjoys the community at CrossFit Cordillera, as well.
“The box is small, everyone knows each other and there are great friendships,” he says. “There is a cordial and healthy competition atmosphere where each person is his own rival.”
His coach, Claudio Poblete, is happy with Valenzuela’s performance.
“In spite of having little time in CrossFit, he has previous experience with weightlifting and that's very positive for his growth as a CrossFit athlete,” Poblete says.
Valenzuela´s goal in 2013 is to always be better than the previous day.
“If my 100 percent gets me a win, great. If not … I will keep training to improve it,” Valenzuela says.
Poblete says Valenzuela has the potential to make top 10 at Regionals.
Valenzuela defines his training as “organized, coherent, planned and very intense.”
His mantra: “If you set a goal that is difficult, you must do everything possible to achieve it.”
His current PRs include a 2:39 Fran, a 4:26 Elizabeth, a 308-lb. clean and jerk, a 451-lb. deadlift and a 396-lb back squat.
