My interest in fitness began in my high school years as a football player. My high school had an excellent strength and conditioning program. We performed many of the CrossFit exercises at the CrossFit level of intensity. After high school I drifted off into the body building model of fitness. Little cardio, ridiculous amounts of protein powder and supplements, and tried every order of segmented training, chest & tri’s, back and bi’s, legs, shoulders, neck, hamstrings, etc. I always trained people when I got into a routine. I was always big and strong and always found people who wanted the same thing. I read all the muscle magazines, learned everything I could about tearing and building muscle, even learned about steroids. However, the entire time I was doing this I could not shake the fact that I was completely bored, totally unmotivated, and ultimately uninspired as to the point of it all. Coming out of high school athletics, what I was essentially looking for was that competitive spark. I didn’t see the point of working out just to look good.
Not knowing where to fulfill my need for intense effort in a competitive, supportive group environment, I joined the United States Marine Corps. I loved it. The training, the blood and sweat shared amongst brothers, and the will to win all returned. But I was in the reserves so it was not a full time thing. Once training was over I returned to the daily grind and trying to return to the body building model of working out. Again miserable and questioning the point.
In 2004, I was ordered to combat. I was sent to Fallujah, Iraq to participate in Operation Phantom Fury. The need to return to a high level of fitness returned and I responded. I took four other marines under my wing and we proceeded to pack on pounds of lean, pretty, inefficient muscle. We looked great but cramped and were out of breath every time we had to move quickly under heavy loads. (75lbs of gear) Completely disgruntled with the reality that my version of strength and fitness was unusable, I stopped altogether.
In 2005 due to a large variety of things, I began to drink. A lot. I eventually packed on 65 pounds of fat. I was miserable. I battled with alcohol over the next few years. I attended college off an on, worked various jobs, and was just generally unhappy. I had nothing to offer people. During my last attempt to return to university, I met up with an old friend who was just returning from Iraq as a recon marine. He was actually the son of my former high school strength and conditioning coach whom I had an incredible relationship with. He looked great and told me about a new program sweeping the Marine Corps called CrossFit. This was in the spring of 2010. I was interested, but at 5’8 270lbs I was hardly able to join in yet. I was also still struggling with a fairly severe alcohol problem. But I began to study. I got on the website daily and studied YouTube videos of the workouts. I felt the sense of community and passion and intensity and competition and functional fitness that I didn’t even realize was so important to me. I wanted in.
I had a few hurdles to surmount before I could get involved, but I was already in love with this thing. I knew it was what I was missing. I made some homemade rings and attempted a ring dip. This was hilarious. I knew I had to lose a lot of weight. I started P90X which for me ended up just being more like P9X because that’s about how long I lasted. I had to quit drinking. I knew, though, that I had found something that I wanted to be a part of.
Following a disastrous series of events I moved to Georgia to get help with my drinking. While living in a residential treatment facility, I immediately embarked on the long road of recovery which for me was a spiritual as well as a physical climb from the bottom. With CrossFit in my sights as a total philosophy, not simply a workout program, and AA as a spiritual program, my journey began. Along the way I saw so many similarities within the two. With no car and working at McDonald’s walking 8 miles per day back and forth to work, I began a plan to rise from my current situation. I based my diet on the CrossFit nutrition articles going strictly paleo. Although not following the CrossFit wod’s I structured an individual workout regimen based on the CrossFit model of high intensity, constantly varied functional movement. I recruited four roommates who I began to train and teach what I had gleaned on a daily basis from the CrossFit mainsite. I subscribed to the journal and read every chance I got. I proceeded to lose over 45 pounds in less than 3 months. My self-esteem was returning, I was sober, and my overall vitality and energy level steadily increased. People noticed.
Having cut down from 267 pounds to 220 pounds I took my trainees and I decided to begin mainsite CrossFitting. With hardly any money we scrounged and obtained a weight bar, a door mount pull up bar, a bucket of sand, and some rings. We began to mimic the mainsite as best as we could. We built PVC paralettes and found a kettlebell. I thought we were in decent shape, but we were sore for a month. It took a month before we could even finish the workouts and another month before we were finishing them at a decent time. I also lost another 15 pounds. After 5 months I was in better shape than I have ever been and my dream began to become a CrossFit trainer and open my own box. I returned home from treatment in the middle of January and began working out at a local affiliate learning as much as I could about box management and training techniques. I have visited all of the local boxes to glean wisdom and knowledge (and phone numbers) from local affiliate owners. After 7 months sober and my radical philosophical, spiritual, and physical change, my father decided to support my dream financially. I registered and completed my level 1 certification. My life has been amazing since getting sober and CrossFit has been fundamental in my transformation. I am currently participating in the CrossFit Open and have hopes of competing in the regionals again this year, but bringing CrossFit to the general public is my passion.
