"The only one who can be responsible for your health is you. The system will not save you."
Philip Davis took a break from training as a surgeon to get fit.
The fourth-year surgical resident in Halifax, Nova Scotia, tells his patients, "The only one who can be responsible for your health is you. The system will not save you."
Until 2011, Davis considered himself a fit guy.
“Not CrossFit 'fit,' but fit.”
When he saw his own health spiral downward with the heavy demands of residency, he knew he had to act.
"When I started surgical residency, the long hours, lack of sleep and poor diet eventually caught up and I went from being 230 pounds in July 2008 to 260 pounds by July 2011,” he says. “I took a bit of a hiatus from surgical training and realized I had to get back in shape.”
Davis followed a rugby buddy to CrossFit Kinetics in November 2011. The workout was Grace. He struggled and almost quit twice. He finished in 12 minutes. As a self-professed 'extreme person,' Davis bought in.
"I educated myself and consumed everything on the net or in print from paleo, MobilityWOD, to Olympic lifting," Davis says.
A few months after he started CrossFit, Davis was encouraged by other members of Kinetics to enter the Open in 2012.
"I really enjoyed seeing where I stacked up. Not well after only three months," he laughs.
He placed 686th.
Davis learned a few things, though.
"That experience taught me to push harder, and if I wanted to be good, I'd have to train as hard as the people who are good."
So he did.
He's dropped to 210 pounds and he can snatch his bodyweight.
The Philip Davis facing 2013 is very different from the Phillip Davis in 2012. One of his trainers, Chad Furey — a Regional competitor in 2012 — has been with Davis since that very first attempt at Grace.
“Davis has impressed everyone with his transformation and his personality,” Furey says.
Davis hopes to finish in the top 200 in Canada East, and qualify his affiliate team with other members at CrossFit Kinetics. He'd like to see his strengths appear in workouts: power cleans, power snatches and bar muscle-ups.
"I'd be happy not to see an overhead squat or squat snatch though," he admits.
Despite all he’s achieved over the past year, Davis' perspective hasn't changed.
"Even if I'm bad at it, it will tell me how much I need to improve for next year."
