February 7, 2015
It's Everything

To Rachel McInnis, CrossFit is “everything.” She’s 14 years old and can deadlift more than twice her body weight. She’s been doing CrossFit with her dad at Carlsbad CrossFit in California for more than a year, and she wants to win the CrossFit Games someday.

As a young athlete, McInnis looks up to Lauren Fisher, who started CrossFit as a teenager and is already a veteran competitor at age 20. On her 14th birthday, McInnis got a surprise visit from Fisher at her affiliate.

“I watched one of her videos, the ‘Growing Up Strong’ video,” McInnis says of Fisher. “I want to be like her.”

Throughout the day, Fisher coaches McInnis on Olympic lifts and stringing muscle-ups together, and then the two do a workout consisting of power cleans, handstand push-ups and pull-ups. To end the day, Fisher gives McInnis some words of advice about competing.

“I think the biggest thing for her to take away is to never take it too seriously, and if you’re not … progressing at a certain time, to not get down on yourself and feel like it’s the end of the world and feel like you have to work on everything.”

After the video was filmed, Fisher went on to finish ninth at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games, and McInnis has been working on her max set of muscle-ups.

Video by Gary Roberts and Travis Cosentino.