CrossFit junkie for life!
Why I LOVE CrossFit
Long after Crossfit was all the rage I fell hard for the sport, this year I competed in the open (just to see where I was compared to other women my age) and have grown to love and support a community of athletes near and far through their journeys as well as my own. When I was a new yoga teacher and had found a new love for fitness and the gym but didn’t love traditional gym routines a friend invited me to try Crossfit with her and her hubby. I tried a WOD, then a kettlebell workshop and I was intrigued. Thats when I signed up for a semester long class at the University of Utah while I was in my undergrad program. I dabbled for several years, trying different boxes around the Salt Lake valley, it took until January 2018 for me to find a regularity in my life for Crossfit. But it wasn’t until the week after I lost my mom in December 2018 that I made it my escape from grief. I began teaching yoga in exchange for a free membership & I began to come to the gym for human connection and a way to sweat out the anger and the grief.
What I got next is priceless.
The community at the gym I call home was amazing, they were my saving grace, where I felt the most seen and supported, if even for an hour a day and even if most of them had no idea what I was dealing with outside those walls and inside my heart & mind.
I grew stronger every day, I found limits I didn’t know I had and I pushed through those and found new ones, and I kept going.
For the first time in my life I didn’t feel like a complete imbecile in the gym, I wasn’t self conscious about how I looked or felt, how well I did or didn’t do. I was welcomed and supported by the coaches and the community in ways I didn’t know I needed. They became home, I loved teaching yoga there and sharing my passion for mindful movement, even though my personal practice had fallen off, mostly because it drove me too deep into my broken heart. It was exactly what I needed, where I needed it, at that time.
Even through COVID lockdowns and gym re-openings and the community changing faces almost completely, my Crossfit box became my second home and my chosen family. I have found strength in things I didn’t know I had, and found perseverance I didn’t know I needed.