I had spent a lot of years working out and exercising (with widely varying degrees of success) not because I particularly enjoyed it or found exercise fulfilling, but because I knew it was good for me and I was supposed to do it. It is kind of like going to the doctor for a shot. Yes, you know you’ve got to do it to be healthy and it’s all for the best, but no one actually likes shots, right? That was my general attitude toward fitness for a long time as I viewed exercise as a chore. My dismal attitude was because I didn’t know how to exercise properly or what types of workouts to do in order to achieve results, which meant that I usually wound up frustrated and not achieving much of anything. I figured that I should just do what all the other girls in the gym did — join the rows of women on elliptical machines while watching whatever muted cable news show was on the gym TVs, thinking about Cosmopolitan Magazine’s latest advice on how to lose ten pounds in two weeks, and probably all wishing we were somewhere else. Come to think of it now, it’s no wonder I felt like that was a chore! When I walked into my first session at CrossFit City Limits about four years ago, I was so nervous and felt completely out of place. I had never touched a barbell, I didn’t know what most of the equipment in the gym was even called, and I lacked the confidence to think I could even finish a CrossFit workout. I’ve gone from that point four years ago to surprising myself with my achievements now. And while confidence is still sometimes a weak spot for me that I work on fixing, a huge part of my transformation in terms of physical and mental strength over the past three years has been the coaches at CrossFit City Limits. Their expertise, contagious enthusiasm, and encouragement have been major components of my success every step of the way.
No one in the gym wants to see you succeed and overcome your obstacles more than the coaches, and they have passionately supported my goals and helped to smash my hurdles in a way that makes his desire and excitement for others’ achievement obvious. And when the going gets tough and I hit a wall in terms of diet, programming, lifting form, an everything else in between, they been great go-to experts for knowing what I can improve so that I can cross that barrier and can move on to my next challenge. When I think of all the gyms, coaches, and personal trainers I have trained with and all my choices for where to work out, I feel so lucky to have walked in full of nerves that first day to CrossFit City Limits. This gym is a huge part of why my CrossFit and fitness experience has been so fun and rewarding.
Four years ago, if someone had told me that I would have the ability to back squat 225 lbs, lift more than 100 lbs over my head, and even know what the heck a box jump was, I would have thought they were nuts. But now that I know better, I say, “Yeah, I can do that! And more than that! And there’s a lot of more awesome stuff that I’m going to do, too!” I surprise myself with my accomplishments in the gym and am glad I now possess those skills because I have seen how useful they are outside the gym in my everyday life. But I also know I can do more, continue to improve, be faster, and stronger. The confidence and fulfillment I get from knowing my ability and strength comes from the foundation that the coaches have helped to build in teaching me how to work out and how to chip away at my goals until I’ve achieved them. Exercise is now fun!
