Somewhere along the way

A little fitness history of me.  I grew up a normal rug rat out getting dirty and running around.  I don't think my parents did anything intentionally damaging to me from a physical fitness standpoint.  There were cookies and ice cream along the way for sure - but it wasn't excessive or abnormal.

I played baseball pretty enthusiastically through most of my childhood.  I also golfed a little bit and dabbled in high contact sports like football and wrestling and also managed to learn Taekwondo as well.  I wouldn't consider myself a prodigy or some sort of gifted athlete who was going to become the next Cal Ripkin Jr. or Tiger Woods but I definitely had the agility, coordination and the analytic skills necessary to pickup just about any sport and at least develop some proficiency in it when I chose to.

It was in my pre-teen and early teen years that I really found a sport that I was passionate about; inline skating. Now before you start thinking goofy 80's spandex and crazy fitness blading that's not it.  The skating I'm talking about is ramps, rails and street.  Grinds, spins and gnarly falls.  It became fairly central to who I was for a long time.  It really wasn't until my late teens and early twenties that I recognized how much joy (and pain) the activity brought to me.

Of course through those years I remained active and while not a specimen of fitness I certainly wouldn't have considered myself terribly out of shape.  I ate poorly, I partied hard, and generally did what you do at that age and consider yourself indestructible.  At that age you shrug off injury and you simply don't pay attention to what you eat let alone how you train for those types of activities.  That sport is hard on your body and if you don't prepare for it it will destroy you.  In fact you see "pros" in that sport that generally don't last much past their late teens and early to mid twenties.  Those that do have adopted training regimes outside of the sport that help build that base needed to continue.

My mid twenties hit and that is when it happened.  The event, the fall, the wake up call - whatever you want to coin it.  7 feet straight down to concrete, completely out of control.  7 feet doesn't sound like that far but when you consider the amount of speed and power that launched my body in motion prior to the absolute force of the fall I'm going to guesstimate that it's like getting hit by a car going 30 miles an hour.  Except metal and plastic bend and break - concrete does not.

I know people talk about those near death experiences where they see all kinds of crazy stuff.  I'm just going to say that the only thing that went through my head on the way down was 'god help me'.  After the hit the only thing I was thinking was 'this is it, I'll never walk again'.  Somehow miraculously I managed to walk (limp) away from it.  In retrospect maybe it was divine intervention.  Maybe it was luck.  I can't know.  I do know that I recognized that I was not in any sort of physical condition to continue doing what I was doing.

The worst of the damage was what happened in my head.  It would be almost two years before I'd muster the will to put skates back on my feet.  And in those two years I replaced what physical exercise I had done with sitting in front of the computer and continued a general unhealthy eating habit.  I ballooned up to just shy of 250lbs on my 5'9ish frame.  And there I stayed through the remainder of my 20's.

I was 31 when it all hit me.  That epiphanous moment where I realized that A. I had a problem.  B. I was headed down the same unhealthy road of my family and C. if I wanted to continue to do things I enjoyed in life I was going to have to make a change.  That was my trigger point.  Now, ask my wife how I am when I commit to something.  My guess is she'd respond that I don't just 'do' anything - that when I decide to do something it's done at 110% intensity.  I think my take on it is that if I'm going to do something I might as well research everything and do it completely rather than miss details.

The problem is that I had no idea where to start.  I had no context for fitness and it was never taught in school.  So I started where I think a lot of people start with P90x.  Yes the infomercial program that guarantees results.  I certainly won't knock the program, it does work.  In that three month period I shed almost 50lbs and made some modest basic strength gains on general isolation movements.  I also gained some baseline stamina off their plyometric workouts.

I followed that up with a round of the same companies Insanity workout.  In retrospect, a horribly ruthless program that does nothing but destroy your legs for 8 weeks.  I made it about 6 and a half weeks before I had to quit due to sever muscle problems in my legs.  Waking up in the middle of the night to both legs completely lock-jawed out is no fun.  And a really good way to terrify your wife.

It was around the same time that I found Crossfit.  First workout, Fran - because lets be honest who doesn't do it as one of the very first.  I was a mess.  I was also sold on the fundamentals even if at the time I was less than committed to doing it daily.  It would be almost a year later before I committed to doing the workouts.  When I did I started simply enough with a call to Facebook friends to join me for the journey.  Fortunately I was blessed to have some equally committed companions along the way that have really helped form the basis  of our own little garage gym community.

I get asked a lot by friends and family what Crossfit is and I usually respond with the standard; Functional movements, constantly varied, done at high intensity which is the standard Crossfit prescription.  However it's so much more that I now have to follow that statement up with the add on that really I need an hour of their time, a white board and a marker to explain it.  Yes, it will kick your but.  Yes, you will get stronger.  Yes, you will run faster.  Yes, you will run longer.  Yes, you will loose weight.  Yes, you will be in the best shape of your life.  Yes, you will be ready for anything life can throw at you.

The significance of all this is that today marks the day 3 years ago that I started down the path of restoring myself physically.  I think it's important for me to share the story because through this process not only have I found personal physical redemption but I've also been given an opportunity to share, coach and help others find the same.