What made you choose CrossFit True?
- We moved to North Haven just recently, literally two years this month, and we didn’t know anyone in Connecticut. Kathleen had done some CrossFit in high school, so she recommended we join a gym now that our college athletics days were over. She must have liked the vibes on social media or something, and suddenly she was way busy hanging out with me. I’d started training for a marathon, but running alone was not it and so once that was over I joined too.
How long have you been training with us?
- Since early April 2023, so 17 months.
What has been your proudest moment in the past 90 days?
- Honestly, nothing particular. I feel like I’ve had some big wins the past few months, like new skills (overhead squats!) and heavier weights (hang squats!). Given everything else that is going on in my life, the biggest and best thing is simply the fact that I seem to keep making linear and visible progress.
When you’re not at the gym, what do you do for work? What do you do for fun?
- I’m an engineer. I do electricity power market forecasting. The main thing I do for fun is CFT, especially with my bestie, but I also like reading, woodworking, and gardening, and I’m pretty involved in local politics.
How is your nutrition? How has it changed since joining CrossFit True?
- It’s fine. I don’t really ever get hungry, so it’s not really something that compels me. I also find that since I no longer do really extensive cardiovascular training, like I did when I was a cyclist, I don’t need to eat as much anyways. However, since I’m now trying to hit caloric targets to support muscle gain, I struggle to balance eating enough with an apathy towards food.
What are your 3 favorite movements/exercises?
- My consistent favorites have been deadlifts and lunges, but I recently discovered that I really like squat clean & jerks too. But I honestly like everything except the bike, wall balls, thrusters, and muscle ups.
What is your favorite style workout? (AMRAP, EMOM, Rounds for Time, etc)
- The strength portions of the workout, where we focus on a single skill and deliberately build up in weight to get better at it, are my favorite part of class. Kathleen and I usually pick which days we go based on what the strength portion is focused on that day. These are almost always EMOMs, so, well, EMOMs.
What about your favorite workout?
- Erin’s athlete spotlight from like a year ago or whenever was pretty good. I really like when there’s a balance of muscle groups and small but heavy reps. Maybe something like RFT of rowing, heavy deadlifts, single arm dumbbell snatches, pullups? Or maybe part A is the deadlift progression and then we substitute the deadlifts & snatches with squat clean & jerks and the pullups with a rope climb? Something like that.
Any favorite workout songs?
- Anything I recognize. Once we start going though, it mostly just becomes compelling noise.
Have you changed physically or mentally since you’ve been working out with us?
- I’m up 15 pounds since I graduated college, possibly more. Being strong is amazing, I wish I’d been lifting since forever. I’m like, pretty capable these days (?!), and not nearly as scrawny.
What are your current goals?
- 2x bodyweight deadlift, 1.5x bodyweight squat, bodyweight squat clean & jerk, bodyweight 1-rep (each leg) lunges. We never do bench presses, but someday bodyweight bench. More generally, I think the next steps for me are to shore up muscle-ups, rope climbs, and double-unders, while learning how to do hand-stands and butterfly pullups.
How have your goals changed since you joined?
- I was a cyclist in college, and the first year I lived in Connecticut I was training for a marathon. That whole training mentality is practically the polar opposite of what I’m focused on now, which has been the biggest thing. To be focused on gaining muscle mass and being able to lift increasingly heavy weights is a paradigm shift. The hardest part for me will be figuring out balance, between endurance and power. I seem to just keep trading one for the other, when perhaps the most healthy is a bit of both. But running is just so boring, I never want to skip CFT for a run.
What has been the biggest surprise since joining CF True?
- How much I love it! I never thought I would like weight lifting so much, it’s ridiculous how fun it is. CFT is pretty much all I ever want to be doing, I wish I could recover faster between days and go more…
What can you do now that you couldn’t do before joining?
- Pretty much all the movements.
Say something else, Anything!
- Hi Kathleen!