August Athlete Spotlight: Matt

How long have you been a member at CFD, and what made you want to get started?

I’ve been at CFD for over 4 years now. I had a friend that was going to CFD while she was in town for college. Over the years of knowing her, I became good friends with a lot of her friends from school. They were all set to graduate in March 2014, which was only a couple of months away. She started to worry that after graduation everyone will move away, and I will have no friends left in town.

This is what she told me:

‘You’re an athlete, you work out, and you’re going to need to meet new friends. Everyone at CFD is super nice, and they all have the same goal of bettering themselves. They’re basically a big family. This would be such a good thing for you to do, and you’d be stupid if you didn’t at least try it.’

In March 2014 I started Foundations, and I’ve been going ever since.

What changes have you seen in yourself since your very first day?

When I first started at CFD I was probably around 245 lbs. I considered myself to be in good shape, but definitely not the best I’ve been in. My goal was to get back to that peak I was at. I wasn’t in a rush to hit my goal, so it took some time to get back to my peak strength, but I got there. I was moving weight that I haven’t moved in years. Hell, I even got stronger in some areas. I felt strong!

November 2017, I saw a picture of myself and thought I looked like I was holding a little extra weight on my frame (mostly the belly and face). I brushed it off until one day at work I stepped on to a loading dock scale, and it said 275. That’s 20 lbs heavier than I have ever been. At that point I knew I had to make some changes. I thought to myself I no longer need to be the biggest and strongest athlete. I don’t need to lift as heavy of weight as I do. Now I just need to focus on maintaining and preserving my body, so it doesn’t fall apart when I’m 35/40 years old. I decided that the first thing I needed to do was lose a healthy amount of weight.

Since December 2017 I’ve cleaned up my eating a lot. (I used to eat enough for a small family.) I was super strict on what I ate and drank (No booze) for 5 months. It’s only been the last 2 months that I have been a little lenient about what I consume, and that’s because it’s the summer. I haven’t changed any of my workout habits yet. I knew if I just stuck with what I was doing at CFD it would set me up to be in a good position to start my next goal.

In total I’ve lost about 40lbs since I decided to “restructure” myself. Let me tell you it is way easier to run and do pull ups/chest to bars. Not going to lie, I would never come to the classes that had running in them and now I don’t really mind them. I still hate running, but I know I’ll be able make it through the workout at a much better pace.

What did you do for fitness prior to CFD, and what do you like most about CrossFit?

Growing up I was always in sports and weight training. If you knew the background of my family you would know that not being active wasn’t an option. I was a multi-sport athlete for as long as I could remember. I tried most of the major sports, but stuck to ice hockey and football. Because of the sports I was in, I focused on training for strength and fast recovery. For strength it was all about the heavy weight, low reps, and big bursts of energy. They only cardio I did was during practices, so there was never a time that I had to lift and do cardio at the same time like the workouts at CFD. I really had to learn how to pace myself when I started CrossFit, and I still have trouble with doing it.

What type(s) of workouts are your favorite?

Anything that has some type of a press in it, except thrusters. I have horrible mobility in a front rack position, and I can’t move through them as fast as I’d like to.

What type(s) of workouts do you least like to see come up?

Anything that has a front rack position with a squat. Again, my mobility in the front rack is awful. I probably have the worst upper body mobility at CFD.

What are you goals going forward?

My next goal is to get my strength back. Going through my weight loss I lost more strength than I thought I would. I would like to get my strength back to where it was prior to my weight loss, I just don’t want to put too much weight back on while doing it.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out at CFD?

Some say it’s not for everybody, but you won’t know until you try. If you’re use to lifting weights, play/played physical sports, and are looking to change things up I would try it. There is a good chance that you will enjoy it. If you have never worked out, or aren’t willing to work hard this probably isn’t for you. But, what’s nice about CFD is that they have Foundations class. Before you even start to do the normal classes, they have classes to introduce you to what you will be doing. Then they give you a ~2 month test run to see if this style of working out is for you.

You won’t know if it’s for you until you try it.

Not a member? Sign up for an Intro Class today!  The next Intro class takes place on August 4th at 10:00, and Foundations starts the next week (August 7th).
RSVP to the free Intro Class here!