Braedon (or Brady, to all of us here) was another one of our original 7 athletes who started our very first Foundations class with in mid-November of 2011. He’s one of those guys who is hard to be in a bad mood around! You can always count on Brady for a good attitude and probably to say something to make everyone laugh at least a couple of times every class. Here’s his testimonial:

 

 

I thought I would share my story with everyone who may apprehensive about giving CrossFit a try. I began CrossFitting in November of 2011 basically on a last minute heads up from a friend that they were holding an introduction class and almost didn’t go due to the cold weather, but I am very glad I decided to suck it up and try something new.

I walked into the gym that night very skeptical, because I have seen a million infomercials about new hip workouts that were going to make you look like a model in only a few weeks with minimal effort and maximum money, but that outlook changed very quickly once I walked in and didn’t see any flat screen TVs, expensive weightmachines, or (my personal favorite) the bike machines that have a place that you a set a book or magazine to read while you are working out. Now that I have finished my rant on all things that are wrong with gyms and workout videos I will get to the actual testimonial part of this.

I have considered myself an athlete my entire life; I played baseball, football, and golf in high school and was MVP of both baseball and golf teams, as well as a finalist for athlete of the year. Once I moved on to college, I continued to play baseball, but later had to quit for family reasons, but that Braedon would not even be able to hang for 2 minutes with this Braedon. As a child I grew up in northwest Houston, where at a young age I was involved in every sport you could imagine from baseball to football then basketball. Shortly after I turned 10 or so, my mother, brother and I moved into a family shelter to escape from an abusive stepfather and due to the fact that my mother didn’t have a job and nowhere to go to escape our situation. I really didn’t have the opportunity to do the sports that I had done in the past, and since we didn’t have the money to be able to buy anything to eat other than macaroni and cheese and anything in a box or keep me in youth sports I began to gain weight until at the age of 14 I was 5′ 9″ tall and weighed about 250 lbs. Shortly before my 14th birthday I moved in with my real father where I began to participate in sports again and thinned out to about 210 lbs whereI pretty much stayed all throughout college and my young 20s. As I reached my mid-twenties, though, I began to lose much of the muscle mass from college and high school and though I didn’t gain much weight my body fat percentage had to be 1 million percent.

So, in November 2011 I thought I needed to make a change and do something productive to counteract the sedentary lifestyle I was heading toward. After my first workout in CFD, I knew I had found what I was looking for in a gym. I walked in not being able to do even 1 pull up, but within 4 months or so I had not only gained my pullup skill but also muscle ups, double unders, and on top of all of that lost nearly 45 lbs of fat, putting me at 170 lbs, and started seeing definition in my mid section I didn’t even think was possible in a million years. I have never had more energy or a more positive outlook on my body and life. I used to be very uncomfortable in my own skin, not wanting to take off my shirt even at my house to now not wanting to put one on because I want to show off everything I have worked so hard for. (Coach’s note: trust Brady when he says that you will rarely catch him with his shirt on while he’s in here!!) I am in the best shape of my life physically and mentally and owe most of it to CFD.

CFD is more than a place to go workout, it’s a support system that reaches out not only to the members in my gym but to the thousands of gyms worldwide. Joining CFD has been one of the best decisions I have made to this point in my life and has completely changed how I go about my daily routine at work and at home. You may be intimidated at first. You are going to hurt in places you didn’t even think you had muscles, and sometimes you’re not going to want to go to the workout, but if you make the decision to join, just remember everyone there has been in your shoes and will be there to support you 100%.

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