Athlete of the Month

 Congratulations Brian R!

I consider myself to be a pretty normal, middle-aged husband and father.  I’ve been happily married for fifteen years and we have 5 kids, three girls and two boys.  They are my life.  We also have three dogs, sheep and goats.  Given all the kids and animals, my home life is essentially pandemonium 24/7, but I must like it that way since I’ve chosen this life on purpose.

I wasn’t the biggest dork in high school, but I was definitely in the top 10.  I was better known for my exploits on the math team than I was for my exploits on the soccer team (unless you consider bench-warming an exploit).  As a wrestler, I don’t know how many matches I lost, but it was a lot.  Getting pinned in front of 100 people is pretty humbling and it happened to me more than once, unfortunately.  One of my best friends from growing up, whose dad was our soccer coach, told me that I was one of his Dad’s favorites because I was ‘a star in practice’, largely because I didn’t get much time in games.  I took this as a compliment, actually, and think it’s one of the reasons I’m drawn to Crossfit.  In practice, like Crossfit, you show up, try your best every day and hopefully get better over time.  That’s how life is supposed to work isn’t it?

I went to college on an ROTC scholarship and spent some time in the armed forces.  It’s during this time that I was introduced to physical fitness and it became a bigger part of my life.  I was a pretty average Marine and didn’t do anything of consequence; I never fired a shot in anger.  Still, I am very thankful that the military gave me the opportunity to go to college and I’m proud to have served my country.

After the Armed Forces, I moved to NYC and worked on Wall Street for 13 years.  Throughout my 20s and into my 30s, I probably worked 100 hours a week, slept four or five hours a night and traveled constantly.  Over time, it took an enormous toll on my body and I tried to compensate by joining a globo gym and running on the treadmill or elliptical machine before work.  Sometimes I’d lift some weights, but I really had no idea how to train.  I kept up this regimen throughout my 30s as a way to manage stress until a friend in Santa Monica told me about Crossfit.  My friend said, “there’s this little blonde somewhere in Philadelphia who owns a Crossfit gym, she’s supposed to be the best”.  That’s when I tracked down Aimee.

I was 41 at the time and felt terrible.  I was sluggish, everything hurt.  I felt weak and old, what muscles I did have had atrophied a long time ago.  I was on all sorts of medication for high cholesterol and blood pressure.  I was headed in the wrong direction in a big way!  I told my brother-in-law, Rob Ph, about Crossfit and we decided to join the Box together.  Come hell or high water, we were going to give this a shot.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have reasonably expected Crossfit to have had such an enormous and positive impact on my life.  I really don’t care what I look like.  I don’t even care how much weight I can lift.  I feel great.  I feel like I did in my early twenties and I’m probably in the best overall shape of my life which is saying something for a 43 year old man.

I want to thank each and every person I’ve come across in the Crossfit KOP community.  Almost without exception, you have been welcoming and friendly to me and I’ve always appreciated that.  I’d also like to say how humbled and a little embarrassed I am to be named February’s AOTM.  I think there are at least fifty KOP crossfitters who deserve this recognition more than I do.  I am continually impressed and inspired by all of you every day.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Aimee and her entire coaching staff.  Aimee started Crossfit KOP from nothing and built it into this great community we all share.  Even though many different Crossfit boxes have popped up in the area, we all continue to WOD at KOP because of the community, the great coaching and Aimee’s programming.  Thank you Aimee and all the coaches for creating such a great Box.

Thank you all for being part of a community that has been so good to me these last three years.  I’ll see you soon.

Hometown	Winchester, MA
Current location	Phoenixville, PA
Age	43
Occupation	Distressed investor
College	University of Pennsylvania, Wharton undergrad
How long have you been a crossfitter?	It’ll be three years in April
Did you ever play sports?	I was always active as a kid probably because I was a little hyper.  I played soccer and wrestled but I wasn’t particularly athletic
Hobbies?	I play golf and tennis.  I like to shoot all sorts of firearms (though I don’t like to hunt).  I have a small farm and I enjoy raising sheep and goats.
What is your biggest achievement in Crossfit?	I still can’t believe I can Clean and Jerk 210 pounds.  When I started Crossfit, my 1RM deadlift was 185!
What do you feel that you still need to work on?	Kettle bell swings are the bane of my Crossfit existence.  I’m just really weak at them.  Toes to bar are pretty pathetic, too.
Goals for the rest of the year?	I’d like to finally get double unders!  I’m so uncoordinated it’s scary.  I’d also like to get better at rope climbs which are the worst.
What’s your favorite WOD?	I like Cindy probably because I’m half decent at pull-ups
How about your favorite food / snacks?	Cape Cod potato chips are evil.  If they’re within my reach at home, I have no ability whatsoever to resist them even knowing how bad they are for me.  In my house, the shelf life of a giant bag of Cape Cod potato chips can be counted in hours once I find them.
What is the craziest workout outside of Crossfit you have ever done?	In the military, I did my share of crazy workouts but that was more than 20 years ago.  I think the coolest thing I did recently was run the Philadelphia half-marathon with my wife.  It was cool because I didn’t train for it one bit outside of Crossfit.  I just went out and ran 13.1 miles.  I’m not bragging, it’s just crazy to think that a Crossfitter can just go and run 13.1 miles without even training for it!
What’s your least favorite WOD?	Karen, of course.  The question should be rephrased to ‘what’s your least favorite WOD other than Karen’.  Fran because I hate thrusters.  Angie is always a fun reminder of how weak I am.
Favorite lift / movement?	I like pull-ups and I actually like overhead squats.
What’s you least favorite lift / movement?	Deadlifts are the least favorite.  I never understood why crossfitters on the blog get all happy when Aimee programs deadlifts!
What skill do you want to work on in 2013 the most?	I have to get double unders.  All the coaches tell me I need to practice more and I agree.  I just don’t think they understand how uncoordinated I am.
What’s your favorite piece of workout gear?	Anybody who’s seen me work out knows there’s probably no one at the Box who cares less about their workout gear than me.  If it’s at the top of my ‘workout clothes drawer’ at home, that’s what I wear.
What do you think is your biggest improvement since starting Crossfit?	Overall core strength.  I sustained a back injury when I was 16, cracking my bottom two vertebrae.  Since then and because of the discomfort, I’ve favored my back which made it weaker and my back problems worse.  Now that my core is so much stronger, my back problems aren’t nearly as acute as they used to be.  For me and for anyone who’s ever suffered from back pain, this is a huge deal.
Who is your favorite coach?	Jason’s my favorite coach.  For nearly three years as the primary coach of the 4:30 class, Jason has relentlessly corrected my form and called me out when I was being a wuss.  The guy never stops.  It’s to the point where I hear the dude’s voice in my sleep sometimes.  If anyone can take credit for whatever I’ve become as a Crossfitter, it’s Jason.  He took this old dog and trained him to hunt again and I’m eternally grateful for that.
PRs to mention, goals reached?	I’ve reached more Crossfit goals than I can count.  I just want to continue to show up three times a week and put out every time.  Crossfit has proven to me that if you commit and put in the effort, your quality of life will improve guaranteed.  If I can just avoid injury, I hope to keep crossfitting for years to come.