Athlete of the Month: Brian Strauss

Hometown: Fairless Hills, PA

Current Location: Dresher, PA

Age: 25

Occupation: Financial Analyst
College: Penn State University

How long have you been a CrossFitter? 2 years

Did you ever play sports? In high school I played soccer, basketball, and baseball. Now I CrossFit, run, and play golf.

Got some cool (or uncool) hobbies you'd like to share? I love to try new breweries, and I have a beer glass collection from all of the breweries I’ve been to around the world. Also, I’m a huge aviation fan so I enjoy going to look airplanes, and I aspire to get my pilots license within the next few years.

What has been your biggest achievement at CrossFit in general? Being able to do a bar muscle up. Before I started doing CrossFit, I’d see people doing muscle ups and was fascinated by it and thought it only took a big kip... I was completely wrong. It was much harder than that, and I’m forever grateful for coaches here at CFKoP for not only helping me get one but also stringing them together

What skill have you been working on during 2018? Double-unders... after doing CrossFit for 2 years, I figure its time I learn how to jump up and down while flicking my wrists in a coordinated manner (I’m quite uncoordinated)

Goals for the rest of this year? String ring muscle ups

What's your favorite WOD? Murph! I love long, grueling workouts that test your focus and determination to finish. If not Murph then anything that involves handstand push-ups or bar muscle ups

How about your favorite food/snacks? Anything chocolate or a good hamburger (so mainly foods that don’t fit into my macros)

What is the craziest workout outside of CF you have ever done? Toss up between running a half marathon or pre-season basketball workouts in high school. We’d start off practice by running a 5k then run suicide sprints all before starting our drills

What’s your least favorite WOD? I haven’t experienced a WOD that I haven’t fully disliked but I imagine if a workout were programmed involving rope climbs, thrusters, and double unders I may use that as a rest day.

Favorite lift/movement? Overhead squat because it shows your weaknesses and is a great way to test how far you’ve come from. I, for some reason, also love dumbbell snatches (if they’re even considered a lift?)

What’s your least favorite lift/movement? Thrusters…

What’s your favorite piece of workout "gear"? A towel, I sweat like crazy and we all know how ‘toasty’ it can get in the box during the summer...so much so that I swear I have to wipe my face after putting my shoes on... Besides that I like my knee sleeves. My knees have always been a bit shaky, and the sleeves allow me to have some extra compression and stability.

What you say is your biggest improvement since starting CF? My efficiency in workouts and understanding my limits. I believe that I’ve become quicker in transitions between movements as I’ve become more accustom to them. I’ve become more aware of what movements/weights I can do in a reasonable time to maintain the programmed intensity.

Who is your favorite coach? This is the toughest question in this list... I have a deep appreciation for all of the coaches here at CFKoP. Aimee demands nothing but the best and every day the coaches on staff meet, if not exceed, her expectations. Unfortunately, I don’t get to frequently take classes with all of them but each coach here brings unique attributes that have helped me grow in my CrossFit journey. The four coaches I have the most often are Manisha, Keith, Rachel, and Tim, and they are all fabulous. Manisha has a caring personality and is amazing when it comes to scales or helping me decide how to approach a workout. Keith is a ray of sunshine on a gloomy Saturday morning, and I genuinely enjoy his random movie quotes and his blusterous voice that gets the class in line. Rachel is a knowledgeable coach, especially when it comes to lifts, so I enjoy her feedback and guidance for anything barbell related. Tim loves to pack as much into 45 mins on a Wednesday morning at 5:15 AM as possible, which I appreciate, except for the 1 minute wall sits… those are not my favorite.

PR's to mention? Goals Reached? Nutrition highlights? I weighed in recently at under 200lbs for the first time since 6th grade. At my heaviest I was almost 275lbs but thanks to following my wonderful macro coach’s, Rachel, advice, I have been able to see great results and continue to watch the scale get lighter and lighter.