License to Gym
“On Wednesdays we wear pink.”
– Karen
Deep Squats (Thoughts)
October 1, 2009. I paid my CrossFit Affiliate Fee for the first time. Following is the essay I submitted to be a part of the community of CrossFit affiliates.
“Explain what CrossFit means to you, why you want to become a CrossFit affiliate and what you want to achieve as an affiliate. This essay does not need to be long but it should be from the heart.
Also, please include:
Background information on yourself and any of the people you will be partnering with.
Information on your exposure to CrossFit (work at or exposure to other CrossFit facilities, length of time training with CF methods etc).
Information on past or future CrossFit events you have attended or plan on attending.
If you will be a CrossFit Only facility or if you will offer other types of Fitness classes.
CrossFit is more than a workout. More than what you eat. More than where you go. It becomes the glue that binds you to your friends, your thoughts, your dreams and your everyday life. CrossFit is a lifestyle. To some, CrossFit is just a workout. To me it lets me live my life to the fullest. I want to start CrossFit Palo Alto because I want to give people the gift that I’ve been given while being empowered to live the life that I’ve always dreamed of. Who better to work for than me? In working for the best interest of others, I find a reward money can’t buy. That’s what I want to achieve. I want to empower others to be able to do anything they can dream of. More than a workout. More than a time on a stopwatch. I want my members to feel the transfer of success to the rest of their lives.
I have been involved in competitive sports for the last 18 years. I played college football, soccer and rugby. After college, I chased the “Perfect Game” of rugby like a surfer chases the perfect wave. I played in the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and Malaysia. I learned what works for high performance and what doesn’t. For the last 6 years, I have been geeking out on all things fitness. I’ve used Olympic weightlifting since 2000, kettlebells since 2005, and CrossFit since 2004 when my wife told me about a gym in Santa Cruz that a co-worker of hers would go to. After experiencing being a police officer, I gained a new appreciation of being prepared for anything. I have been an instructor at CrossFit Silicon Valley for just over a year. I’ve taught daily wod classes, kettlebell classes and Olympic weightlifting classes. The Zone is my diet of choice and it has taken me to levels of performance I didn’t think possible after the abuse I have put my body through.
I have competed in numerous local CrossFit competitions in the San Francisco Bay Area. I competed in the 2008 CrossFit Games, finishing 85th. I finished 36th in the 2009 NorCal Qualifier and led our Affiliate Team to a 5th place finish in the North Pad Workout at the 2009 CrossFit Games Affiliate Cup Challenge with 323 points. I plan on continued improvements in my performance and challenging for a qualification spot in Norcal in 2010.
My partner in this affiliate is my wife. She is an inspiration. She is the mother of our two beautiful girls and is the best thing to ever happen to me. She has a long history of marathon running including numerous ultra-marathons up to 50 miles. Her next goal is to complete a 100 mile race. She has been a police officer, firefighter and wildland firefighter. She is now hooked on CrossFit and the strength she gains with every wod. She is also great with numbers and finance, so she will help keep all the books in order. She is also a great ambassador for CrossFit by easily sharing, with co-workers and strangers, what it has done to change her life.
Current plans are for the affiliate to be a CrossFit-only box. As the box matures,specialty classes may be offered, such as kettlebells, Olympic weightlifting and running.The focus of all of these classes would be to improve performance in CrossFit. Personal training would be offered, but again, it would be geared around CrossFit methods.
The most important thing, I have saved for last. I want to develop a community of CrossFitters in Palo Alto. I want people here to experience the bonding and brotherhood that occurs in a CrossFit box. The community aspect of CrossFit may be a bi-product or side-effect, but I think it’s the most valuable. Rugby clubs have distinct personalities and so do CrossFit gyms. If you play rugby, you can travel to almost any city in the world,find out where the rugby bar is and in one night have a team, a group of friends, a place to live and probably a job that starts in the morning. That’s a worldwide community. And that’s what I’m finding with CrossFit. The gym is your local club. You brag on it. You love it and your buddies. You can now travel to any CrossFit gym/club in the world and not miss a beat. That is what I want to join and contribute to; the worldwide community of CrossFit.”
Thank you for 16 years.
See you in class.
Tim
What’s Going On?
Sunday Run Club
Contact Coach Andrew for details.
Fall-In for Fitness Teen Class
Who: Boys and Girls aged 12-17
Dates: September 30th – November 20th
When: Tuesdays/Thursdays at 4pm
*Email [email protected] to sign up*
Individualized Training
Coach Rebecca has new availability for Nutrition Coaching with 4 and 8 week options, including weekly check-ins and InBody body composition testing.
Contact her at [email protected]
Overheard in Class:
“Looking at it doesn’t lift it.”
Timfluencing
Dopamine Nation by: Anna Lembke
This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.
Tim’s Takeaway: I debated with myself whether I would refer this book that was referred by a member. It’s absolutely spot on and a fascinating look at what drives us as people. But, some of the examples the author uses are “shocking” to say the least. It’s too good to worry about putting someone off. So dig in and see if you can get something out of it.
Thank you for your support.
I look forward to what we will do together.
