For most of my life, I have enjoyed playing sports and working out. As a child, I loved to play all sports. I loved the sense of freedom it gave me, the competition and most importantly the camaraderie.
Today I still love to be as active as possible; skiing, golfing, playing the sports I am still able to play and working out. I enjoyed working out at the gym as it gave the freedom to clear my mind and stay active but something was missing. I was working out alone or with a trainer but something was still missing. I missed competing. I missed the camaraderie. I felt like I was going through the motions. I was looking for something that could provide all the important aspects of sports that I so greatly valued and that would keep me going.
About two years ago my workout routine radically changed for the better. My friend Jen Baelis suggested I reach out to Coach Ray at AMRAP Fitness and try a three-day trial. As a good friend, she would check in from time to time and ask "when are you coming to work out"? My response was typical, I need to get into shape to start my trial. As you can imagine I finally realized how silly that might sound so I decided to take her up on it and show up to a class.
Coach Ray was great... Super energized, extremely knowledgeable and made the classes fun. I was impressed with the attention to detail and safety he provided with each exercise and movement. I continued with the classes and really began to see the benefits of the training and got to a point where I was able to really push myself. I became friends with my classmates as well. In fact, the pre and post workout conversations became part of the entire experience and provided a great sense of community. It was just as important as the actual workout.
Now that two years have gone by its safe to say I bought into AMRAP Fitness. I love everything about....The workouts and how each day is different, the drive to push yourself through the workouts and of course the sense of community. Everyone working to their best ability and pushing each other with Coach Ray's encouragement. I love being in the gym with the group. I find that I push myself harder with the support of my peers.
One day early in my AMRAP days the WOD, as I later learned meant Workout of the Day, called for a lot of pull-ups. I never really did pull-ups on my own so this was a challenging exercise for me. I was tired, hands sore and fatigued. I was taking a break until the person next to me (Vicki) looked over at me and said: "come on Larry, back up on the bar". Vicki wasn't the coach that day, she was just another person getting her workout in. She could have said nothing and kept to herself but she didn't. While she was crushing her workout she encouraged another. I'm sure you can imagine what I did next......I jumped up on that bar and finished that workout...Not sure I would have done that on my own. At that moment I learned everything about crossfire I needed to know and what it can provide and I have never looked back.
This by far was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Larry
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