I tried CrossFit for the first time before moving to Austin, just over a year ago. I decided it was something I wanted to look into once I got settled in my new city. After dropping into a “Burgers and Barbells” workout at Hopdoddy I met Coach Jeremy Thiel and a couple others at the gym and that pretty much was all it took to convince me that I wanted to be at CrossFit Central.

Before CrossFit, I had never worked out with weights. I was a competitive gymnast for ten years. I started when I was four year old and began competing at age six. I then switched to school sports and then focused in on sprints/mid distance through high school. I have only ever trained and conditioned using bodyweight. Even though that has been incredibly beneficial in my CrossFit journey, I have really seen growth in movements using the barbell and lifting weights. Some lifts that were so difficult for me in the beginning are becoming easier to understand and feel, and it makes progress more tangible.

Prior to joining CrossFit Central, I would fill my schedule to the brim and stay in an anxious state, almost continuously. I led a decently active life. I would run and do some sports socially, but I didn’t have a consistent workout regimen or community. Wrestling with an anxious spirit my whole life, CrossFit was something that really intimidated me in the beginning, and still does when as I approach new aspects of the sport like competition. It has given me a physical outlet to combat my anxious tendencies as well as allowed me a “win” regarding something that was sort of scary in the beginning. It has helped me slowly work on shifting and chipping away at thought patterns that say something I don’t know how to do, or have never done before, is unattainable or too difficult. It has created an incredibly empowering mindset. I am someone who does very well with physical and tangible goals. I now feel like I can understand completing and having victory over a physical task, versus feeling anxious and like I don’t have control. CrossFit intertwines those two things in a lot of areas. It forces me to come up against hard situations that are not only physical, but also mental.

Being a small business owner, the thought of everything I have to do in order to run and grow a business can quickly become overwhelming in the same way that achieving fitness goals can be. CrossFit has broken down living a fit life into a very tangible and attainable way. I choose to show up daily and do exactly what is in front of me THAT day. I don’t imagine I can jump to where I want to be overnight. I take one step at a time and then when I get there, I take one more step and continue that pattern until I am able to look back and see that I’ve actually come an incredibly long way from where I have started. It has allowed me to put life in perspective in the same way. 

The CrossFit Central community has been so instrumental in my relationships since moving to Austin. It is crazy moving from a place where you feel like you know everyone, to somewhere that you literally know no one. Honestly I feel like some of my very first friends in the city were made in the gym. It's helped tremendously during a transition and season that had the potential to be very lonely.