Why I love CrossFit

CrossFit has gotten a really bad rap from the bulk of society since its creation. No one likes it when a new fad comes in and seemingly destroys all your hope of keeping your business afloat. So just imagine how thankful all those bitter people were when CF HQ had one bad PR bomb after another. It honestly felt nonstop… the amount of scandals that came pouring out of the entity of CrossFit was exhausting, embarrassing, draining, impossible. Yikes. That’s all I can say.

I am always extremely transparent about my viewpoints. I am a die hard feminist. I believe everyone should be treated equally. I don’t see anything wrong with the LGBTQ+ family asking for respect (it’s the least we could do, y’all). Same goes for literally everyone in the world who isn’t white (let’s face it, white folks are the minority now, again, we should all be treated e q u a l l y). These, to me, are basic human principles on being a decent human being. Be kind. Show respect to the Earth. Spread love. All the hippie nonsense. I’m here for it. That’s what I’m doing my best to instill in my children. What in the hell does this have to do with CF?

So much.

My CF journey started in 2013, in Indianapolis, IN. I’ve been to several boxes around the country and the world. And not once. NOT. ONCE. Have I walked into a box and had a bad experience. Sure, maybe that particular box wasn’t going to be a place I called home, but people still treated me with decency and welcomed me in for a group collective effort to sweat, work hard and maybe even kill off some of that bad juju we’re stuck with. That, my friends, is the essence of CF. What CF HQ fails to do, day in and day out, is remember that it’s about the individual boxes and the communities they’re cultivating.

So. Why do I love CF?

I love CF because day in and day out, I have people around me from all walks of life, totally different backgrounds, working just as hard as I am, to be the best they can be. These people wholly accept that every day will be different, every challenge will feel insurmountable, but the only way forward is through it, so they knuckle down and do the damn thing. I love CF because no matter what, I find a way to release my energy into a group collective effort to find the problem and work through it. Those people never let me give up, I never let them give up, and that my friends, that. That is community. That is something you can never beat.

I just think it’s nice to sit down and remind yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Have you taken the time to do that for yourself recently? You better start prioritizing that. If you can’t find a reason that consumes you, for why you’re doing what you’re doing, then maybe it’s time you stop and try something else. Only good can come from growth. Only good can come from change. So find it. That’s what we’re doing every day that we wake up and take class together. We’re growing. We’re changing. And that’s good. Where’s your community? Have you found them yet?

How do you get better?

I find myself asking this question a lot. It’s so vague. There’s not much to go off of, but still. It runs rampant in my mind. Better, at what? For what? In what? How do you define better???

Since this is predominantly a fitness blog (and website), with a lot of sprinkling of mom life, I’m going to start there. I have had a seriously profound journey of ‘better’ in the last 12 years. (I’m not here to hash out all of the details, but I will say that I’m an open book. If you’re curious about my journey, or do want me to delve deeper into sharing that information, you can message me directly OR comment on this blogpost. I’ll do my best to get back to you in a timely manner.) That search has had a lot to do with healing the lining of my GI tract, and also a lot more to do with becoming a coach, competitive athlete, and then a mom. More often than I’d like, those two journeys have collided at the detriment of each other. If I found myself soaring at the gym, getting the massive gains, the promotions or the next big client, more than likely I was also probably pooping my pants on the way home from work. (Yes, you read that right). So how in the hell did I manage that? It was not, and still isn’t, easy.

There were a lot of medical appointments, a few bizarre suggestions from health professionals, a great reference from (of course), my mom, which led me to meeting Rich Rife, which then led me to meeting Karina Vogt, Dave Reed and even Lee Zuniss. I’ve got a whole team of people who have worked even harder than me to piece me back together. The common denominator between those four individuals is that they believe the body can heal itself, if you let it. That’s where I struggle the most. My patience radar is pretty much zero. Once I set my eyes on something, it is pretty difficult to get me to stop. Who would have thought it would take time to heal a GI tract? I might have known it, but I didn’t want to know it. I had so many other “more important” things to do besides healing. What a snooze fest. Here’s a pretty famous and fundamental MAT philosophy:

“The body doesn’t know what kind of stress you’re experiencing. It only knows that you’re stressed. So it’s going to place that stress wherever feels right in the moment.”

And that could not be more true than my body and mind. I’ve written on this blog before about how stressful 2018 was. I did three water cuts for very major competitions, I got engaged and married, I took my final exams for MAT, I moved into a new apartment… all of these things sound inherently good, right? But also, still stressful. Once October hit and all of my ‘to-do’ list was complete, my ulcerative colitis raised it’s ugly head and roared so loud, I’m telling you. From October 2018 until April 2019, my life was miserable. Then Henry and I got in a terrible car accident. It didn’t matter that I had just taken time off to heal my GI system, God was telling me I needed more time still. And then, in November of 2019, we had our first positive pregnancy test. Lucy Lou was on the way!!! Since then, I’ve managed to lose two pregnancies, give birth to Maxine, give birth to Imogen, still squat heavy, always do my beloved deadlifts and even complete 2 triathlons (which I seriously love), and also too, my first half marathon. But guess what? Those are all (mostly) good, but still inherently stressful things. And here I am at the beginning of 2025, having to swallow my pride and learn to be patient, listen to my body, rest. Because yes. I am having my first flair up since April 2019. Spoiler alert: it’s even worse when you have 3 little ladies to take care of while dealing with this.

So how am I healing things this time around? Well, firstly I’m going to share a few hard truths with you. What I’m genuinely struggling with, and then we’ll talk about how I’m moving forward from those things:

I’m at a point now where I’m so sick of hearing myself think. I’m so frustrated and fed up with my boring day to day routine, feeling like nothing is ever accomplished. I’m here, raising three daughters, trying to find motivation on a minute by minute basis to live, and the desire to scream is more consuming than I’d care to admit.

I have been using my garmin watch, which is truly one of the best gifts I’ve ever received, to track my HRV levels. I learned from my 2018-2019 saga that that number is incredibly important to knowing whether or not I’m allowed to exercise the following day (thanks, Rich). I’ve also been meeting with Lee 2x a month consistently, while microdosing psylocybin (feel free to reach out if you wanna chat, or be quiet if you’re feeling judgy), to try and find some inner peace and better communication with my inner leader. Finally, I’ve majorly revamped my diet, again, to try and keep out all the majorly disruptive things. I’ve removed all sugar from my diet, all decaf coffee, the only processed item I eat throughout the day is a go macro bar… it ain’t fun, but it’s going to get the job done.

So how do you get better? Ask a different question. A more specific question. Find people who are in line with your belief systems and ask them to support you through your journey. Hit me up so I can help, too.

Let’s ride.

12 Years

This week I hit 12 years without smoking a single cigarette. When I made the choice to stop smoking, I knew it would be a big one. But I didn’t understand how monumental it would be, dare I say, cataclysmic. Everything in my life changed.

I’ve been asked relentlessly how I did it. It’s a very unexciting answer. I just did it. I bought a pack of cigarettes and said to myself, this is the last pack. I savored every single one of those babies. They all became so special and precious, because they were the last ones. And when it really did come down to the last one, I will never forget it. Pulling the pack out of my bag, opening up the top. Seeing it. Running it between my fingers. Stopping my girlfriends on our walk so I could light up, taking that last first drag… I was in Chicago, I was barely 22. We were all heading to a local bar to celebrate the closing of a show. Man…. that was a different girl.

The next morning I started running, and I promise you it was awful. But I got up and ran every day, and that spring I did another crazy thing. I stopped drinking Diet Coke. Then I joined a CF box. I permanently moved to Chicago. Next thing you know I’m training for my first triathlon. After that I’m supposed to head to NYC for a six week gig, which turned into ten years of a completely different life and dream. I ended up quitting drinking in 2015, three years after quitting smoking. Soon after that I was forced into no longer eating gluten or so many other precious treats (cough ice cream cough).

I’ve been quitting things for so long, it makes holding onto the things I can have so much more precious. Once I was told that I would probably never be able to drink coffee again. Can you IMAGINE?! After so many things being stripped from me, to also lose that precious morning ritual… I cried for days, y’all. So you can imagine my delight when we found out the real issue was caffeine, not coffee. Decaf was back in business, baby.

Let’s circle back to quitting smoking. Quitting in general. Maybe I should stop thinking of it as quitting, and more like choosing a new beginning. I made the decision (a choice), to live, even though it didn’t feel that way at the time. Typing that out feels so profound to me. In these 12 years I have done a lot of soul searching, a lot of learning, chipping away at myself. It is uncomfortable to wake up and choose to grow - I have yet to meet someone who genuinely enjoys that part of soul searching. It is hard work and effort. In these 12 years, I have found that in order for me to continue to grow, to stay in that uncomfortable place, I have to choose to move. The more stagnant I find myself, the more insurmountable the daily tasks seem. Breathing becomes difficult. It doesn’t have to be complicated, fancy, hours on end. It can be as simple as moving through a few yoga poses for the morning, or a nice neighborhood walk after the girls wake up from their nap.

It really is that simple. I really do mean it. I smoked my last cigarette, and the next day I ran a mile. And I haven’t looked back. What do you do to keep yourself moving forward? How do you process self-discovery? What have you chosen to do to grow?

Why do you do CrossFit?

In my desperate search for a coaching gig here in Cincinnati, I’ve found myself being asked the question: why do you do CrossFit? The question is such a simple one, on the surface. But if you sit and really think about it, there’s soooooo much to break down. So I posed this question to the avid readers of my weekly newsletter (lol), as well as texted a few friends on the side, just to see where the consensus was. Of all the responses I got back, the most consistent was: community. But what IS community? Why does that make CrossFit so necessary for so many of us? Another consistent answer: so I can eat what I want. Oh, absolutely I understand that desire. Big time. But one answer that I truly only received from TWO people, that is perhaps the most important of all, is: hoping I can live a long and healthy life because of it. Below you’ll find a list of all the reasons why y’all CrossFit, but I hope you can take a moment or two to reflect on what all you’re doing on a regular basis to increase the longevity of your life. We joke about wanting to look sexy, gotta eat that donut, I’ll be damned if I don’t outlift so and so… but do you really ever think about how all of these things contribute to your fullest life possible? Yes, I love donuts. In fact, I love all baked goods. But that doesn’t mean I’m eating them every day. I also really love competition, which is a huge part of why I still take group classes regularly. I want to challenge all of you to T H I N K about your choices. And see if they really do align with where you picture yourself to be in 10-15 years. I know that for me, CrossFit absolutely makes me a better person. I can’t wait to see wehre it takes me in m y lifetime. What about you? Love y’all.

Why do you do CrossFit? A poem, list, bullet point thought process…

• CF has made me cross paths with so many different people, from different walks of life, with different stories. I love it because of the community and getting to share God’s love while kicking a$$ (my own, that is lol)

• I love working out still to feel that insane soreness and then to feel my body recover and maintain some strength and flexibility. Oh - and so I can drag that deer out of the woods all by myself.

• I love a good challenge. Testing my limits and working on skills to be a better athlete. I love the community and friendships being built from everyone suffering and having a good time together. Also, I hope I can live a long healthy life doing it.

• Now? Mostly for the routine/social aspect of it. Before - it was for the obvious reasons you would expect: health, strength, not knowing what to do, etc.

• Honestly, I remember the feeling after my first few workouts and let it take over. Motivated me to take care of myself not just for me but for the people that care about me. I also like lifting heavy things.

• For the community and so I can eat.

• I get bored doing regular workouts, so it keeps it entertaining - and I like the group classes.

• So I could eat what I want, and the community.

• It’s the only thing that ever worked for me, and it’s fun. To make training an actual sport or a puzzle or a game gets me into that zone. When the beep starts? I’m in a pocket universe. If you want to get heady.

• At this point I don’t know anymore LOL

• It stuck for me, because it offloads any mental overhead for me. If I had to plan workouts then it’s a reason to not go. And if I had to LEARN what entails planning workouts? An even further barrier. And if I could do that work out AT ANY TIME during the day? I wouldn’t get it done. It feels good for my body, in a way that nothing else has. It feels fresh always, even when I go 4-6 days/wk for 8+ years. If I take that time to do it, I take care of my body, my mind, and my social relationships all before work starts. So it makes outcomes of the rest of the day matter less, I’ve already done the most important thing.

Mother Musings

I think it’s crucial to have conviction in life. Some might say I have too much. But I know for a fact that if I did not feel convicted in my day to day activities, there would be no point in doing them. I had, and still have, so many dreams for my path on motherhood. I never in a million years would have dreamt up what we’ve been through in the last four years. When I sit down and recognize that I’ve actually, truly, literally been through 3 full pregnancies, 2 miscarriages and have three living breathing daughters, IN FOUR YEARS, I am flabbergasted. I just shake my head because it doesn’t seem possible. But here I am, now living in Cincinnati, in a GD house, with an almost 2 year old shoveling popcorn down her throat (and throwing it all over my floor) right next to me… man. This thing called life is wild.

Why did I start this off with conviction? Henry told me on our six year anniversary that his favorite trait about me is my dedication and determination. I think it was a nice way of saying that I’m stubborn as hell, and therefore difficult in most day to day activities. For example: I refuse to drink tap water, in any capacity. (If you’re an idiot and still drinking tap water, watch Dark Waters and I dare you to not change your mind. Better yet, read this article. Good grief). I’m sure you’re thinking, that’s really not that extreme, just use a Brita. LOLOLOLOL NO. I am so extreme in my convictions that I won’t let Henry buy our jugged water for our standalone dispenser from Walmart. If you wanna fight about it, I’m here for it. Let it rip.

I also will only eat organic produce. I wash my berries in apple cider vinegar. I don’t drink sodas or colas or pops, any which way you wanna swing it. We avoid soy at all costs. Processed sugar is the devil. High fructose corn syrup? Ha! Are these luxuries that maybe only a few select people prioritize? Can we have many heated discussions over food deserts, poverty, the disservice our government is doing for the bulk of our non-white Americans? Yes. Am I also putting my family in a bit of debt by being so insistent on these standards, and also therefore making most evenings difficult because Henry is working and I cook dinner five nights a week? Yup. We spend on average $1200 a month on groceries, and that’s not including the meat and dairy we have shipped in from a regenerative farm… I digress. If you wanna talk about these things, I do too. I promise there is a point to all of this.

Another example: I firmly believe that breastmilk is the only way to feed your baby for the first year of their life. Is this difficult for most mothers, including myself? Absolutely. If you don’t know my feeding history with my now three babies, let me give you a ‘kind of’ brief synopsis. All three of my girls have been diagnosed with tongue and lip ties at birth, which made latching basically impossible for all of them. Lucy never stood a chance, we made the discovery too late, and even though we went through with the procedure to fix the ties, she never returned to the breast. I exclusively pumped my breastmilk for her for a full year. When Maxine came around, we knew what to look for and got the problem fixed much sooner, and huzzah! She was breastfeeding. But no one can prepare a sweet 2.5 year old on what it means to share your mother for the first time ever, so intimately. Henry went back to work after 6 weeks, and it was Mama Bear with 2 little ones, one of them extremely jealous and the other extremely hungry. So back to pumping I went, in an effort to restore some peace between myself and my oldest. I pumped for 9 months for Maxine. Here comes Imogen, my third daughter. Again, we knew what to look for, and again we got it taken care of as quickly as possible. She did great with her latch, but her endurance was absolute shite, and this girl did a terrible job of establishing a supply, and here we are at pumping again. Except that we also moved cross country six weeks after she was born, bought a house and a new car, Henry started a new job, I became a fulltime mom… things got very hectic and stressful very fast.

So now I ask you: what does a mother do, whose convictions are so intense, and whose stress level is so high, that she now has to choose between feeding one child the only way she wants to, or keeping the rest of herself and her family functioning? And there is the root of my existence. Constantly choosing between two hard options. My journey as a mother could best be described as how my cousin so eloquently put it: …it feels like you’re being ripped limb from limb, coming to the edge of death. There is a certain way of going about your day, when you’re grieving a thing that has never been and never will be, no matter how hard you’ve fought for it.

If you’re still reading, you must know me fairly well. You know that I’ve spent the last ten years putting myself through grueling training, I’ve worked insane hours, I’ve done things most people have nightmares about. I am not a stranger to pain, difficulties, driving through concrete walls. I’m willing to worker harder than almost anyone I know, to make something I want to happen. But y’all. What about when the darkest thoughts are so all consuming, you’ve locked yourself away from your kids so nobody gets hurt? What about all the countless times you can’t breathe, can’t see, can’t think, because the anxiety is beating you down through the floor into the Earth’s crust and you don’t know if you’ll ever come back up again? When you find yourself frozen in crippling fear, completely incapable of making a decision and moving forward physically AND mentally? What then? The screams inside the deepest parts of me are deafening. There is no peace.

So here I sit, typing away, trying to find some kind of redemption or forgiveness, for myself from myself; trying to tell you all that I found a new road where it felt like none existed. At 4.5 months, just 18 weeks for my sweet Imogen, I’ve stopped pumping, and started supplementing a raw milk formula. I made a hard choice. I figured out to pivot when my entire body felt like cement. Am I going to have big feelings about this for a very long time? Absolutely. Am I full of doubt over my decision? 100%. Is Imogen eating and sleeping and pooping and still acting like a perfect precious babe? You bet your ass she is.

I make it myself in my kitchen every other day. It’s a chore, but it’s not the same kind of six hours of pumping a day chore. I’m aware I need to be in therapy. I’m aware that I’m not okay. But last night I actually slept seven hours, instead of 4.5. And that’s a start. I chose living for my daughters over murdering my sanity.

Being a mother is… it’s hard. I’m here to keep talking about it. I love y’all. Let’s f**k shit up together.

A LOVE LETTER TO DKF

Dear Dutchkills Family,

I have spent the better part of my adult years working alongside you, watching you come into the box as fresh little lambs, leave feeling a multitude of things (fear, addiction, pain, nausea, excitement, love, giddiness…), and I’ve smiled to myself after every class, because I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been there countless times before, alone, alongside you, above you, beneath you, right next to you, holding you, I’ve felt it all. In these ten years, I’ve changed a lot. So many of you reflect back on when Mead was the battleaxe; she was nasty, tough, a ballbuster. She didn’t give a f**k where you came from or how bad your day had been, you were gonna follow her rules or hit the road. Even more of you can’t hardly believe what I’m typing. Sure, Mead is grumpy some days, but for the most part she just loves trivia and bad jokes and keeping us in line (as much as you can herd cats, ya know?)

I’ve watched so many of you do so many incredible things in the last ten years. I’ve watched you hit major milestones in the Crossfit World. I’ve watched you chip away at lifts until they’re perfect and you hit the dream PR, and proudly slap your back and tell you to come back tomorrow and do more. I’ve seen so many first ring MUPs, I’ve helped countless of you get your double under groove back. I’ve worked on so many bad backs and terrible squat forms. I’ve helped modify the shit out of workouts when your body is so broken, beaten and bruised there’s nothing left to do but ride the bike or go home.

But I’ve also seen so many of you fall in love with your person. I’ve seen you start your family. I’ve seen you get your dream job, or lose your dream job. I’ve seen you cry when someone close to you passed on. I’ve hugged you, held you and cherished you, because you’re my family.

I came to New York City broken, and you all built me up. You may not know that, but without you, I would be dead. You all gave this lost and hopeless girl a reason to wake up and get out of bed every day, and you’ve continued to do that for ten years. You all giggled and laughed knowingly every morning Henry brought me coffee, and rolled your eyes when we finally started dating. You all screamed with joy when we got engaged. You came to our wedding, you made it the party of a lifetime. You’ve held me together through three pregnancies now. You’ve cheered me on through so many hard moments. You’re honest with me, and I’m honest with you. And saying goodbye to you is one of the hardest things I will ever do.

I could not have been more blessed by a community of people. Thank you for everything.

INJURY CITY: The Back Edition

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am a certified Master Muscle Activation Technique Specialist. These are my opinions, take them with a grain of salt, plsnthnku.

Any kind of injury causes me to take a pause. But any injury involving your back, well. It typically has me taking mutliple pauses. We live in a world where many things collide, but none more so than the fitness industry’s marketing campaigns screaming at you to never stop moving, with the spinal surgeons swearing they’ll “patch you up right quick!” and finally, with the great world of Coca-Cola and all other Nestle products begging you to just keep on sitting on your ass and not moving. Pretty damn confusing, huh? Thought so. Add on top of that an incessant amount of jobs that have you only sitting at a desk for a casual forty hour work week, it’s no wonder that pharmaceutical drugs are domineering all different social classes across America, surgeons are millionaires in the making (maybe even billionaires) and you can barely pick up your toddler, let alone a bag of dog food or your luggage for that vacation coming up next month. It’s so disappointing.

So here you are, doing your best. You’ve joined the gym, you’ve built up a routine, everything is finally starting to make sense. And you blow your back out. Now what? Why me? What do I do? Where do I turn? How does this get fixed? When one strains their back, the temptation is HIGH to lay down on the floor/bed/couch and stay there for a long, long time. The temptation is also high to call the gym and cancel your membership, swearing never to return. I know, a back injury is absolutely no joke. I have worked with many, many different kinds of clients who have suffered very serious injuries to their trunk. It can feel impossible at the worst, and extremely intimidating at best.

So seriously. What do you do? You assess the situation, you monitor, you keep moving (within reason), you find a specialist (if necessary), and you process.

Assess: Assessments from a specialist standpoint always start with a few key questions. One: is my body stuck in any one position? This can be answered by standing in front of a full body mirror and taking a look at your posture, as well as any height differences in your shoulders or your hips (do I feel cockeyed anywhere?) Two: what makes this feel worse? I will usually have a client get on their hands and knees (if they are able to), and look to see if they are able to move through what you yogis like to call a cat/cow dynamic movement (spinal flexion and extension). If you’re trying this on your own, please remember to b r e a t h e through this one, as it might cause extreme discomfort. If it does, make a note of which position it was, and do your best to keep breathing until the pain subsides. Three: does anything make this feel better? I would absolutley prefer your answer to be that you explored walking, riding a stationary bike or even attempted foam rolling, but recognize that not every scenario allows for this kind of discovery. If you are in a situation outside of the gym and can only pop some tylenol, no judgement. You’re doing what you need to do to make it through the moment.

Monitor: It is not uncommon for the severity of the moment to take a day or two to subside. If this is your situation, as the days progress, try your best to add in more walks, or get to your gym for that stationary bike ride. Also do your best to add in some light stretching ( L I G H T ), as sometimes stretching can lead to more problems. During this time, once or twice a day, try to find time to reassess our three questions from above. If the severity of your pain increases, or lasts longer than a few days, I would be reaching out to a doctor or specialist you have a relationship with, to get a better idea of ways to get you out of the spasm.

Keep Moving: Typically, the spasm in your back is gone within a day or two. Hallelujah! If this is you, it’s time to go back to the gym. Should you be RXing the WOD, or using a KB, or deadlifting? Ah, no. Probably not today, but soon? Yes. This is when it is crucial that you are vulnerable and brutally honest with your coach (come on, check your ego at the door), and let them in on what’s been going on. The more information they have, the better they can serve you. Their job is to help make the workout more accessible to you, and to keep you safe while doing so. Movement is paramount in helping your body get rid of inflammation!

Find a specialist: If you are finding yourself stuck in the monitor step of this process, or the gym is really making you nervous, find someone to help you. Period. Your body and preserving it’s longevity is #1 in all decisions you should be making, and if you don’t feel confident in handling your current situation, you should absolutely be finding someone who does. Could that be me? 100%. Could that be your general practitioner? Also 100%. Be wary of anyone who immediately prescribes you drugs and encourages you to sit down and take it easy. They are not on your side.

Process: This is when all of the above steps come together as one to help you figure out what in the hell just happened. Most people can pinpoint a specific moment or action that caused the spasm, but what they fail to see is all of the build up to it. Maybe you’ve been ignoring your body’s demands for more sleep, or a more vegetable and protein packed diet (these things are lame according to today’s society, but today’s society sucks and we wanna outlive those assholes anyways, right?). Or, maybe you’ve been double dipping in the exercise department, pulling a few two-a-days a week and not getting enough recovery time between workouts. OR! Maybe you’ve been ignoring your coach’s cues on how to properly pick something up, and here we are, flailing in the wind. Taking a few moments daily to assess how your body is feeling and progressing out of this scary injury phase is a beautiful habit to fall into. The more you can learn to see and identify within yourself as stressors BEFORE another spasm comes along, the better your approach will be in the gym and all of those other day-to-day activities you enjoy doing.

As always, hit me up to make some magic, folks. Love y’all.

Kisses.

Stick to the Program, Folks

I think back with such fondness on young and innocent Mead. A few other key words to describe her: stubborn, determined, a know-it-all, an ox… just to name a few. She came to NYC with such grand plans, and the universe smacked her right down. The original job I had lined up dropped my position before I could even get started, even though I had already signed a lease and completely uprooted my entire life to come the absurdity of NYC… I will never forget that phone call with my dad. His kindness and generosity of heart speak volumes of the kind of man he is. During that phone call he asked me what I was going to do. I tearfully attempted to explain the “mentorship” I had just been selected for at CFNYC (literally 300 unpaid observation hours with weekly coaching meetings with my mentor and other mentees… yikes), and how I had already started interviewing at multiple Lululemon locations. The hustle was on. The desire was strong. Stubbornness kicked in, and I was off to the races.

Not even a week after this phone call, I meet Dominick Fortino. Yet another man kind in heart and generous in time, but on top of that, a brilliant coach and programmer. I took one class and left his gym screaming at the top of my lungs. I had never felt such instant release and connection, I knew that it was the gym for me. But what Dom didn’t understand was the ferocity I would approach literally all desires I had to complete something, anything. Which meant that I didn’t always do as I was told. Handstand push ups? Strict pull-ups? A 250lb back squat? I. Wanted. It. All.

Dom wrote me incredible weekly/monthly programming. CFNYC worked me to the bone. I was eating, breathing, living purely off of gym fumes. I woke up and watched classes from 5 AM onwards, stayed in Manhattan as long as was necessary to do my programming from Dom, and then go to Dom’s gym for classes on top of that. Maybe even sometimes I took class at CFNYC because damn, I was desperate for my mentor to love me. Y’all. Can we say INJURY CITY?!?!?!?! Let me be clear, grit, drive and determination are 100% necessary in pursuit of the love of sport, especially when you have such huge aspirations as I did. But when you want something so badly, the only way you can truly gain that is to do exactly what your programming says, your coach instructs, your body allows, no matter how badly you want to do the extra run, swim, class, squat session… whatever. You name it. If it isn’t in the programming, it more than likely isn’t a good idea.

Why? Why be so boring and lame, Mead? Because, your ability to make a plan and execute it, make pivots along the way that still align with the end goal, are exactly how the mission gets accomplished. Not by listening to peer pressure, not by finding the next shiny IG post, or some stupid drug everybody swears by. By putting people on your team, who want to help you succeed, by thinking things through so far in advance your little pea brain couldn’t have even dreamt that up. Dreams are not accomplished through big, crazy, insane moments. Dreams are accomplished through the mundane moments of life. Repetition. Habits. Good choices.

The same argument can be made for those of us who are only striving to make the gym a habit. It’s so tempting to skip a day because something written on the whiteboard sounds weird, intimidating, not fun, difficult or just straight up impossible. Trust the programming. Trust your coach and your classmates. They are all there for a reason. The program exists for a reason. To guide you on a journey towards a better YOU. Once I learned more than one injury lesson, I made it my mission to show up to the classes/programming days that I dreaded the most. It provided me with two opportunities, every time: to learn from a coach how to teach something I considered impossible, and how to eat humble pie and enjoy it.

Hit me up, folks. Let’s make magic happen.

Warm Up Da Booty, Y’all

Ok but all jokes aside, why does everyone think that when they start running, they don’t have to warm up? They can just “walk” to the corner and then take off like lighting (or whatever their variation of lightning is), after not doing any of said running all winter long, and it’s all gravy, baby? Ah NO. It’s not. Your poor body!!

As promised, here’s a quick, 5 min warm up to try and cover most of the bases, to send you on your way and hopefully injury free.

Mead’s Quick Warm Up:

10 alt frankensteins

5 inch worms

20 calf raises

10 air squats

20 alt lunges

20 high knees

20 butt kickers

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The Gym Code

1. Always return your equipment when you’re finished - unless folks are still working out. Then wait until the coach turns off the clock, and then clean your shit up.

2. Never leave a class until dismissed - you don’t wanna miss the cool down or the ab cash out, or hell, just the good ole concept of camaraderie.

3. Don’t forget your sweaty gym towel for someone else to deal with - this is disgusting, you moron, figure it out.

4. Don’t wear your own headphones in a class setting… unless you’re doing a time trial run and then maybe its cool but also you’re gonna miss out on free cheering and look like a dick so you tell me?

5. Cheer everyone one, even the last man standing (unless they ask you to be quiet, and then just chill and wait on the sidelines for them).

6. Don’t photograph someone else they ask you to… duh.

7. Keep your hands to yourself… unless a barbell is resting on their throat, then maybe help them out just a little?

8. Never unload all the plates off one side of your barbell and not the other (!!!!!) unless you’re in the business of physically harming your classmates, then by all means, be my guest.

9. Think before you speak. I really shouldn’t have to explain this one.

10. Reread the whiteboard before asking the coach questions. It’s there for a reason.

11. Don’t drop your KB or DB, period. I don’t care how bad your forearms hurt. You could break your toe or someone else’s toe or even break the damn KB or DB itself. Sheesh.

12. Register for class ahead of time, it gives the coach something to smile about (or prepare for LOL)

    This list will continue to grow - check back for more suggestions, or even send me some of your own!

WHEN TO SEEK HELP

We’ve all been there, right? We’ve seen someone do something insane, we’ve felt some awful pain, or just overall have thought, eh, I’m never gonna make this work. These are brutal thoughts to navigate alone! This, my friends, is when a personal coach comes in handy and is worth the investment. Yes, even you energizer bunnies who do multiple marathons, even you can stand to utilize a coach. And here’s why: return on investment. Ha! I know you didn’t expect me to use that kind of terminology. But let’s break it down, shall we?

We’ve all spent the cash on serious things in life. We’ve bought a car, we’ve refused to eat out for a few months to afford the security deposit on that luxury apartment, we’ve found ourselves drowning in student debt. Those are all real and tangible things that society, our parents, our boss, our peers, whoever, has deemed important. Well, what about our minds and bodies? Why should they be the ones left out to rot? Sure, you signed up for the gym membership, but what’s stopping you from going home and binging a netflix show instead of moving your body? Not much. Most gym memberships don’t cost so much money that you feel like you’ve let yourself down if you don’t go. But that personal trainer who costs, say, $150-$200 a session? That probably made your heart skip a beat (or two). But listen, do you know what you’re not gonna miss? A training session that cost you $200. Do you know what’s going to get you results? A trainer who spends time on YOU, researches YOU, learns YOUR kinks and YOUR hang ups and YOUR weaknesses, and then shows you exactly how they’re going to get you over those hurdles. And you bet your sweet cheeks it’s got nothing to do with binging netflix.

When I first moved to NYC, I oh so innocently approached a man that I knew would be worth the investment and asked him to coach me to the CF Games. The goal changed drastically many times over, but do you know what never changed? The coach. Ten years later, and that same man knows my weaknesses inside and out, my mental barriers, my physical injuries, and I’m telling you what, he delivers. He has and always will be worth every penny.

Let’s take another example. A longterm client of mine, I’m talking over 5 years of working together, has been through just about all of the major life changes you could possibly think of. More than one cross country move, a few break ups, quitting jobs and getting better jobs, finding soulmates, all that good stuff. What I am the most proud of when I think of this client, is her honesty and consistency. On the moments in time when paying for a coach isn’t an option (not having a job is brutal, there’s no getting around that one), she kept all of the rules we’d established together and stuck to them. As soon as that job was back and she was feeling stable, she reached out and we got right back to work. Through all of those life changes, she has dealt with a few crippling injuries that 100% have made training difficult. In fact, I’d wager a bet that many of us would have just given up. But not this gal. She diligently reported back to me post WOD, and we continually made adjustments, added and subtracted homework, until those injuries were gone and we could move on to more physical adventures.

I am so aware of how terrifying it is to think of spending big bucks on programming from a personal coach. But can’t you also taste the exhilaration of accomplishment? Be responsible, do interviews, get the research done, but also choose to be vulnerable. Find that coach, and make the magic, y’all. I believe in you.

To Open or Not to Open

I’ve been doing Crossfit, doing the Crossfit, exercising quickly and savagely and annoying everyone I talk to, drinking the Koolaid, yada yada, for over 10 years now. Honestly, I have no idea if that amount of time sounds like a long time anymore or not! But I’ve been doing the fitness since the spring of 2013, and coaching the fitness since the fall of 2024. It’s quite a history, for me at least. I can remember the very first class I took that had an open WOD in it. Yowza. I was so young and naive, had never really had a real ass whoopin’, and man did it COME HARD. But I made it through the rolling on the floor in pain to know that I was hooked.

Crossfit HQ has taken the open and gone through quite the evolution. When I was first starting CF, the ‘games’ were nowhere near the level they are now. Nowadays, if your goal is to go to the games, you best be quittin’ that full-time job and hiring a full-time coach and kissing your social life goodbye. The intensity and skill level expected of you to survive the open and move onto the next level of competition is, for most of us, a major ‘not gonna happen.’ So why bother?

The beauty of CF, and what has kept me drinking this godforsaken glass of Koolaid for so long, is that it was designed perfectly for the average joe. It was literally made for you to find ways to challenge YOURSELF, not your neighbor, to see if you’ve made progress, how you can plan better for the next workout and (if you’re curious), see where you shake out in your particular age group. Man, I LOVE that. I also love standards, rules, regulations. All of it. It makes me so happy. It gives me such peace! Here is what is expected of you, and if you can’t do it, well. Now you know exactly what to work on for next season.

We spend day in and day out, week after week, year after year, working hard to lift more, run faster, get that strict pull up, muscle up, etc. and the open pushes you just a little bit past that edge, to failure, to help you get a clearer picture. It’s a beautiful thing. I haven’t missed a single open since 2014, and I’ll be damned if baby #3 keeps me out of this one.

Will I see you there?

Does RX Even Matter?

The short answer. No. The long answer, yes but…

Whenever I have a new client or a new member in class asking me about RX, I have three specific questions I am trying to get to the bottom of. First up, can you even do this thing that is being prescribed to you? Secondly, does your body feel up to the challenge of that prescribed action? Thirdly, do you have a sport specific goal or a timeline specific goal that this challenge could move your towards or away from?

Let’s start with the first question. Can you do it? That is the whole point of RX. If you can’t, it’s now given you a way to backtrack and figure out how to adjust your programming for the day to find a way to still achieve the desired stimulus without hurting yourself, but also without you walking away from the gym for the day. In a lot of scenarios, this is where attending a class or having a personal coach is the most beneficial. They can take your current skillsets and apply them to that specific movement, and make sure that you still feel appropriately challenged and motivated to continue your fitness journey.

The second question is the one that is much harder to swallow: Does your body feel up to the challenge of that prescribed action? Could be, could not be. Either is okay. But it’s vital that you learn how to pay attention to your body and its cues to you, so that you know if it’s worth risking trying something a bit more challenging for the day. If you didn’t read last week’s blog post on sleep, head on over there and check it out. Something as simple as knowing you aren’t fully rested is an easy way to answer that question, and scaling back your WOD for the day. It’s important to note that on days like this, it’s just one day. Be thankful for your ability to move and the logic of preserving your health to come back in another day and destroy that crazy WOD.

The third question is a very specific one, but also still important: Do you have a sport specific goal or a timeline specific goal that this challenge could move you towards or away from? I have a perfect example, via me really screwing up a week of training because of my ego. If you didn’t know, I completed the NYC 2023 Triathlon. Triathlons pretty much require you to eat sleep and breathe running, cycling and swimming. 100% you should still do strength training. But not at the intensity as perchance, a strongwoman might do when training for the national championships. Two completely opposite modes of displaying physical fitness. Anywho, I digress. In September, my beloved gym DKF did our 9/11 memorial WOD. I chose to run to the gym (a straight shot is ~2.1 miles), do the WOD (which I told myself repeatedly I would not RX) and then run a longer route home to round out to a 10k run total for the day. Guess who was an idiot and did the WOD RX? This idiot. Because of this, I could barely run home, almost missed taking my daughter to her first day of school, and had to take three recovery days, massively throwing off that precious timeline leading up to the big race day. Y’all. You set goals for a reason. One WOD is never worth ruining the goals for.

Kisses.

Sleep, You Need It

Step back in time with me, if you will. It’s 2018. I’ve just been diagnosed with rhabdo (if you don’t know, google it. If you do know, you know), and to be quite transparent, the year feels very bleak. My left arm was rendered useless for longer than I’d like to admit, and I was fully embracing Debbie Downer mentality. I had a lot of things planned for this year! Little did that Mead know what an E P I C year 2018 would end up being. So many life changing events, starting with something devastating, doing whirlwind twirls around engagement, wedding planning, studying and taking my final examinations for MAT, placing the national podium for MWW at USS Championships, becoming a real life MAT practitioner, actually getting married, literally qualifying for the W O R L D championships, competing AT World Championships!, and then falling down hard again with the worst, I mean worst, flair up of ulcerative colitis I had ever experienced in my diagnosis. Rhabdo might be gone, but Lord above, there were a lot of other things in store for me.

What’s incredible about that entire year is that it might have started and ended with pretty intense and scary health crises, so many beautiful things happened. In the midst of all that beauty, there are a few things that I had to learn the hard way, via my flair up, that are still things I utilize to this day. And the number one thing? Sleep. If you don’t get enough of it, your body will find a way to shut you down until you do. If you keep everything jampacked and slammed and hyped up and full of caffeine, guess what? There’s that heart attack staring you down the road. There’s that insane back injury that renders you incapable of walking. Forget that promotion. Sleep is king, y’all. So why do we spend so much time ignoring it?

We live in a society that highly prioritizes the “suffering for your art mentality.” Your art can be your finance job. It’s sure as hell an art form to me, albeit a foreign one. If you’re not on and available 24/7/365, get lost. You don’t matter. But what about quality over quantity? What happened to honesty and vulnerability? It’s been swallowed up by “hustle hard or die trying,” and you know what? That just ISN’T worth it, y’all. It’s not.

So here comes 2019, all of my competition plans ruined by my inability to lift anything without causing serious distress to my lower GI system. All those clients I had hoped to cram into an already ridiculous schedule? Nope. I have spent the last 10 years of my life waking up at 4 AM (ish) to go and train clients or coach classes. All the way up until 2018, I was the loser who went to bed at 8:30 PM because of the train time I had to make the next morning. But in 2018? Nah, man. I’m better than my body. I can handle it. I can totally overtrain and overwork and see zero repercussions. HA! Even to this day, the temptation is so strong. SO STRONG. I want to workout! I want to make that post! I want to do the things I want to do. So many of you laugh or chuckle at me when I vocalize my 6+ rule. But it’s an uncomfortable laugh. A nervous one. Because you know, deep down, that it’s a rule you also regularly ignore. I am happy and lucky enough to say that since my flair up in 2018 (that lasted almost eight months), I have followed a strict rule: no exercise if Mead doesn’t get 6+ hours of sleep. Is it seriously not fun when DKF programs your favorite tire flip WOD and now you can’t do it? 100%. But is the fact that I can now regularly lift with no pain or poop problems, I’ve had two babies (and a third one to come) with no flair up issues, and have made comebacks from car accidents without ever going back to those very dark 8 months of my life, spectacular? Absofuckinglutely.

Please, let me know how I can support you in getting more sleep, or making a healthier choice. Your success brings myself and those around you more joy than you can ever imagine.