David’s story….
I cannot thank the people at XLR8 (coaches and members) enough for helping me to improve my life on such a drastic magnitude! At 42 years of age I would have never thought I would do half the things I have done over the past 7 months. I honestly feel like I have turned back time 20 years. Initially, I seriously couldn’t imagine doing an Rx workout, now I am doing one competitor workout a week. It is truly amazing how quickly my fitness progressed from barely making it through a scaled workout to doing Rx and competitor workouts. I would have thought it would have taken me a couple of years before I was consistently doing RX workouts much less competitor workouts.
When I initially started in July of 2012, I made a lot of progress right off the bat and was getting back into shape when I pulled my hamstring (I slipped and did the splits playing soccer with my girls), and then got a nasty virus. Unfortunately, I was out of commission for two and a half months, so I had to start over from scratch in January of this year. Thanks to being sick and the holidays, I also gained a ton of weight and reach 210+ pounds. Again, I got back into shape amazingly quick, but I just couldn’t loose much weight. I was getting much bigger in my chest and arms, but my gut wasn’t really shrinking. Jason and Molly (and Xavier) suggested that I up my intensity and modify my diet to become more paleo. I did so and my results went through the roof over the past 4 months! Adding intensity and cutting out processed foods, breads and sugar made a huge difference (for me it has been important to each fruit and even starchy veggies like sweet potatoes when doing Crossfit workouts). Since making these modifications, I have gone down 3 and a half notches on my belt and have lost about 17 pounds down to 193. My goal is to have a six pack by my 43 birthday in December. I have been saying that for 15 years, but I feel like I will actually do it this year.
My stamina to keep up with my 4 girls and to constantly be on the go blows my mind at times. Heck, I am finding things to do like sawing logs of my trees with a handsaw (seeing how quickly I can saw them and haul them off, or getting a half ton of rocks to haul and distribute in the landscaping in my yard). Whats more amazing is that I have been doing a gymnastics class at TAGs, and thanks to my new fitness level I did was able to quickly pick up and do gymnastics moves I didn’t think I could come close to doing. Astonishingly, I was was able to do a front handspring off a table vault in my second session!
Not only is my stamina better, but I am more focused at work, and have much less anxiety and worry. My mood is much more calm and my ability to handle stressful situations is better. I have noticed that when I workout at lunch I get more done in the two hours thereafter than the rest of the day.
The amazing athletes produced by XLR8 so quickly is a result of the coaches and the atmosphere created by all the GREAT members. The coaches at XLR8 are phenomenal at teaching technique and getting the most out of their athletes. It has been truly encouraging to see people over coming serious impediments with the help of the XLR8 coaches (to many to list). I cannot emphasize enough how good the XLR8 coaches are at modifying a workout to meet anyones limitations.
The atmosphere is also a crucial element at XLR8 in helping each athlete to push to new levels of fitness they didn’t think they could reach. Every week I talk to numerous people that are amazed at being able to do things they couldn’t do a week ago. The camaraderie amongst the members is like nothing I have seen anywhere, other than when I played football in college. The encouragement and friendly competition makes the workout 100 times more fun than anything I could do on my own (it is astounding how many great athletes XLR8 has produced over the past few years). I can’t stand to miss a workout now, and when I first started, I could imagine my body being able to do 6 workouts a week. One thing I can say for certain is that I would not have accomplished these results working out on my own at a conventional gym.
Thank you XLR8, I am so grateful for being given a new lease on life! I feel like I have found the fountain of youth.
David Jones
July 2013 Athlete of the Month
CrossFit XLR8