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400# deadlift
300# squat
Biked from Austin to Houston for the MS150
CrossFit L2, CrossFit Gymnastics Course
I have always loved being active and participating in athletics, both team and individual sports. Growing up in California, my main sport was club softball, but I also played soccer, rugby, biked, and rode horses. I was pretty good at pogo stick, stilts and unicycle, which my parents got me to keep me busy outside, when I really wanted to stay inside and watch TV. However, as I got older and became more of a workaholic, I put my athleticism aside and watched from the sidelines. Luckily, I found CrossFit in 2021! I started to work less and less, and would come to Tiltshift more often, finding a better balance between work and my physical and mental health. I loved the variety of the workouts and especially the people and coaches here, and I was becoming healthier, happier, and more confident every day. I loved learning new things and seeing the immediate progress in my strength and technique. Within 6 months of starting CrossFit at Tiltshift, I left my 19-year-long career to be a full-time coach and gym manager. I have greatly enjoyed the challenge of learning a new sport and being able to share that passion with others.
Throughout 2020 I had some time off work, and time to self-reflect on how I was treating myself. I had always been taught (by example) to take care of others first, and myself last. I had been putting things off that I have always wanted to do because I was scared about what people would think. In 2020 I broke that cycle! I got a gender-affirming surgery that I had wanted for 10 years, and when I was recovered, I started to work out at home with resistance bands. I got sick of smacking myself in the face with them, so I hung those up and completed a full month of 100 push-ups a day. After seeing how much more strong I felt (and looked), I knew I could stick to a routine, so I searched local gyms and found Tiltshift. I had never tried CrossFit but from day one of my beginners class, I was hooked!
As a trans man, I struggle to find trans representation in any type of athletics. My hope is that by being out as both a CrossFit athlete and coach in my community, I can inspire and bring a greater sense of inclusion to this sport—CrossFit is truly for EVERYbody. I love welcoming and introducing newer CrossFit athletes to the sport and to Tiltshift. Sharing the feeling of pride when they hit new PRs and accomplish things they never knew their bodies could do is my favorite! By bringing my most authentic self to the gym and to work, I encourage others to do the same and that is when they perform at their best. Over the past few years, I have found that my passions lie with more technical movements- gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting are my favorite things to coach. My spare time is spent watching gymnastics and Oly videos, and analyzing my own lifts and gymnastics movements to be better each time. My goal for the next year is a body weight snatch, 215# clean and jerk, and stringing together ring muscle ups. I also would like to enter a weightlifting competition.
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