What up all?!

My fitness story is pretty much the opposite of everyone else’s. I grew up in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in a house where being active and eating a quality diet was never really encouraged (no offense mama). So for the first 16 or so years of my life I felt miserable without even knowing it. I got the flu and missed a week of school two times a year like clockwork, underperformed in all the sports I played, and could never stay up late for more than one night a week without getting some sickness. I don’t think it was until early in my junior year (at the height of my teenage misery) that I realized there had to be more to the sickness and sleepiness and grumpiness that seemed to plague my every day. And then I started to read…

Around the same time I started reading about everything health, wellness, and fitness I decided to return to crew in the fall of my senior year after not rowing for four seasons and essentially writing the sport off. I can tell you anything you want to know about what Bill Phillips, or Stu Mittleman, or Phil Maffetone, or Pavel have to say about training and the benefits I received from each of their programs, but I don’t think anything inspired me to take control of my health and fitness like rowing did. And I know for sure that no program I followed inspired me to train others until I started training myself for St. John’s Varsity Crew.

Fast forward a few months…After many a sitdown by myself thinking about what makes me happy and what I most enjoy doing I decided to take the summer after graduation to do everything in my power to become a personal trainer/coach before heading to UGA in August. And that was where a whole bunch of luck and coincidence kicked in for me.

Instead of ordering a packet and taking some ridiculous exam about whatever to get whatever certification (and believe me I considered it strongly) I decided to pop in on an old teacher and ask some questions. Long story short JR Thomas (my former gym teacher in high school and owner of JR Thomas CrossFit in Shrewsbury Mass) and I discovered CrossFit was holding a cert in Atlanta the same week as I was going to be in Athens for freshman orientation. Weird. As I walked back to my car from my first visit to JR’s I was worried about coming up with the green for it. And then I all of a sudden got a call from my mom that I received a $1000 scholarship from the Worcester Fire Department (enough to fund the cert.) Weird. And then I hopped on the internet, looked up CrossFit affiliates, and found one right in Athens down the street from my dorm. Weird.

Nonetheless, CrossFit has been a means to more than just fitness and a job for me. It’s been a means toward friendship, laughter, and vitality. And probably most important of all, CrossFit has been a means toward community. We like to tell our new members that when they pay their fees they aren’t paying to use our equipment, they are paying for access to us. I’ll take it even a step further and say that you are not paying for access to us, but for access to this community. There will never be a day I’m not happy to go to work, because each day I’m surrounded with dozens upon dozens of wonderful people. If you are thinking this might be for you and only remember a single thing from this biography I encourage you to remember this: you are always welcome at CrossFit.

Be real and live with passion.

“But I have promises left to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.” -Robert Frost

Much love and peace,

Nick Toomey