Better than Yesterday….again
So 11 years. Seems like a long time. But when you sit back and look at it, it really isn’t.
This story starts 
11 years ago. We get people that want to get fit and healthy from time to time that try out CrossFit and then decide that they can’t do it as they aren’t fit enough or that they can’t do all the movements. They look at me and say, “But you can do it every day and it’s easy for you”.
11 years ago I was in a similar boat. The difference being I didn’t have someone demonstrating to me the best way to go about getting fit and healthy.
I wish 11 years ago that CrossFit had existed in town, the challenges of it, the fun of the community because I was so unfit, and so out of shape, and oh my was I unhealthy. I wish that there had of been someone that could have showed me you just need to do it one small step at a time.
My weekends were spent sitting on the lounge, watching TV and eating chips and drinking beer or soft drink. I lived a block from the Bowlo, yet I still drove to Coles. The furthest I would venture out would be to drive to a garage sale or two, then Jodie and I would head to the pub for the afternoon, wind up spending Sunday nursing a very disgusting hangover to then wake tired, lethargic and not wanting to go to work. Then Monday night at about 9pm I would be exhausted and ready to collapse.
One day I went for a walk with my dog, I was out of breath by the time I hit the corner, around 120m, I turned around and went home. That over the next few weeks turned into a 20 min walk, and so on and so on.
So now if we skip ahead 11 years I now workout 6 days a week. And for a reasonable amount of time. My training regime for one day alone consists of 18 strict muscle ups, Hang snatches 13 of them getting progressively heavier, then some work on my ATP system, around 72 power cleans at 61Kg and 64 handstand push ups in a 16 minute period. Then a series of wall ball shots, toes to bar and double unders, capped off with about 1200m of running broken into three 400m all out efforts.
Now if that day 11 years ago I had not taken my dog for a walk and started off, I would never be able to do what I do now. But it has taken me 11 YEARS to get that far. Now don’t be daunted by that.
It won’t be that you think you have to get fit first, it won’t be that you can’t do all the movements. It will be that you don’t want to step outside your comfort zone, you are happyish where you are and you don’t want to think everything has to change. I can show that it can and will, but only a little at a time.
You see now that I know how to get myself there, I can show you the correct methods, give you the tools to start off and keep going. You just need to let go of whatever it is that is holding you back from starting and let me guide you along your way.
About the Author
Jim Ridley is Armidale’s accomplished personal trainer. Having lost over 25 kilos and becoming a PT, Jim knows where you are coming from. He is the owner of Gym Ridz Personal Training and CrossFit Armidale, 2012 Winners of the Health, Beauty and Wellbeing section in the Armidale Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. The only private training studio in Armidale and Armidale’s only CrossFit gym. He is also an avid if not tragic St George Illawarra Dragons fan.