In Feb this year we went into our 14th year as a CrossFit Affiliate.
CrossFit Armidale was founded on 10 Feb 2012, so is now officially a teenager.
And yes it does seem to come with many of the challenges associated with any other teenager haha.
It got me thinking though, why did I start it in the first place?
Some of you would know that I was an overweight sales rep, living out of suitcases on the road until I kicked myself into gear and decided to look after myself better with nutrition and exercise.
From that I went on to become a personal trainer so I could help others do what I had done. Minus all the errors I made along the way.
And that was all well and good, and I was training a lot of new people to exercise themselves.
After a while though this just wasn’t quite enough. There were only so many hours in the day and only so many people I could help in that time.
I also wanted something that I could use that could start people off and meet them where they were at, regardless of how fit and healthy they were or weren’t.
Little did I realise I had been doing it already with my own training.
I had been mixing up my workouts, lifting weights, using cardio and calithenics in combination and as I got fitter and better at things I was upping the intensity.
A good friend and I were discussing training one day and he suggested a workout for me to do. On paper it looked great. Short, simple, and likely intense. And it was. It was incredible. I loved it!
He said welcome to CrossFit my friend!
I knew with that one workout and what I had already been doing that I was on the right path for my clients at the time.
So I began to study it and delve as deep as I could into it in 2011. In 2012 we became the not only the first CrossFit affiliate in Armidale, but in the New England and North West. That’s right, we had this before our bigger neighbour in Tamworth!
At the time my clients began to see what they were capable of, and how they were capable of so much more than they first thought.
It was with the foundation of CrossFit Armidale we were really able to help people take that next step. Not only in the gym, but in other parts of their lives.
People that had never dreamed of doing a handstand or even just running for a kilometre non stop now were, and they were using those habits in other areas of their lives too. They could see better paths to their careers, their relationships with family and friends strengthened and they helped build a new family here at CrossFit Armidale.
It has now been over 13 years since we became an affiliate, I have watched as people have grown, have become people that love exercise (not all exercises, just as a whole! haha), I have seen families grow from this, people have met their life partners, have had children together, and it all has been because I knew that this exercise methodology could help more people in less time.
Because I knew the program was so very inclusive of any and all people, as well as adaptable to everyone.
I see people everyday still achieving more than they ever knew possible just because I had them do an exercise they couldn’t do when they walked in the door a few minutes before.
This was why I started it, to help more people,to make sure that we had a healthy and fit town here in Armidale.
I care for my community and want the very best for them and I do hope I can keep doing that until my dying day.