Meet the Coach Monday: April

Meet April! She is one of our new coaches and she loves how CrossFit has helped her turn her "I cant's" into "I can's." She also loves the positive, supportive, encouraging, strong and just straight up awesome people. Read on to find out more about April and her CrossFit journey.How did you find CrossFit?I remember working out at a local gym years ago and watching the CrossFit Games on TV as I was dreading every second spent on the treadmill. I had never heard of it, and it looked wicked intense. One of the trainers mentioned that they could see me doing these crazy workouts and I kind of just laughed and went about my treadmill workout while thinking to myself “is he crazy?!”. I didn’t picture myself as an athlete and the most “intense” workout I had done was a Jillian Michaels video... once. CrossFit just seemed unrealistic. Fast forward to years later when I attended a MetCon class at that same gym, not knowing what I was getting myself into (“what the heck is a MetCon?!”). It was hard, I felt like maybe I was dying a little bit, but I also felt badass for surviving. Shortly after that I became addicted to the intensity and competitiveness that I was exposed to in that class that I wasn’t getting in my self-programmed workouts- I needed more of it. Although I was hesitant to join a CrossFit gym at first (I had no clue what I was doing, and for some reason I convinced myself that because I couldn’t do a pull up meant I couldn’t be a CrossFitter... turns out there is no statement more false than that!), my sister convinced me to sign up with SRCF in Nov ‘19, and immediately I felt welcomed into a strong and supportive community of athletes of all ages and abilities, and I haven’t looked back since.What do you love about CrossFit?There is so much I love about CrossFit, but I’ll keep it simple so I don’t bore anyone. One thing I love most is the community. If you want to surround yourself with positive, supportive, encouraging, strong and just straight up awesome people- join a CrossFit gym. Plain and simple. Having a bad day? Show up to class and you’re guaranteed to leave feeling like it was the best day ever. Feeling unmotivated and look at the workout beforehand and convince yourself that because the workout has toes-to-bar or another movement you find challenging and like to avoid? Show up anyway and you’ll end up hitting a PR and now you look forward to those movements in the workouts. That’s what happens when you are surrounded by a community like ours. Another thing I love about CrossFit is that it allows me to turn my “I cants” to “I cans”. Before CrossFit I couldn’t do a lot of things and convinced myself I could NEVER do them ( I.e. toes-to-bar/rings, pull ups, handstand push ups...). I picked a few movements to focus on proving myself wrong with, and I did just that! I could finally say “I can” about them confidently. There are still many things I can’t do (yet!), but I’ll conquer them next. CrossFit makes your “I cants” achievable, and there is no better feeling than proving to yourself that you sure as hell CAN do that thing you convinced yourself you couldn’t.Why did you become a coach?When I joined CrossFit I never thought I’d be a coach. I spent a few years leading Yoga, Pilates, TRX and Bootcamp classes, but coaching CrossFit just seemed out of my league and out of my comfort zone. After being approached by Paul and Aimee to see if I was interested in coaching, at first I wanted to just hangout in my comfort zone and pass on the opportunity. If there’s anything I have learned from CrossFit is that staying in your comfort zone is boring and won’t get you anywhere. I decided to jump to the opportunity and it’s been so great and I have learned (and still am learning) so much! I have found that I love being able to encourage our athletes to push themselves out of their comfort zones and watch them achieve their goals and get stronger in each class. Knowing that I might have had a positive impact on our athletes progress by giving them that little boost of confidence, or a cue that they might have never knew they needed, is such an awesome thing and I’m happy to be there for our team!Thanks for being part of our team as one of our amazing coaches April!