Share your CrossFit Prototype experience and fitness journey

I’ve been working out and playing sports (basketball, flag football) for years. It’s always been important for me to stay active and healthy. At first it was to get stronger and fitter in order to improve in those sports but as the years went by working out kind of became the sport itself. The 3 or 4 years prior to finding CrossFit Prototype I was constantly looking for challenging new workouts (the Insanity videos, P90X, boot camp classes at various gyms, Spartan races). At this point I wasn’t really sure what CrossFit was and hadn’t looked into it. Chris Ballesteros invited me to a class at CFP in March of 2016 and I was hooked from the first class. It was exactly what I was looking for. A challenging workout that encompassed
strength and endurance while also satisfying my need for competition. It was great to learn Olympic lifts that I had never done before. I realized just how much mobility and flexibility I was lacking and it’s been great working on all these things for the last year and half.
What is your favorite part about being at CFP?

The best part of the CFP is the coaches and the community. Everyone is friendly and encouraging. It’s far different from going to a normal gym where everyone is doing their own thing, in their own world with headphones on. I enjoy the camaraderie of CFP and CrossFit in general. I’ve visited many different boxes around the world and it always strikes me how lucky CFP is to have coaches that really teach you, instruct you on proper movements, have your safety in mind and also encourage you to attain new goals. This is not always the case for a lot of places.

What are your hobbies and activities?
My hobbies include playing basketball, travelling to warm weather locales, watching NFL/NBA with my kids, taking my son to his sports leagues, and any kind of water activity (swimming, jetskiing, boating).
How has CFP helped you outside the gym (in sports etc)?

Although I haven’t played other sports nearly as much as I used to since joining CFP, when I have played I find that my conditioning and stamina and muscle memory comes back much faster than it used to after layoffs. I can jump right in and run full court basketball without feeling tired. I’ve also noted it’s much easier to get a good night’s sleep after a WOD!

What are you continuing fitness goals to this point?

My fitness goals are just to keep improving on my strength in squats, snatches, cleans, bench press. I’ve finally figured out double unders but want to do them more efficiently so I don’t burn myself out so fast. I want to keep improving on the benchmark workouts and set new PRs. I’d like to get a ring muscle up and maybe even a pistol squat one day.  Ideally I’d love to get to a point where I can do all these metcons without having back tightness.

Favorite Quote:
Can’t think of a particular favorite quote but I did see Julian Edelman post this recently after his injury and it’s a good motto to live by ” Tough times don’t last, tough people do”