Meet athlete Stephanie! In just one year and four months with us, she’s become the definition of consistency. She made the Committed Club in her very first year, has logged more than 270 classes, and is on an incredible 60-week streak. When she can’t make her usual morning class, she finds another time to get it done. Along the way, she’s racked up 67 PRs, joins the post-class walks, and is always happy to partner up with anyone for our Saturday workouts. Best of all, we’ve watched her confidence grow right alongside her strength. Here’s Stephanie in her own words.
Tell us a little about yourself — where you’re from, what you do, family, hobbies, anything you’d like people to know about you outside the gym!
I’m a mom of two teenagers and a professor, so I spend my time with my kids and supporting graduate students as they navigate the university. My degrees focused on colleges and students, which helped me understand how institutions support some students’ success better than others. It’s my mission to see that all students get the support they need. That educational experience also led me to become a community advocate for human rights and equity within institutions of all kinds. For fun, I love playing cards and board games.
What first brought you to CrossFit, and what keeps you coming back?
I heard about CrossFit years ago from a friend who lives in a different state. She talked about how welcoming and encouraging CrossFit was for her. So when my doctor told me I needed to lower my cholesterol, I gave CrossFit a try. Before CrossFit, I had been doing workouts at home that got boring and were hard to sustain, because I would just quit when it got hard. The group setting and the wide variety of activities mean I’m never bored or left to my own devices (or willpower). The encouragement from other athletes and coaches makes it easy to keep coming back.
What accomplishment in the gym are you most proud of so far?
I’m really proud of the habit I’ve built of coming into the gym most mornings. Now the alarm goes off, and I get up and go to the gym without asking myself, “Do I want to work out today?”
What is your favorite movement or workout — and your least favorite?
I actually like a lot of them. But as many of the coaches know, I really don’t like riding the bike, and I will complain about it!
How has CrossFit impacted your life outside the gym — health, work, family, mindset?
I feel really confident doing a lot of physical things that I didn’t feel confident doing at different points in my life. As I age, and now being divorced, it’s more important to me to be able to do the physical things I need to do. What really surprised me was how well I sleep. Getting up at 4:30 or 5:30 a.m. means I may not get as much sleep as I used to, but gosh, I sleep like a rock! Before CrossFit, I was waking up at random times (IYKYK), and that completely stopped once I started going to the gym consistently. I do need the occasional nap, though!
What advice would you give to someone who is brand new to CrossFit?
It can feel like drinking from a fire hose at first. Often a coach would explain a movement to me, and I’d hear the words and try to tell my body to do it, and it didn’t work very well. But as the months passed, I made small improvements. Slowly it got easier, and my form keeps getting better. So my advice is to keep showing up and do what you can, when you can.
Another challenge when I started was predicting what weight or pace I could keep up for the whole workout. Now I’ve gotten pretty good at scaling, and I definitely recommend it. Scaling is a great choice, and it gets you a good workout for you.