This one is for all the people reading this who think they “can’t”. Everyone in the room knows you can do this, aside from yourself. You are your own worst enemy in the gym. You can row a little faster than you think, run further, lift more, wake up and go to the gym earlier than you think any sane person is up, and you can do more reps in that “max set” of back squats than you think… in fact, probably about 10 reps more than you think.
As a coach, I get to witness people accomplish things they never thought possible on a daily basis. This is one of my favorite things about CrossFit. Over the past few years, I have learned that the human body is capable of more than we can think, and created to do a lot more than what we ask of it. The best part is training females who may have grown up in a culture that told them they can’t lift heavy and can’t be athletes. It is so amazing when I am able to convince them to put more weight on the bar, they successfully and safely lift it, and glimpse for a second the potential that I see in them. In that one lift, years of negative speak can be stripped back and new confidence built, just like their muscles are being rebuilt when they train.
I love helping people realize part of their athletic potential, but I am definitely just as guilty as every member of my class of underestimating myself. That is where the CrossFit community comes in. We are there for each other, day in and day out, struggling together and reminding each other of why we chose this lifestyle: to become better and to realize that we “can”. We may not all be coaches, but we all function as a coach at one point or another, pushing each other toward more than we expected to be able to do when we first started.
- Coach Brea