Grant’s CrossFit story….
I grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire and am as loyal a Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics fan as they come. I started swimming competitively around age 8, and swim at Union College in upstate NY, captaining the team my senior year. After college I took a sales job with The Hartford Insurance company in their Chicago regional office. There, I spent many years learning exactly how not to be physically fit (read: deep dish pizza and drive thru’s). After gaining 50 pounds, a friend took pity on me and had me join Crossfit. From there, I’ve been hooked for the last 6 years (and managed to get my wife, Molly, hooked too).
My first year I was stuck at a 125# clean, couldn’t get it to save my life. We had a WOD with 135# cleans, so I was setting my bar to scale to 125#. The coach came over and told me that he thought I was strong enough to get it and had me set my bar to 135#. The coach’s confidence, coupled with the fact that I couldn’t overthink the lift (because of the metcon) allowed me to get through my first Rx wod. Not only did I clean the 135# but I cleaned it 10x in the WOD. I don’t think anyone forgets their first muscle up. I had worked for 3 weeks to jump and hang to get the movement down. Sure enough, I got my first MU after tons of practice…I kept saying “Bring on Rich Froning” all afternoon. Getting a rope climb (when I couldn’t do one in grade school) was also a great accomplishment.
