I can’t say enough about how proud I am of this special lady. She is the classic example of how CrossFit truly is for everyone. CrossFit isn’t about those elite athletes that we see showcased at The Games, or even the weekend competitor. CrossFit is about everyday, ordinary people, becoming athletes and doing things they never thought possible
Mary reached out to us in January. She told me she was having trouble with her knees and feet. She wasn’t even sure if she would be able to do the workouts but she knew she needed to try something. On her first day, I recognized right away some movement patterns that were contributing to her knee pain. We worked on re-patterning her movement and started her off squatting to a box and standing back up. Even that was a struggle. Burpees? These were a REAL challenge. People complain all the time about burpees. But the ability to do a burpee is something that no one should take for granted
Mary is still in her 50s but she was already on her way to not being able to get up on her own, if God forbid she fell. I urged her that she should continue training. She was hesitant at first. I’m glad she stuck it out
After only 6 weeks, she’s made tremendous progress. She hates that I make her do burpees, but as I said, it’s an important life skill. She can now do 5 of them in the same time it took her to do one rep on her first day. That doesn’t sound like much to the average person, but it’s a big deal for her. Everyday, it seems, to bring small victories. Here she is doing a scaled version of a rope climb, yet another thing Mary never imagined herself doing.
Please join me in honoring CrossFit Stronghold’s March 2017 Athlete of the Month, Mary McEachern