The woman put her hand over her mouth, and began to cry.

 The woman put her hand over her mouth, and began to cry.


I took 2 steps towards her, and then froze.  The older woman gave me “the look” and a slight wave of her hand.  She put her arm around the sobbing woman.  





Let me explain.


It was a quiet Thursday night.  I had an intimate group of 5 ladies at my “CrossFit Lite” class.


All 30 and 40-somethings.  Lululemon leggings and Rush t-shirts.  2 of them divorced, 1 separated.  Mini-vans and SUVS and meals eaten through the window.


Heavy yoke carries were on the menu.


The giant frame weighed 200 pounds.  I warmed the ladies up and they took turns walking 10 meters with it.  The heavy yoke hurts the neck and traps.  It requires pure grit in spite of the discomfort.


The first 2 ladies weebly-wobbled across the floor and grinned breathlessly and high fived their classmates.


The third lady looked nervous.  You could see her hands shaking a little as she stood it up.  She took tiny erratic steps down the floor.


She dropped the yoke with a huge clang at the 10 meter mark.  She extricated herself from the rig, took a huge breath, covered her face with her hands and began to sob.


Susan, the self-appointed mom of the group, sprung into action.  She shushed me away and put her arm around her crying classmate.


“What’s the matter Crystal?”


Crystal did the crying talk, where you burst words between sobs.


“He told me I’d never carry my own weight.  He always told me I was fat and lazy.”


“I hear you.  You just carried 10 pounds more than your weight across an entire gym floor with 5 witnesses.  If that prick was here, what would you tell him?”


The question snapped Crystal out of her tears.  She looked up at Susan and her face changed in an instant.


“I’d tell him to kiss my ass!”


The other ladies moved in close and everybody started hugging everybody.


I just kept watch from 4 meters away.  Susan caught my eye and winked.


My turn.  


“Ok ladies, knitting party’s over.  Let’s get on the Assault Bikes for 10 minutes of fun!”


Tears were wiped away. 


5 smiling faces got onto the bikes.


What price can you put on giving a woman her confidence back?



“Coach Just Tell Me What To Eat!”

She had tears in her eyes. Heather was 42.  A mother. A wife.  And nearly 70 pounds overweight.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Playbook: How I Made The Podium In My First Hyrox Race At Age 58

Image
How I Made The Podium In My First  Hyrox Race At Age 58 Christmas 2025 my buddy Vaughan texts me. 11 weeks.  Time to LOCK IN. TRAINING  I trained 4 times per week at regular CrossFit classes, plus I went to the Saturday morning team training to work out with Vaughan on station transitions. TRAINING NOTES:   with approximately 10 weeks of prep, we got to train both classic CrossFit classes and specialized Hyrox sessions.   In practice there were no real concerns as to completing a station, just logistics and recovery.  The focus was always running on compromised legs. I always seemed to die on the run after the sandbag lunges. Definitely room to improve. Training THAT hard 4-5 times a week requires fuel.  But eating pizza and beer is a recipe for disaster. Boring. That best describes my eating profile.   I’m 5’7”, and 148 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal. On January 2nd I cut all beer and wine out of my diet for 10 weeks. I love to float...
Read more

When Someone Pranks the Gym’s Toughest Athlete with One Direction

Image
I saw the anger flow across her face like lava from a volcano. Daisy turned beet red, and stormed across the gym.  She grabbed the iPhone 4 and yanked it out of the speaker jack. “Who put this shit on?” My 7:30 pm CrossFit class was filled with twenty-somethings and 2 moms.  It was a dynamic class with lots of tattoos, swearing, and sweating. Daisy was the self-appointed team captain.  She had a “strong personality”. When it came to the music, the class listened to what she wanted to listen to. I was her favorite coach.  Partially because I indulged her temper.  And perhaps because we shared a similar taste in workout music. Whenever I put on “Big Poppa” by Notorious B.I.G she dropped the barbell and started dancing. What had gotten Daisy so worked up? Someone had played a delicious practical joke.  They had queued up “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction.  And put it on an endless loop. The first time it played no one noticed because the whole...
Read more

The Simple Nutrition Rule Every Exhausted Mom Needs: Why New Moms Shouldn't Do Rigid Meal Plans

Image
She shook her head violently.  “Coach, ain’t nobody got time for that!” Kayleigh had just gone through my meal prep plan.  She was 29, and a mom to a 14-month-old daughter Violet. She was 15 days into CrossFit. I took the 8-page workbook and set it on the bench away from us. The words of my first coach echoed in my mind.  “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” There was no way a new mom was going to start tracking macros, meal prepping, and taking boxes of chicken, rice and broccoli in her purse with her. I could sense her frustration.  She was surviving on Cheerios that fell on the floor and carrot sticks. Kayleigh was a woman’s woman.  5’9” and 177 pounds.  Her husband was a metal worker and a volunteer fireman.  And she worked at a factory making truck bumpers before her daughter arrived.  She was strong under those big sweaters and hoodies. We began the negotiation.  “Would you be willing to eat 1 steak every sin...
Read more