For the last two months my schedule has been a little challenging. I work a typical 40 hour a week job in addition to working as a trainer at a CrossFit gym. This schedule is nothing new, but in the summer I tend to spend more time at the gym then during the slower winter months. Questioned about it at my “real” job, I took some time to consider why it is that I continue to do this.

Let’s be real, it’s the money; 40 hours in July at $100/hour, who wouldn’t like that? And yes, that sentence is a complete lie. I worked more, my hourly rate is no where near that and while the money is helpful; it’s not the sole reason I’m there.

I’ve been down and out lately, about my diet, about my training, but never about coaching. In fact, that is one of the strongest motivators I have. My last post (which apologies in the delay in getting a new one out) mentioned some things I wanted to talk about. Ignore that, I’ll get to it another day. There’s only one thing I want to focus on and it’s PRs, but not mine.

Shelley is a friend of mine; she’s a CrossFitter and Level 1 trainer just like me. But until recently, she didn’t even consider herself a CrossFitter. Shelley competed in her first CrossFit competition in the beginning of August. She hit a thruster PR at 65lbs. Then she hit it again, 35 more times. THIRTY-SIX thrusters at a weight she had yet to attain, even once. I was feeling sorry for myself about how I made it through the workout, but watching her hit that over and over again cleared my head. She did awesome. It was a happy, proud moment. In the last workout of the day, she cleaned 75lbs from the ground. Yep, first time for that too.

Two weeks ago, Julie hit a 30lb PR on her clean & jerk. A month ago Scott reached a PR on his turkish getup and last week worked up to a new deadlift PR. PRs are great moments for members and as a coach, I am thrilled by them too; in fact, sometimes more then the member. But that still isn’t everything. It’s the conversations and questions after a member takes their Level 1, teaching someone how to use a GHD and do a handstand pushup for the first time, the Facebook posts following up a 5am conversation. It’s about when a member feels like they’re a CrossFitter for the first time.

My schedule will calm down soon and probably gear back up after that. But it’s okay. It’s okay because of the PRs, the laughs, the instructions, the smiles, even the 4:35am alarm because I know at 5am a conversation may start that ends up deciding that HSPU stands for Hippos Skip Pretty Ugly instead of Hand Stand Push Ups. Instead of why do I, why wouldn’t I want to do it?