Introducing the CrossFit Grays Harbor team

Camilo

CROSSFIT COACH | CROSSFIT LEVEL 1 | CROSSFIT LEVEL 2 | 6 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Specialties: CrossFit Skill Developer.

CrossFit has changed my life completely. I’ve been doing CrossFit for about three years now. I was a very different person then. I love CrossFit because it changed my life, and it can change yours. It changed my life by becoming more disciplined and more self-aware of what I eat and the different activities I do outside of CrossFit. It helped me believe in myself and that I can do things I set my mind to. I have a passion for helping people improve their lives, and with patience and compassion, I get the privilege to coach people at their level and watch them flourish. When I found CrossFit, I got that same competitive feeling as before. CrossFit is and will always be my Sport for Life! My goal is to help every person be better, not just physically but mentally. Helping them change their mindset from “I don’t know if I can do that !” to “Yes, I can, and I will!!” I like to push people a little bit out of their comfort zone. Just as I push myself. I have been able to turn my life around, and I am honored to take part and help others do the same. As a gym, we want this to be the best hour of your day.

Isarai

CROSSFIT COACH | CROSSFIT LEVEL 1 | 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

My name is Isarai Thieme, and I’m humbled by the opportunity I’ve had to coach at Crossfit Grays Harbor for the last few years. I’d wanted to do some sort of Health/Fitness coaching before I found Crossfit, but I didn’t know which direction to go. Growing up not playing or even watching sports, I never understood why people got so excited about them, and I never thought I’d love a sport like I love Crossfit. And why I do is a whole other story for another day.

Thankfully, as was my original plan, I didn’t wait until I mastered all the movements before I started coaching. Otherwise, I still wouldn’t have started to share/help provide it for the people around me. Since then, I’ve learned that we’ll never be “there.” We’ll always have more to learn, more room to improve, and more areas we find that our weak spots were hiding in, ones we didn’t even know we had. And that’s part of the beauty of it. The process changes us in a way that today there’s something new and incredible that wasn’t there yesterday. Talk about exciting; there’s enough variety to keep it from getting repetitive. Never a dull moment when there’s change involved.

You don’t get to a place where you are so fit and healthy that you no longer need to take care of your body. So it’s more about learning to embrace the process, the day in and day out of what it looks like to take care of our health, and celebrating the small wins; than about lifting X amount of pounds, getting to a certain weight, or being able to do a certain movement.

And Yes! We all want to do those. They are great goals and fantastic achievements, and take a moment to celebrate when you achieve them. Then keep going because they are not the destination, just a fun, sometimes necessary stop along the way. In other words, they are a byproduct of the process. So the more you focus on refining those habits that affect your fitness and health (your nutrition, sleep, mindset, effort, and intention you put into your workout, time for mobility and accessories, etc.), the sooner and more sustainably you’ll reach those benchmarks. Periodically, we have to look at our daily habits and see if they align with the direction we want to go. Make the necessary adjustments.

Is there risk involved? Yes, to anything worthwhile while, there is risk involved. There is risk in going out of your house, driving a car, or even getting up off the couch, but there is also, as I see it, an even bigger risk in doing nothing, even though it might not be as obvious. And there are many ways you can mitigate the amount of risk involved. Like a safe driver, you’re far less likely to get in an accident than a reckless driver. I am convinced that the benefits of good health and fitness outweigh the possibility of risk.

As a coach, I believe in order to most safely progress, athletes, especially beginners, need to build a strong base in any movement before pushing the envelope in that area. For example, get good at step-ups before you go to box jumps, and then once you get good at those step-ups, GO for those box jumps.

My goal is to have everyone be able to get a good workout in, wherever you’re at, on the slider of beginner to advanced. Whether that means simplifying movements so that beginner athletes can keep moving through a workout, encouraging intermediate athletes to try those heavier dumbbells or go for those box jumps, or pushing Advanced athletes to go unbroken or push the pace a little harder, sometimes, it means having athletes scale it back a bit to maintain the stimulus, work on technique, or give an injury time to recover. No matter what level you’re at, whether it’s your first day or you’ve been doing it for years, your body deserves a solid, challenging workout.

I want to encourage everyone that it’s better to show up and get a workout in even when you’re not at your best, or you have to switch out one or even all the movements, rather than skipping because you didn’t feel on your A game or knew that you weren’t yet able to do half the movements as prescribed (RX). Because the hard days are the ones that count the most. Anyone can do it when it’s easy, but doing what’s good, even hard, builds character. If you give up every time it gets hard, you miss many growth opportunities. And those movements that make you want to skip are the areas where you have the most room for improvement (physically and/or mentally). So when setbacks come, sometimes out of our control, I exhort you not to let them take you out. When you fall on the path and skin your knee, get back up, brush off, and keep climbing uphill, one foot in front of the other. And when you have extra energy, sprint up that hill or grab somebody else’ hand, who’s on the path, and pull them along with you.

Give it your best effort today in such a way that you’ll be better tomorrow.