The Member Spotlight goes to someone who demonstrates the characteristics necessary for success, both in and out of the gym. Mitch is one of our newer members (about 9 months) and although he has a challenging and rigorous schedule as a firefighter, he still makes time to work out! He also regularly comes back to work out additional skills after class. We asked him some questions about her fitness journey and his experiences here at the gym so far:
I have been trying to commit to CrossFit for several years. I have bounced around from several CrossFit gyms but never for longer than a few months. I decided to try CrossFit Infinite Strength after seeing my brother-in-law, Scott Ercole have great success. My work schedule as a firefighter is constantly revolving so I don’t always make the same class times or days, but every class has always been friendly, very supportive -- and also competitive, which is a good thing.
The more conceited side of my personality has enjoyed the compliments from family and friends for having lost 20 pounds since joining Infinite Strength. I think the biggest physical difference I have noticed is an improvement in cardio. I wear a SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) at work and we have to make our oxygen last as long as possible. I have never enjoyed being the first person on my crew to breathe through a bottle; meaning we have to leave our task, whether it be inside fighting a fire or on the roof cutting a hole to help heat escape and go fill up with air which takes a significant amount of time. The workouts here, especially the longer AMRAPS, have helped me control both my heart rate and breathing and I have noticed the results during training and on the fire ground.
If I never had to do another burpee, I would be okay with that. My favorite workouts are similar to 19.1: high workload, moderate amount of time, and low skill. I enjoy these types of workouts because you can go all out for 10 to 15 minutes with limited risk of getting injured.
My wife Hailey likes to tease me that I only started working out in high school because I would have been beaten up for being such a nerd. I am an extensive movie/TV and science fiction novel buff. I’ll make a great bar trivia partner if the CFIS tribe wants to do a trivia event.My wife loves to travel. Combining our two interests has allowed us to travel to some remarkable places around the world. We have been to King’s Landing from Game of Thrones, (Croatia), The Shire from Lord of the Rings (New Zealand), and Harry Potter Platform 9 ¾ (London). The coolest place we visited was Cuba in 2015. It was not entirely legal, and we had to fly in from South America. I would highly recommend going before the culture and landscape changes due to the embargo being lifted.
My constant weekly goal is to attend three classes a week. Long term I would like to continue to lose weight, while maintaining strength. I continually struggle with the gymnastic movements of CrossFit. I would like to continue to improve in that area as well.
