Athlete of the MonthMarch

Kevin W (he/him/his)

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF. WHAT DO YOU DO OUTSIDE OF THE GYM?

Outside of the gym in my free time, you’ll often find me at the beach on nice weekend days in the summer, enjoying game nights with friends, or binging the latest in pop culture. I also love road trips and am not afraid to drive up to 12-14 hours in a day to get somewhere.

For work, I am the marketing and communications manager for an international trade association for architectural lighting designers. I really enjoy getting to travel all over the place for conferences, trade shows, and meetings (and looking forward to that happening more again hopefully soon).

 

WHAT INITIALLY GOT YOU INTO TRAINING AND WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?

I had initially started looking into CrossFit gyms because I was wanting to lose weight and get in better shape, and the regular gym just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. Having someone there to program a workout and coach me through it was a BIG attraction. I was also playing rugby at the time and wanted a bit more strength training too.

I have to fully admit I wasn’t super consistent for the first several years I was at Hardware; I let life and work and excuses kind of get in the way too often. I was just starting to get into a better routine right before the pandemic started, and it was in post-lockdown and working from home that being able to leave my house and be around people AND workout that I was able to really make the gym part of my almost daily routine and it helped to get me through the last two years. Some of my closest friends are at the gym and I’m so happy with the coaching and the community that we’re a part of. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons I keep coming back.

WHAT ARE YOUR FITNESS GOALS? HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO REACHING THEM?

Last year I set two kind of stretch fitness goals: Get my first strict pull-up and run a mile. I got my strict pull-up! Now I want to work on more rig movements and get multiple pull-ups in a row and this summer I’m going to get that one mile. There are some milestone 1RM that I want to work on for some of the bar work too.

Somewhere along the way my focus on working out became less about the numbers on the scale and more about what I was able to do with my body that I hadn’t been able to do before.

 

WHAT’S AN ACCOMPLISHMENT OR GOAL YOU’VE REACHED AT HARDWARE THAT MADE YOU THE MOST PROUD?

Besides that pull-up??? Pre-Hardware I was terrified of free weights; I didn’t know how to use them, I didn’t know the movements, I was afraid of hurting myself, and I was intimidated by the people in the free weights room at the gyms I was going to. Now some of my favorite movements include bar work.

The goal I’m most proud of is my deadlift. I’m currently at a 419# 1RM and I’m aiming for 450 by the end of the year.

FAVORITE WOD/MOVEMENT?­­

Favorite movement is without a doubt deadlifts! I’m also going to try to grab one of the C2 bikes if a WOD includes cardio.

 

LEAST FAVORITE WOD/MOVEMENT?

I think this still has to be burpees (even if I’m getting better at them), but maybe more specifically burpee over bar or into another movement. And not a big fan of sprinting WODs.

ANY ADVICE FOR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN TRYING OUT HARDWARE?

Don’t be intimidated by what you think a gym like this would be. Also be patient with yourself if you feel like you aren’t going as heavy or as fast as other people: do what you can where you are! There is nothing wrong with scaling a movement or weight (eight years in and I still scale sometimes).

And make friends with the people around you, come in have fun and move your body!

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