CrossFit changed my life

Recently I have had the opportunity to take over and become the part owner of a crossFit box. I guess this explains all my posts and training and comments on Facebook, and quite honestly, nobody that has been part of the community will ever understand, CrossFit has changed my life!

Competing at my first online competition (back in the black shirt)

Last year this time (I know because Facebook memories told me so) I was going through a tough tough time. I won't get into details but it seemed that a lot on which I had built my life on was falling apart. Its funny that in these moments, they physical things that are taken from you mean nothing compared to the spiritual and mental things. You feel so empty. I was in a dark dark place, a place I thought I had to pretend didn't exist, but it was so real, it was there when I went to ben, there when I went to sleep. My once "safe place" for community and love had become a place of hurt an deception, this isolated me even more. Rewind though some months...

One single meeting would have a ever lasting impact on my life. I met with Henri the Marketing manager of the mall and Francois early one morning to discuss an "Operation Smile" fundraising event. I had been on missions with the organization and raised a lot of money for them through my solo adventurers and my most recent expedition on bicycle from Cairo to Cape Town. The idea was to have a burpee marathon and get donors to give money to the charity depending on the amount of completed burpees.
The Mall would be the venue.
one question...at the end of the meeting,"So what do you do?"
"I run the CrossFit Mammoth, you should come check it out,"

I couldn't forget the words of the young passionate man talking about crossFit, I drove to Pretoria later that day and on the way back I organized to pop in at the CrossFit Mammoth. When I arrived, there was some as we would say now, "clanging and banging" going on, loud music, people laughing, smiling and lifting weights, sweating, lying on the floor and just having a great workout. I was hooked, I wanted in. The next day I checked in for my first workout...

And then two month in, everything seemed to fall apart, literally in the space of a week I had to walk into the box a different broken man. I couldn't hide it. There was something though that kept me coming back. Perhaps it was that there were no mirrors so I couldn't see the reflection of my broken self, or perhaps it was the sound of heavy breathing, of weights hitting the floor of music blaring that helped me ignored everything I was going through.

Back in training after a adventure trip in Europe 

But it wasn't any of those but at the same time was all of those, just mixed with human interaction, care and people just loving being amongst each other training. For a long time I would do three sessions in a row, work so hard that I could hardly move the next day. I cried in that box, laughed, had silly chats and deep conversations about everything I was going through. Not once was I judged, not once was I laughed at, not once was I not good enough. I learnt a lot in that year about patience and love.

Fast forward a year and the box is still going strong after challenges that would have sank the titanic. Sometimes I would sit and watch everything happen and get depressed, this was my home, a place that offered me hope in a time where I had none. So I committed to stay...instead of abandoning the people who were now as broken as me, crying out for help. I stayed and I learnt to look past things and instead forgive and love and never judge. I prayed everyday in the box, over the place and the equipment that it would be a place of hope once again. I spent many nights there with Francois and envisioned such big things for peoples lives to be changed the way mine was.

Yet still I was never really involved until a month ago where I was approached to become a director and co - owner of the box. At first I was confused and then I remembered every prayer uttered...
I was overwhelmed an absolute dream come true for me! And here I am in the community that changed my life, committing to change others lives and give back.

Before I started I used to think crossFit was senseless. A place to throw weights around and push yourself to unhealthy limits, but now I know better. From the moment you walk in the door you are stripping off your CEO, teacher, accountant, secretary, manager, miner...or any other title. You simply leave it at the door. You walk in for the person standing next to you, to be their spot and encouragement, and they walk in for you. You step into the "team" when you walk in the door. Into a community that loves you and is there for you no matter what. We are there to help with your first sit up, jump rope. row for time, muscle up pull up, squat, personal best...but then we are there for your worst, your failures, your stiffness, your aches and pains. Its more than a training gym or program it is a community of health and fitness.

Our Christmass WOD 

And if that doesn't change your life, the physical results will! I have been the fittest, with the lowest fat percentage of my life in my life. On top of that I have lifted the heaviest weights I have ever attempted! To look in the mirror when you get home and say "I am Keegan Longueira, I trained my hardest today, I gave my all at life, I ate well and tonight I go to bed, regardless of any situation, ready for a new day, to give my all, all over again...for me, that is one of the best feelings in the world.

I wish I could share the details of brokenness with you all, but it just doesn't seem right, it would make the story a whole lot better but perhaps one day you will understand why crossFit has changed my life!