Joe English
Coach
Not the biggest or strongest guy in the gym by far, but pretty good on body weight movements. Occasionally, but not regularly, can successfully do a Bar Muscle Up :-). Can bench press 130% of my body weight. Can deadlift 2x my body weight.
Qualifications
CrossFit Level 1 Certification
About Coach
I started CrossFit six months before my 50th birthday as part of a personal commitment to age healthy. I did various intramural sports in college, and am an average athlete. I served in the Army in my 20s and did a lot of calisthenics and running, so I was in pretty good shape overall for a time. But in my 30s and 40s I was not extremely active, nor did I exercise regularly. Joining CrossFit so late in life was a little daunting as I had never done any powerlifting or significant weight training before. But the military taught me mental toughness and a recognition that we are capable of more than we think. I am a competitive person by nature and the culture of CrossFit helped me to push myself far harder and farther than I could have on my own. In addition, getting to know the members of CFSG was awesome - such a supportive and positive community. It was exciting to learn the various movements and see my improvements in technique, strength, and endurance. I have taught various academic classes over my professional career and found that there is a big bump in learning thru teaching, and I enjoy teaching. So, when the opportunity came up to earn my CF-L1, I was excited not only to have an opportunity to coach others but to learn and improve myself.
Turning Point
Both my parents have debilitating medical conditions. One physically and one mentally. Watching them get old and frail and so dependent on other people was frightening. While there are some medical situations that are outside of anyone's control, I vowed to do everything I could to be healthy and independent as I got older. I love CrossFit for many different reasons, but at the end of the day, the most important thing to me is to improve my overall health and age well.
Motivation & Passion
As a "Masters'" athlete and relatively new CrossFitter, I am well aware of the challenges this methodology has for older participants. I want to help share and reinforce all the ways to participate with appropriate scaling that still achieves the intended stimulus. Picking the right days to go hard and the right days to scale back a little. In addition, underscoring the need for recovery to avoid injury and enabling people to do this far into their senior years is key. Earning PRs and RXing the workouts can be an ego boost, but that is for a select few of the CrossFit nation, and not everyone should use that as their measure of success. Group classes add a competitive spirit that helps us to push ourselves harder, but at the end of the day, you are only competing with yourself based on the goals you set for yourself. I would hate to see people leave CrossFit because they think they aren't as good as someone else or are unable to do all the RX movements. I hope I can help inspire people to stick with us long after they've stopped hitting new PRs and refocus on new and different goals to continue challenging themselves.
