Qualifications
Bill holds a CrossFit Level-1 Certificate.
Bill’s Story
My CrossFit journey began in Birmingham, AL when on a trip, I stepped on a scale and did not like the result whatsoever. How did this happen? Surely the scale must be defective. I bounced up and down, and there it was, staring at me. Several years, make that decades of marginal choices. The chickens, or at least their wings and fingers, had come home to roost right between my feet. This simply would not do.
My wife Jennifer had joined a new gym a month earlier. It was called CrossFit. She expressed that the workouts were tough and required you to work hard, and even warned that you might have a hard time getting off the toilet for the first few weeks. At 30 pounds overweight and unable to even think about the idea of doing a single pull-up, I knew I had to at least give it a try.
The classes were tough and the people in them were impressively good at this stuff while was the opposite— at least in the beginning. Over time and little by little, I got better. I lost weight, caught up with some of the jackrabbits in the classes, and even became able to get my chin up over the bar! I was absolutely hooked after just a few short months in. Jennifer and I decided to kick it up a notch and started shopping on the edges of the grocery store, avoiding the inner processed food ridden aisles. CrossFit and nutrition had become not only a huge priority in our lives, but a major part of them as well.
Everything was great, and then October 10, 2018 came. It was suppose to be a category three, but Hurricane Michael ended up wrecking our gym, our home and our town. We were forced to move to 30A where we knew no one, had no gym, and ultimately no life. We started trying out gyms here and there, and sure, the workouts may have been similar, and the folks were nice, but these gyms were not home, these were not our people, and to be candid: hurricanes. suck.
When I thought Jennifer and I were about to give up on finding a gym we would fit in with here, there was one more on my radar: Momentum Fitness. I came on a day when one of my worst and most hated movements were programmed: overhead squats. I dreaded what the coach would think of me. Then it happened in real life: Coach Jordan said four words. “Show me what you’ve got.” I did, and although it was undoubtedly terrible, and I just knew she was going to tell me i was a lost cause, all I heard was “Yep, I can work with that!” And away we went.
The rest is history; I seriously don’t think I have missed more than just a handful of days since. I became immediately hooked again, but this time, it wasn’t just on the workouts, but it was on all that Momentum Fitness facilitates. This is not your typical Crossfit gym, and it definitely not a globo-bro-gym experience. While those have their place in the fitness world, it’s not me. For Momentum, it’s personal, and so, so much more than just a workout. This is framily (friends + family). We work out together, play together, laugh together, and occasionally make poor nutrition choices together. We hold each other accountable for fitness and for fun, and we have had an absolute blast ever since making the decision to join here.
Friends would tell me (pre-Michael), “You are in the gym all the time, why not consider coaching as a second career?” I have always wanted to facilitate others learning the benefits of what we do every day, and Momentum is an excellent venue for just that. Our long term goals align perfectly. The variety, the thrill and excitement of that first legless rope climb, pull-up, handstand pushup, or double-under, coupled with the longer term goal of preserving the ability to move like this when we are older. To me, that is what this is all about. It’s the purpose of doing what we do. The actual weight on the barbell is not nearly as important as the longer term goal. After all, what good is a 300# squat, if you cannot roll around on the floor with your grandkids, or play volleyball on the beach with friends? What good is a great daily program, if there is not a room full of friends to challenge you and make it fun?
Guiding others on this fun + fitness journey that for me, started with a number on a scale, is one of my favorite life stories that I hope to help others create as well.
