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When I was 18 I was diagnosed with a rare form of debilitating arthritis which left me wheelchair bound. After years of poor eating habits, smoking, and no exercise I was given the gift of support by means of health. I joined my first box in 2010 and quickly realized just how blind I was to the truth about my own personal health. I decided to make it my mission to help show others that there is more to life than being sick all the time.

Understanding the human body gives way to a far more specific approach to health. I have spent the past decade learning more about the human body and potential through my 10 years riding an ambulance to becoming a massage therapist. Having also come from a place of sickness and having no understanding of what it means to be healthy has expanded my potential both as a coach and an athlete.

There is no specific recipe for success, but one thing will always hold true: Walking through the door will always be the most challenging part of your first steps. My belief is that everyone should have a competency in their own health and wellness. It is my goal to help you uncover what your true capacities are both inside and outside the gym. At Neuse River, we are not a health club. We are an organization built on the fundamental idea that by lifting each other up we can accomplish more as athletes and humans.

I have been involved with competitive sports since the age of four as a swimmer. From there I played baseball, basketball, team handball, and golf. Once out of college and in the real world my time to play decreased but my drive for athletics did not. I lifted weights, swam 1-2 miles daily, ran obstacle course races, and coached my kids’ sports teams. It wasn’t until I found CrossFit that the itch for intensity got scratched. That was three years ago and I drank all the Kool-aid. Within the first six months I competed locally and within two years I got my CrossFit Level 1 and my ACE Personal Training certification.

What started as an urge for intense fitness quickly turned into a desire to help others. Sure, I want each athlete to crush the WODs and accumulate PR’s, but what really drives me as a coach is the idea of our members being fit enough to play with their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. The idea of someone getting off diabetes medication and taking control of their nutrition. The idea of a person who used to say “I can’t”, but now says “bring it” with confidence and grit. Longevity and optimum life experience are my goals for our athletes. I look at Crossfit as a means of helping people be happy, fit, and functioning for their entire lives.

There is no specific recipe for success, but one thing will always hold true: Walking through the door will always be the most challenging part of your first steps. My belief is that everyone should have a competency in their own health and wellness. It is my goal to help you uncover what your true capacities are both inside and outside the gym. At Neuse River, we are not a health club. We are an organization built on the fundamental idea that by lifting each other up we can accomplish more as athletes and humans.

I might be Neuse River CrossFit’s smallest coach, but that doesn’t stop me from having some big goals and dreams.  When I first started her fitness journey, I weighed a shocking 85lbs, struggling with depression and disordered eating habits.  CrossFit, her fitness community, and yoga have been instrumental in my recovery and since have been healthy for over 6 years now.   Recently I have been training Strongman in 2017 and have been tackling competitions, and slowly becoming the strongest version of herself.  Being a mom to my son, Jackson has really helped me understand the pregnant and post-partum body as it pertains to fitness.  I have been coaching CrossFit since 2014 and have been guiding Yoga for Athletes programs throughout the Triangle since 2013.  People from all walks of life can benefit from CrossFit communities and programs, and that by training with the intention of compassion and self-care, all goals can be met. 

After graduating high school in 2006, I went on to attend NC State. As a wrestler and hockey player in high school I was well conditioned but never spent much time in the weight room. Freshman year of college he began to lift and left the cardio behind. It didn’t take long to see strength gains, but just as quickly came weight gain and the freshman 15 was on its way. In 2008 a friend introduced me to CrossFit and here he found the magic of many worlds; strength, cardio, competition, coaching, and community. It felt like an all in one, it felt like home. 

I was able to get my Mother to join soon after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and found CrossFit as a healthy activity to greatly reduce her need for prescription drugs. In the fall of 2011, we decided to open our own CrossFit gym. We coached together for approximately 1 year until Coach John Prescott walked through the door looking for a new box to call home. John and Tony took the reigns for approximately another year until I decided to go back to school for another degree. John took lead and has led us to the gym you have found today.

I celebrated 10 years of being a CrossFit athlete in May of 2018 and recently became a USAW certified coach. Beyond a decade of experience, Tony has also completed the CrossFit L1 course, CrossFit Mobility course, CrossFit Olympic Lifting course, and Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength course. Tony also placed a lifetime best 382nd in the 2015 Mid Atlantic region and has now competed in 6 CrossFit Opens.

I grew up playing all the major sports and was never short on an excuse to sweat.  Being active was part of my routine until my junior year of high school when an innocent indoor soccer match left me with a fractured lower back. The injury not only took me away from competitive soccer, it also made me weary of pushing my fitness boundaries. For 7 years, I felt like my injury defined who I was. That all changed in 2011 when I decided to join a Crossfit gym. 

The programming was challenging and unlike anything I had ever tried.  It consistently pushed me outside of my comfort zone and proved to me that I was more capable than I was giving myself credit for. With a little hard work, I strengthened my back and corrected some irregularities that had developed from the injury.  After 3 ½ years of perfecting my form (it still isn’t perfect) and lifting heavy things, I got my Crossfit Level 1 cert and made the move to coaching. 

I’ve heard it said that the best way to learn is to teach others and I plan on maxing out that learning opportunity each day for every person that comes through the door.  If you have fitness goals, I will help you reach them and if you don’t have them, then we get to write them together!  What are you waiting for? 

Born in St. Louis, MO and relocated to Jamestown, NC at the age of six, is this young lass, Kim. Growing up I participated in some sports for fun like soccer and basketball, but neither seemed to be the sport for me. In middle school, I discovered my love for running, joining the track team with one of my friends. I wound up running Cross Country and Track for 8 years. Once in college, dabbled with half marathons for fun and charities I eventually found CrossFit through a Groupon in Greensboro. Since 2013 I have been a  part of a CrossFit community.

A short summary on my thought about fitness: “Fitness should be fun. If you’re not having fun you won’t see progress. This is your second job at all times, taking care of your body. My goal is to make sure you feel confident, comfortable and in control of your health. It’s a journey that takes a long time – good thing our community makes the journey so much more fun!”

Some other interests are sitting on a pontoon boat with friends, Cards Against Humanity (and similar games), endurance workouts and attending concerts frequently! Also learning how to ride around on two wheels… braapp brap brrraappp! Some of my favorite movements are thrusters, burpees and cleans as if that doesn’t tell you something!

I have been always been a competitive person.  Whether it was soccer in high school or the bench press test to get an ‘A’ in his freshman college physical education class, I’ve has always loved to compete.  My brother was usually the source for most of his competitive juices often found my inspiration from him as we would reconnect during the summers home from college.  Always comparing notes about who was lifting what or how in shape the other one was.  The one thing they always agreed on was that we wanted to try and live a healthy lifestyle having watched both of their parents lead fairly sedentary lives which (partially) contributed to sickness’ as they aged.  

Having been a gym rat since my freshman college gym class, as I got older he began to try and make his workouts more and more intense.  Eventually, I discovered a HIIT style of training that I loved and began to focus on that with an emphasis on core work to combat a herniated disc sustained during a snowboarding trip. I started to train several friends through the years and began to entertain the idea of becoming a trainer.  It was at this point in life in early 2014 that he discovered CrossFit.  I’ll be honest, I was very jaded against it until he met John Prescott at Neuse River CrossFit and experienced what real coaching and education and inspiration could do for a person who was willing to learn.  It took about two weeks and I was hooked.  The more he got into it, the more I wanted to learn and live in a healthy way.  

In late 2016 John approached me about getting certified and becoming a Coach.  So I took a USA Weightlifting certification course and began to incorporate my competitive nature and love for HIIT into a strong passion for Crossfit.  Instead of competing with others I began to compete with myself and push past limits that he had had his entire life.  

I love coaching.  I love helping others experience the freedom that comes with breaking down barriers internally, both physically and mentally and more than anything loves to help his athletes feel successful in their own fitness journey’s.