Unleash Your Inner Ninja: Guest Post by Allyson Strout of CrossFit KGB

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I am a bonafide box-stalking, blog-obsessing CrossFitter. I love to see affiliate pictures of people all over the world doing squats (with their girlfriend overhead) and handstand pushups (at the top of a mountain) and running (with a Fiat on their shoulder).  I get into reading coach’s blogs and am wild about creative WOD programming and I get giddy seeing that Ethel McAwesomeness in Toledo just got her first 85 pound deadlift just as much as I get giddy watching Lindsey Valenzuela do that Games snatch ladder over, and over, and over.  I watch YouTube because I just know that the secret to my elusive unassisted pull ups lies in some random video out there in cyberspace. (Pleeease, let this be true! And let me find.that.video.Pronto.)

But my own CrossFit story is not nearly as gasp-inspiring as the stories that go viral. Other box-stalkers have no idea who I am. I am, of course, thankful that I have not overcome adversity to get to where I am in my CrossFit adventure. I have not even given birth, so no taking-care-of-little-folks-at-home challenge there, either. Yes, reader(s): I have achieved this state of hopeful mediocrity simply by overcoming an astonishing history of laziness. Someone, alert the presses.

Not only have I not survived catastrophe or suffered severe trauma of either a physical or emotional nature (Thank You, Universe!), I have not come to CrossFit as an injured/bored/retired athlete of any kind. Well, I did play field hockey for one season my sophomore year in high school.  I was so, so bad that I never even got a team kilt but instead was provided a pair of gym shorts in our school colors (I suspect they were soccer team leftovers) just in case a majority of my team members, who were actually capable of understanding and executing the game of field hockey, were killed in one mass tragic accident. The accident never happened, I played twice for a total of six minutes (in my snazzy shorts), and walked away uninjured and uninspired.

I know that in some circles it is cool to mock the globo-gym, magazine-reading treadmill and elliptical machine junkies and I would be lying if I said that I didn't want to burst into one of those places and drag every woman there to my CrossFit box, assuring them that I am changing their lives for the better. But I WAS one of those women. I even had a treadmill at home; it is from that machine that I saw two full seasons of Dr. Phil and read countless books. Sometimes at the same time. Instead of a trophy-winning history with organized sports, it was my treadmill that was my gateway to CrossFit. I got caught up in the I-run-and-therefore-I-rock thing for a full year. I was obsessed. I got thin. I got Runners World magazine and read it, cover to cover. I met people. I competed with them, with myself. I didn't eat enough, and then I ate too much because I “could” – I would just “run it off” tonight/tomorrow/this weekend. Repeat, repeat, repeat. (Teaching moment: I know, now, how lucky I am that I did not suffer a serious injury, even if that would make my story more interesting.)

Then, my best friend got the crazy idea to sign us up for an obstacle course race. I figured the running was no problem (because I am a RUNNER and RUNNERS ARE AWESOME)…but I had to climb walls? Deal with ropes? Shimmy under barbed wire and (gasp) maybe even help other people do the same? There are no book holders, no TV, on an obstacle course! I was panicking. I had a Facebook friend in Australia who kept posting about how strong and sore she felt from squatting and how she could see the muscle tone in her arms and how much she was learning and how invigorated she was with this CrossFit thing. I asked her about it, she told me, I signed up.

That was almost two years ago.

Now, I am in love and live with an affiliate owner. I am a Level 1 coach. I am heavily involved in programming, in building and supporting our amazing community, and I am madly in love with CrossFit. I do not lift like Lindsey, and I don’t always enter (or leave) the box on top of the world. But I am no longer lazy, and I am motivated in all aspects of my life in a way that I never imagined.

You don’t have to have a high school or college trophy on your shelf to CrossFit. You don’t have to have survived a disease or a disaster, and you do not have to have a story to tell. I am 42 years old. I have now – much to my surprise - participated in organized CrossFit competitions and events with varying degrees of winning-ness but equal degrees of astonished motivation. I have had a blast at obstacle course races, I run 5k road races with faster times than ever, and I completed (with a relative degree of ease) my first sprint triathlon this summer. I am not a rock star, but I am delighted that I have an inner ninja. I am real person, who never in a zillion years imagined that I would do the things I am doing. If I could go back to sophomore year, I total would – but only to get that kilt.

So, if you are one of my fellow CrossFit box-and-blog stalkers but are waiting for that one picture/WOD post/athlete profile story that will push you the one final step to actually walking into your local CrossFit and getting started, maybe this is it. That would be wildly cool, and you can thank me later by sending me the link to that elusive pull up video, k?

And now for d&d's very first giveaway.  

One lucky guy or gal will win a CrossFit KGB t-shirt (like those pictured above)! Guaranteed to make you run faster and jump higher! New workout clothes are the best! 

Here's how you can enter:
-Please 'like' deadlifts & doppelgangers and CrossFit KGB on Facebook
-Then leave us a comment here letting us know you'd like to win
-Earn an extra entry by sharing the giveaway and/or Allyson's post via your Facebook or Twitter (we're @DoppelgangerGrl by the way)

That's it! Way easier than burpees! 

Thanks to Allyson and to CrossFit KGB for all of their support and endless motivation.