I was one of those late bloomers to working out.  Although I participated in cross country running while in high school (always coming in the last scoring position for my team – mainly because we only had five people on my team), the next decade of my life was spent on getting my educational degrees.  After turning 30 and not being able to do more than 2 pushups, I realized that I had been neglecting my physical health and that it was time to start getting serious at a gym. Unfortunately, I’m the type of person who lacks the self-discipline necessary to carry out a personal fitness regime.  Almost anything distracted me from my workouts. Most days were spent forming excuses for why I didn’t have to go to the gym. With no coach or workout partner to push me through those lackluster days, my physical fitness failed to improve.

At 35, I decided to try something entirely different – yoga.  Because yoga was held in a class environment, which is something I found that I enjoyed more, I stuck with it longer.  I was actually pretty good at yoga, but a severe spinal injury caused by improperly lifting a weight on one of my few gym outings set me back for years and, eventually, a whole decade.  My health had deteriorated to the point where I had to crawl up the steps in my own house to move from floor to floor because of the severe and crippling spinal pain I was enduring. I couldn’t sit down at restaurants for dinner longer than 10 minutes.  I couldn’t see a movie in a movie theater because of the pain from sitting still. In an effort to find help, I cycled through pain management clinics in the area, until I finally found one that worked for me.

Because the epidurals given to me by the doctors at the pain clinic allowed me to work out again, I started to read up on how to combat severe spinal pain and saw that people who did exercises that strengthened their core complained less about back and radiating leg pain.  Four months prior to having major surgery scheduled to fuse my spine, I decided to take fitness a mixture of yoga and pilates classes to focus on strengthening my core. In just three months, I had gotten myself to the point where surgery was no longer necessary. Now I could subsist on epidurals every few months.

But I was still in pain.

It was then that I thought about CrossFit.  If I really wanted to strengthen my core, why not go all the way and do the most challenging fitness routine I could find.  I signed up for Foundations at Ballston CrossFit in September 2017, after receiving my last bilateral epidural. The classes were fun, and very challenging, but not impossible – and I began to notice changes in my core as well as the rest of my body almost immediately.  Not only was my stomach getting flatter and my back getting stronger, but my arms and legs were more muscular. Everything was coming together to ease my chronic pain.

I am now five months into CrossFit at BCF, and I haven’t had one epidural.  I no longer suffer from crippling lumbar and radiating leg pain. I can now do a rope climb, something I had never been able to do (I was always the kid in gym class who jumped up onto the rope and counted it as an actual climb).  I can now eat dinner at a restaurant without standing up every five minutes. I watched the entirety of The Last Jedi in a movie theater without so much as a twinge of pain.

Soon I expect I’ll be able to do a double under…and then maybe even two of them in a row.  It’s very rewarding to be at peak form in the middle of your life and to continue to make breakthroughs almost every month.  Sure, I’ll never be the guy who hits the real heavy weights or who completes a working in just a few minutes. But training at Ballston CrossFit, with its high emphasis on completing exercises using correct form, and its high-caliber teachers who genuinely inspire you, is making me a better athlete.  And, in doing, so it’s making me enjoy a pain-free life – something that 10 years ago, I never would have thought possible.

Waddle + WOD = Happy Mommas
Meet 3 BCF first-time moms who didn’t put the barbell down while pregnant, they just modified!
Heather Swietlik

• Kiddo: Max (15mo)
• Years cross fitting prior to pregnancy: 3.5 years, Fx most WODs, some Rx
• Things to note:  
  • Had a smooth pregnancy and delivery
  • Throughout my pregnancy I was able to continue CrossFit, making modifications when necessary
  • I was cleared to come back to CrossFit 4 weeks after having Max, which surprised me! My doctor said listen to your body and ease back into things.
  • I was amazed at my muscle memory!

EB Srygley

• Kiddo: Jackson (9mo)
• Years or CrossFit prior to pregnancy: 3 years, Fx most WODs, some Rx
• Things to note:
  • I had major pelvic bone movement during pregnancy
  • Had a Murph Birth (went labor the evening of Memorial Day, after doing pregnant lady modified version of a CrossFit “hero” workout named Murph)
  • Experienced contractions/Braxton hicks starting 4 days before birth. had a very fast hospital labor – 2.5hrs!
  • Had an emergency C-section due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around baby
  • Felt post-partum optimism and excitement
  • Did not return to BCF for over 10 weeks
  • Did a beginner level competition 5 months post-partum (very slowly!) and looking to do an Rx competition in May 2018!

 
Calli Stoll

• Kiddo: Harper (7mo)
• Years cross fitting prior to pregnancy: 5 years, Rx most WODs
• Things to note:
  • Worked out until the day I went into labor
  • I was almost 2 weeks late delivering, Harper took her time
  • Lost the majority of my baby weight by the time I came home from the hospital
  • Lost quite a bit of muscle and strength, but it is coming back quickly
  • Made my way back to BCF at 4 weeks – yoyo’d back into things
  • After just a few months, now feeling full strength and capability again in the gym

CrossFitting while pregnant is a very personal journey. As most doctors will tell you, do not start anything new once you are pregnant, that includes CrossFit, but, if you’ve been CrossFitting prior to pregnancy there is no reason not to continue (there are a few exceptions). In fact, for us, BCF was a great home to bond with other pregnant/post-partum moms, get advice, feel encouraged, and feel healthy while pregnant. Now that we are Moms, BCF has been very supportive by modifying movements, encouraging us, and welcoming our little ones into the BCF family! Women have been preg

nant and physically active for thousands of years, the key is to know your body, listen to your body, and do what you think is best – the female body is AMAZING!

What was the highlight of CrossFitting while pregnant/post pregnancy?

• Heather: While pregnant- being able to stay active/keep moving! I really enjoy working out, so being able to work out throughout my pregnancy helped me mentally and physically. Post pregnancy- feeling stronger! While it took a while to get back into a rhythm, I quickly started feeling stronger than I’d felt before pregnancy. I recently did the benchmark workout, “Fran” and beat my previous (pre-baby) time by over one minute!
• EB: Feeling good mentally – I hear a ton about post-partum depression and anxiety, I believe working out while pregnant, and setting goals to get back into BCF helped my mental state immensely!! Other random highlights: still doing double-unders and handstands in my 3^rd Trimester – for whatever reason they didn’t bother me. Also, the day I told Head Coach Tucker I was pregnant and he replied “I’ve suspected for a while” probably because I was insanely slow.
• Calli: Getting out of the house and into the gym gives me the sense of freedom, strength, and happiness I need to be a good mom.  I love bringing Harper along, anyone and everyone will offer to hold your baby, so if you can’t fly solo, you can always bring your sidekick along; it could be the start of a great bonding opportunity for the two of you!

What was most challenging?

• Heather: The first few months back at the gym were hard for me. First, I wanted to jump right back into things, but obviously my body needed time. It was frustrating when I felt tired or winded from a work out. It was hard finding the time to make it to the gym! I set a goal of 4 times per week. husband and I (coach Justin) created a schedule that would allow us both to make it to the gym without sacrificing too much time away from Max. I quickly realized sleep and the gym beat out TV time!
• EB: C-section recovery sucks! I hated not being able to do anything for 6+ weeks. 4^th Trimester is a real thing and was a very difficult time for me physically – harder than CrossFitting while pregnant. It was hard not being consistent – I missed CrossFit & BCF friends. It’s still a difficult balance finding time to WOD and be a mom.
• Calli: There were times when I struggled to show up to a sport that I love because I was too tired, too slow, too uncomfortable, too frustrated, too blah, blah, blah, blah. I would say one of the biggest challenges I’ve experienced as a new mom is finding the time to consistently workout.  When I’m not working, I want to spend as much time with Harper as possible… and let me tell you, Mom guilt is the real deal.  Unless my baby is sleeping (and sometimes even then) I experience feelings of guilt, shame, sadness, and overall like I’m going to miss some major milestone when I leave her.

What are your current goals?

• Heather: Get to the gym 4 times per week. Keeping track of how many days I make it to the gym each week is a mental motivator for me.
• EB: to get in a routine of working out at least 3 classes/week.
• Calli: To set a goal and accomplish it! Right now I’m just trying to get into the gym and move.
• Heather: Get my ring muscle ups back (which I just accomplished after this was written!)! Before pregnancy I was able to do both bar and ring muscle ups. I got bar muscle ups back relatively quickly (I think because I continued to do pull ups throughout pregnancy), but have struggled with ring muscle ups.
• EB: Rx a competition by Jackson’s 1^st Birthday!

 

What advice would you give to other pregnant Crossfitters?

• Heather: You can always modify a movement. The BCF coaching staff helped immensely with this. The biggest modification I made during pregnancy was shortening my rounds/reps in a workout. Listen to your body! You should be able to have a conversation in between movements. This is how I gauged whether I was pushing myself too hard.
• EB: Tell your coaches early (don’t worry they are good at keeping is a secret) and do research, there are tons of ways to adapt and modify.
• Calli: Just show up and move.  Do whatever you feel you can (and your doctor will allow).  Listen to your body, but know it is capable of more than you could ever imagine.  You’ve helped to create, grow, and have/will birth a human!  There will also be days when you feel motivated, determined, capable, and both physically and mentally strong, because you are!  My advice on these days, enjoy and crush it!
• Heather: Set reasonable goals for yourself. This helped me stay focused and push through, even when I wanted to quit.
• EB: DO NOT go all out! I see women get competitive while pregnant and it makes me cringe. Your body is doing the biggest WOD of its life – creating a baby!
• Heather: Track your workouts! I tracked everything in an app called MyWOD. This allowed me to see progress during and after pregnancy. I quickly built back my strength, however getting my cardio level back took about 6 months.
• EB: Give yourself grace, it took your body 9 months to make a baby – it will take it 9 months to recover. Don’t expect to be back at CrossFit right away and defiantly don’t expect to be back at your old endurance/strength/skill level.
• Heather: post pregnancy: set a goal to attend the gym 4 days per week, even if it is just to stretch. I gave myself 4-6 weeks to slowly transition back before I “pushed myself.” The BCF coaching staff welcomed me back post baby and continued to help modify movements and workouts those first few weeks back. Movements I didn’t work on during pregnancy like sit-ups, I couldn’t do 4 weeks postpartum, but movements I worked on throughout my pregnancy (pull ups) I could still do!
• Calli: Don’t be so hard on yourself.  You need (and deserve) to do things for yourself in order to be the best dang mama you can be which for me includes getting into the gym to throw around some weight … and if all else fails… drink wine!

We are very excited to still be CrossFitting, achieving new goals, and passing the love of exercise onto our babies! If you’re an expecting momma, flag us down – we would love to answer any questions!

Throughout high school I was always playing either soccer or basketball competitively, and then when I got to college I continued playing intramural soccer.  I never really lifted weights or went to the gym, I just figured playing sports and going for runs would keep be in good enough shape.  After college I found myself with less and less time to play sports and would just go on an occasional run or two each week.  In 2014 I decided to train for a marathon, but during training ended up hurting my IT band and had to postpone the race until 2015.  During the marathon in 2015 I injured my IT band again and had to pull out of the race at the 14 mile mark.  From then on my legs wouldn’t cooperate and would only allow me to run 1 maybe 2 miles at a time without any pain or discomfort.  Due to this pain/discomfort I started to go on fewer and fewer runs.
In January this year both myself and my father decided to challenge each other to see who could lose more weight in the first three months of the year, mostly due to the fact that we were both the heaviest we had ever weighed (right at 200lbs).  As I started to create some kind of self-made diet and exercise plan from different things I had seen on the internet, I saw an advertisement for the BCF New You 6 week program.  I figured I might as well try it out and see how it works since I was sure the people running the program knew far more about weight training and nutrition than I did.
I had heard how CrossFit was like a cult and how the people could be very serious and standoffish.  I quickly learned that this wasn’t the case at BCF.  Everyone was very welcoming and open to helping someone who was new to Olympic lifting (or lifting free weights in general) like me out whenever possible.  The Coaches were very engaging and encouraging throughout the strength training and WODs; they didn’t just tell you 
the workout and then go sit behind the desk.  It made the workouts bearable because I wasn’t struggling to figure out what I was supposed to be doing because they were there to actually coach me through them.
After  the new you program I had lost about 10 pounds, and thought to myself that if I could lose that in 6 weeks I wonder what I could lose if I came for 3 months, so I signed up for a membership.  In the six total months (inclusive of new you) that I have been doing CrossFit I have lost a total of 40lbs (and am now the lightest I’ve been since high school) and gained strength, stamina and overall fitness.  I am now able to go for longer runs without pain or discomfort and just have an overall better quality of life.  I am a firm believer that the atmosphere you work in (in this case workout in) can make or break the work you are doing, and the atmosphere I found at BCF makes working out fun, interesting and challenging.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Until I graduated from high school, I was a very active person. I played several different sports and generally spent my weekends doing something outdoors. After having to make the decision to drop out of college during the Great Recession and find a full-time job, I found it very difficult to keep with a fitness routine of some sort over several years. I was bored with doing the same things every time I would go to the gym, and my odd work schedule prevented me from maintaining a habit that involved being active on a regular basis.

 After years of becoming more and more sedentary, I ended up suffering from a major knee injury that required surgery to correct. I went through months of physical therapy to recover and then attempted to continue being active after ending my PT sessions. Again, I ran into problems maintaining a consistent fitness routine. I tried several different programs but would eventually get bored and quit over time.
Finally, after moving to the DC metro area for a new job and getting comfortable with my new surroundings, I decided that I had enough of being out of shape and gaining weight. I hit my highest weight at 345 lbs when I finally decided that I needed to do something to turn things around. I walked by Ballston Crossfit many times and one day made the commitment to join. I knew it would be a challenge but I was determined to stick with it.
My first day of foundations was terrible. I could barely make it through the warm up routine without feeling extremely winded. I struggled to make it back to my apartment after every session. But I kept coming back because of the sense of community that I felt as well as the extremely supportive coaching staff at BCF.
It has been seven months since foundations, and I am amazed at the progress I have made. I have lost 50 lbs, increased my strength much faster than I thought possible, and I complete workouts without having to scale as significantly I as did when I started. In one of my happiest moments since joining BCF, I completed my first Rx workout a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve Rx’ed a few more workouts. Many athletes are able to complete workouts much faster than I can, but for me, being able to make it through these workouts occasionally without scaling is something I am most proud of.
I have noticed a big change in my mental health as well. I have more confidence at work which has led to better productivity. I have also become more social and more willing to interact with people. My ability to handle stress has improved tremendously. On top of all of that, I finally feel like I am making progress on goals that I have put off for so long.
I know that because of the coaches and community at BCF that I will achieve many goals this month. Had I not joined and committed to being a part of the BCF community, I doubt that I would have made as much progress as I have so far.