John H(2)

I was born and raised in Rhode Island, went to college at Northwestern in Chicago, commissioned in the Air Force in 2005 and moved to Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. In August 2008 I moved from there to Fort Meade. I've been doing jujutsu (standing, self-defense-oriented) since 2001, and skydiving since summer 2008.

I learned about CrossFit at my squadron's 2007 Christmas party in Florida. Someone had been jogging at the park and saw some people doing what looked like a crazy, high-intensity workout and he was intrigued. Word spread quickly through the squadron, and as soon as I heard about it I knew it was exactly what I'd been looking for. I had been getting to the gym pretty consistently and had made a fair amount of progress, but I felt like I was hitting a plateau and I didn't feel creative or experienced enough to effectively vary my workouts and keep myself interested.

As soon as I could, I headed to Harbor City CrossFit in Melbourne, FL. Some of my Air Force colleagues couldn't understand why I would pay to go to a gym when we had a "perfectly good" gym on base available for free. I was reluctant at first too, but I was only halfway through my free week at the gym when the difference became apparent and I decided to commit.

CrossFit immediately appealed to me because the more I learned about it, the more sense it made. I had been using workout routines I'd found online and heard from other people, but after a week or two with any routine it stopped feeling like it was working. It made intuitive sense to me that a constantly varied system, assembled at random and/or by someone else, would prevent those diminishing returns. The other big parts of CrossFit's methodology -- functional movements, high intensity, efficiency, increased power output, and treating the body as a cohesive unit -- drew me further and further in.

Friends and family started to think I had joined a cult, and maybe in some ways I did. We're an ever-growing, enthusiastic group of people with a common ideology and a charismatic leader (who we call "Coach"). But as cults go, this one has a benefit over most in that its constituents tend to end up in great shape and very healthy.

Harbor City CrossFit is an incredible place, and I feel really lucky to have started my CrossFit career there. They tripled their gym space a couple months after I started, and by the time I left they had enough space and equipment for any number of people to do any workout. It's definitely one of the top-tier CrossFit gyms in the country, but on top of that it's a great example of the family atmosphere that a good CrossFit affiliate can create. I really miss the gym and the people, but it gives me a model of all the great things a CrossFit community can be and something to aspire to in building a gym and a community.

When the Air Force told me I was moving to Fort Meade, one of the very first things I did was look for a CrossFit affiliate, and I was thrilled to discover one on base. I've already met some incredible people at CFFM and I'm excited and honored to take part in its growth into a robust, active and fit community. It's obvious to me that JH1 has started something great and he's done it the right way, and I know we'll see steady growth from the Barn into bigger and better things.