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As an athlete, training has always been a part of my life. Growing up in Kansas, I played sports starting at 3 years old. I spent most of my childhood playing football and wrestling, and when I was 13, I started lifting weights during football off-season. Junior year I started competitive powerlifting (back squat, deadlift and bench press), which was about the same time I realized that I was never going to play football professionally. That’s when I shifted my focus from being a professional athlete, to athletically training them. I went to Kansas State University to study Kinesiology and while there, I got the opportunity to train as a student assistant in the PowerCat Strength and Conditioning program, working with a variety of Division 1 athletes in multiple sports. In 2004, I graduated with a degree in Kinesiology, with an emphasis in both biomechanics and nutrition.

I moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 to be a personal trainer at Equinox Fitness Club in Santa Monica. I loved my transition from Kansas to the beaches of LA, and my job as a personal trainer, but was just not satisfied. As a strength coach I was used to training athletes, and there is a big difference between the “weightroom,” with loud music pounding, sweat pouring, athletes grunting and intensity… lots of intensity; and the “fitness gym”, with mirrors, generic pop music, trainers, and weight machines. This just wasn’t for me.

The movie “300” was actually responsible for my discovery of CrossFit. I saw videos of the actors in training for their roles online and immediately looked for CrossFit in Santa Monica. This led me to CrossFit Los Angeles, and I’ve been here ever since... Working out at Petranek Fitness reminded me of my days at Kansas State – quality coaching, practice of skills, variety of movements and intensity! It pushed me to improve – both personally as an athlete and professionally as a coach. I also immediately took to the community – the friendly competitiveness that pushes me to go harder, and to never, ever quit. The moment I walked through the door here, I knew I had found my home.

CrossFit LA (Petranek Fitness) and CrossFit have reenergized and refocused my life. I train CrossFit. I teach CrossFit. I am CrossFit. I love my job. I love my life. I love the fact that I can have such a profound, positive affect on changing people’s lives.