There is no greater experience as a coach to watch someone new start Crossfit and slowly evolve into a healthier, happier, and more confident human. With that in mind, we bring you this month’s athlete spotlight: Tamara Crowley. And to show you how, here are some tales of Tamara brought to you by Coach Carl.
During a typical 5:30 PM class everyone was warming up with standard push ups, some were scaling to a box while others went from the floor. I was a little taken aback by Tamara that evening as she was doing pushups from the floor today. Pushups had always been difficult for Tamara, and she usually scaled to a box but today she was doing them as prescribed with very good form. Her elbows were tucked by her ribs, her midline and shoulders were in one line, etc. etc.
“Hey Tam, those are good pushups…like really good, sound pushups” I said.
“Oh yeah, thanks!” She replied, “I’ve been working on them, turns out if you want to be good at pushups, you have to practice the push ups.”
Tamara writes down everything she eats in color coded pen. That is with pen and paper, no new age apps. After a class she was showing me her notebook
(with impeccable handwriting) with literally everything she ate for the past week.
“It’s made me a lot more aware of what I’m eating. I don’t even bother with quantity, just knowing that I’m eating these things kind of gives me a heads up as to what I’m putting into my body”.
Tamara competed in Birdtown Partner Competition: Swole Mates v5 with and finished third on the podium with Claire. They also had the best team name and team shirts. She’s also just recently increased her Front Squat PR from 165# to 180# and Back Squat PR from 210# to 212.5#.
All three of these instances over the last six months reflect how hard work (pushups), and trusting in a process (food logging) led to success with new PRs and new experiences in a competition. Tamara has come a very long way and I know that myself and the rest of the BTCF coaching staff cannot wait to see where her fitness journey takes her.
