I had grown tired of the traditional bodybuilder workouts that built muscle that I couldn’t do anything with. I wanted to find something that was more performance based & that I could really apply to my job as a firefighter.

I “stumbled” upon Crossfit in the summer of 2007. I fiquired since I was a firefighter my first workout would naturally have to be “firefighter fran” .It sounded easy enough, 21-15-9 of a thrusters & pullups in bunkergear while breathing from my air bottle. I was humbled that I could not complete the first round of thrusters & had to give up. At that point the “kool-aid” was running out the corners of my mouth & I optained my Level 1 Certification in Crossfit in Apr 2008.

I’ve been a full-time Firefighter with Gwinnett County Fire & Emergency Services for 7 years this past July 09. I helped to implement Crossfit into our recruit training program in 2008 with amazing results. I had become aggravated with the fire service as a whole & their archaic views on what fitness was. And more importantly, their lack of willingness to change. I’m thankful that our department looked “outside the box” & I know now that our county is protected be some of the most “functionally fit” firefighters in the business.

I know that these movements that we practice thru Crossfit are how our bodies were designed to function. If we improve our ability to function, we improve our quality of life. If we improve our quality of life we will be able to perform all the common things in our lives uncommonly well.

…. & I finally completed “Firefighter Fran” (3rd attempt) this past May 2009

Email John: john@noexcusescrossfit.com