January’s Extraordinary Athlete is our good friend, Lantz Sharpe. Lantz was referred to us by some friends of his from his days at OU who have been working out with us for years. Lantz is husband to his beautiful wife, Natalie and father to two strapping young men, Peyton and Reed, both at Highland Park. He was a bit skeptical at first that this was just another workout and that he might end up getting hurt, but he started carefully and worked his way up.
Since Lantz began he has become much stronger, achieving a personal best in many of his lifts as well as accomplishing many of the gymnastics moves we do in here such as handstand pushups, toes-to-bar, kipping pull-ups and even Double Unders! His natural athleticism and background in sports have helped him become an excellent overall athlete in the CrossFit gym. His friends have even commented on how quickly he has picked things up. Despite all of his success, however, he wasn’t losing weight. So he signed up for nutritional coaching and this is where he was most impressive.
Most people aren’t willing to admit that their diets are out of whack or that they really don’t understand what they are doing wrong with their diet. But Lantz was willing to do the work. We started him on our nutrition program in July and we scanned him on the InBody body fat scale at 212lbs and 21.9% body fat, which is actually not a bad number for a man in his late forties. If you have never used the InBody scanner, it is quite easy – you simply remove your shoes and stand on it like a regular scale and it reads your body composition. It can even get so detailed that it can tell you your lean mass to fat ratio in each arm and leg and in your torso. It also gives us an individual’s Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the minimum number of calories needed to sustain life at a resting state, which is directly correlated to an individual’s lean body mass.
Lantz was focused and determined and he started strong and stayed strong and since July he has lost about 20 lbs and about 14% body fat, dropping him down to a current 14.2% total body fat. WOW! Lantz also went skiing this past holiday and said that this was the first time he had ever skied without any pain or soreness in his legs or hips and he was able to keep up with his wife and kids the entire time he was there, which is the real reason we do all of this crazy stuff. No one cares if you can do toes-to-bar or pushups, but when you are able to apply that fitness to quality time with the people you love, that is priceless.
Congratulations to Lantz on your new fitness and health and thank you for being such an inspiration to others. It is a true joy to be a part of your Journey to Extraordinary!
