July’s athlete of the month is Andrea Reich. Andrea is a single mother of her beautiful daughter, Miriam, and she works with several volunteer organizations and owns her own jewelry company, Diadem Jewelry, where she makes all her own pieces like the one above. Andrea has been coming to CrossFit Odyssey for about 8 months now and she has certainly had an extraordinary journey! Before Andrea came to CrossFit Odyssey she lost about 40 lbs with a personal trainer and various boot camps. However, as muscular as she was, she still had difficulty doing a pushup, pullups or lifting weight and she still wanted to slim out a bit. Fast doesn’t always equal strong or correct movement. When we start moving weight (more squats), and we move it correctly our body learns patterns of strength. These patterns foster an environment of growth…growth in strength, growth in confidence, and growth in ability.ย That’s what makes CrossFit different. We use “Functional Movement” so that we actually get good at moving our bodies the way they were meant to move.
Since Andrea joined us she has gained muscle and lost fat, but more importantly she has learned to move with ease. This summer she attained her first unassisted pullup and last week she got 5 pullups in a row, which she has been struggling with for months. She has also improved her posture so that her movement is safer and stronger, and she stands taller and prouder. She is extremely competitive and loves to be the fastest andย strongest athlete each day. She sets her sights, digs in and gets after it. Watch out if you are the target…she’s coming for you! She is known as the “Burpee Queen” because she can go and go and go and go fast! Her mental toughness is definitely her greatest strength.
Andrea still has a lot to achieve in the gym (don’t we all!) She is getting stronger and faster and learning to breathe with ease as she presses through a workout. She competed in the CrossFit Open this year and had an excellent score for her first run. Very soon I hope to see her do a little bit more competing so she can have a lot more fun with it and and inspire others to be their best as well!
The area that Andrea has shined the most is in becoming a part of our CrossFit family here at Odyssey. She not only works her hardest, but she encourages others to do the same with a huge smile and a kind heart. She has befriended almost everyone, learned their stories, encouraged them and set an example for them. For that we are all truly blessed! Way to go Andrea! We love being with you on your Journey to Extraordinary!
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