Have you ever heard of the Hello Kitty weights at CrossFit Odyssey? Well, September’s extraordinary athlete, Russel Huber, invented them. They symbolized his belief that he needed to use the little girl weights because he had become older and weaker. Russell is a 54 year old father of four kids. He comes regularly to the 5:30 am class with his beautiful daughter, Rachel, who graduated from Texas A&M last spring and is starting her first job. He came to us after years of inactivity, sitting hunched over a computer at a desk, gaining weight.

Russel’s main goal was to get in better shape to live a long, healthy life and not get hurt. When he began he used some of the smallest weights we had to get started. He said he had nothing to prove and he wanted to start slow and get better, which is exactly the right thing to do! Russel’s biggest challenge when he began was his mindset. When he started he said, “I’ll never be able to ____”. As time passed and he improved he began to say, “Well, I can’t do _____ yet”. It was a subtle change… it took me a while to notice it, but it became more and more apparent. He started adding weight to his workouts a little bit at a time. A couple of times it was too much weight and it set him back for a short time, but he always came back ready to try again. And that in itself is one of the biggest changes we can make! A workout like the ones we do in CrossFit can be incredibly intimidating. Just getting yourself to the gym in the first place is the biggest hurdle of all – especially at 5:30 in the morning! But facing that workout head-on each and every day, taking it slowly and grinding through and getting better is a HUGE accomplishment in itself! And this isn’t about being the best on Earth… it’s about being YOUR BEST!

Russell is now moving heavy weight, doing almost all of the movements completely and getting stronger and better every day.

So congratulations to Russell for persevering and getting better each and every day! May the WODs be ever in your favor!