My Fitness Journey: From Breathless to Athlete

My name is Carrie. I was born six weeks early with a twin brother, spent 10 days in the NICU and came out with four auto immune challenges. The major limiting factor was asthma. It became my lynch pin and dictated how my day would go and what activities I could participate in. I was never very athletic in junior high or high school. I played basketball and ran cross country, but never excelled. I focused my energies on academics and showing livestock (I was raised on a cattle ranch) because those were two areas where I could win.

Fast forward to now - I am 34 and have gone through years of learning how to orchestrate health and healing through a combination of modern and natural medicine and diet. I started working out at a gym in 2013 when my husband deployed. I needed an outlet and wanted to get in better shape. He is a very active person and I wanted to be able to keep up with him when he returned home.

A few months before we PCSed to Ft. Bragg, we joined a small cross fit gym. He really wanted me to try it and I was terrified. I had seen those athletes on ESPN and I knew I couldn't keep up. Despite my fears, I gave in and agreed to try it out. What I found, instead of fire breathing athletes, was an amazing culture of encouragement and positivity. The coaches were sticklers for form, but open to scaling everything down a level I could manage and yet still be challenged with.

I fell in love with this new way to exercise!

The workouts were challenging, but no two days were the same. I began to get stronger and build confidence in myself.

Once we moved to North Carolina, I started looking for a gym to attend. My husband had met a Chaplain at a different post whose wife ran a cross fit gym out of their garage. He mentioned how he hoped we could find something like that for me when we got to Fayetteville. We arrived in August and I tried a few gyms out.

Nothing reminded me of what I had found back in Oregon.

I was slightly discouraged, but knew that something would open up.

In September, I attended a Protestant Women of the Chapel event and it was there that I met Morgan Farr. Morgan and her husband, Brian, run Farr Fitness out of their garage as a gym ministry. It was perfect. Morgan's background is power lifting, so she programs workouts to increase my strength. Brian watches form and works to refine movements and increase mobility. Combined, they are a perfect team.

It has been eight months since I started attending their gym. I knew I had been getting stronger, but didn't realize how much so until this past weekend. My husband came home from work excited to say we had an invitation to go rock climbing on a mountain. A few of his classmates had the gear and were willing to take two newbies along.

It was on this Saturday that functional fitness got a victory. I was able to climb three walls, one of which was 80 feet high. My upper body strength has increased dramatically - and while my climbs weren't as finessed as the season climbers, I was able to keep up and enjoy the day. It was a major win in my fitness journey and I can't wait for more. This is just the beginning!