You may recognize her from our CrossFit Journal feature, “Famished, Force-Fed, 450 Pounds—and Finally Fit.”

Athena Perez once weighed 450 lb. and admits that she was terrified to walk into a CrossFit gym. After overcoming her fear, she has since lost over 200 lb. Now Perez says she feels completely comfortable at her box, CrossFit Lakeville.

Read more about Athena's inspiring journey on her blog, "Bean There."

Ep. 18.51: Pass on the Gastric Bypass – Athena Perez

Health & Fitness

What is Fitness, first published in October 2002, has provided the lightbulb moment for thousands of trainers who had been working in the fitness space but had never found the results they were looking for for themselves and their clients. Take a moment to listen, or relisten, to this article that lays the groundwork for why we do what we do in CrossFit.

Ep. 23.04: What Is Fitness? Part 1

A good coach takes the time to learn about their athletes. While the principles of scaling and movement quality always apply, knowing more about an athlete and their condition can help to develop better coach/athlete relationships, and in turn, better results. Mike Giardina (CF-L4) sat down with Melani Dizon, CF-L1 and Director of Education & Content at the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s, to talk about the disease and provide insight for coaching athletes with Parkinson’s.

Ep. 23.03: CrossFit and Parkinson’s

Originally published in April 2007, Foundations: 

The CrossFit prescription is “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.” No aspect of functional movements is more important than their capacity to move large loads over long distances, and to do so quickly.

The methodology that drives CrossFit is entirely empirical. We believe that meaningful statements about safety, efficacy, and efficiency, the three most important and interdependent facets of any fitness program, can be supported only by measurable, observable, repeatable facts; i.e., data. We call this approach “evidence-based fitness.” The CrossFit methodology depends on full disclosure of methods, results, and criticisms, and we’ve employed the Internet (and various intranets) to support these values. Our charter is open source, making co-developers out of participating coaches, athletes, and trainers through a spontaneous and collaborative online community. CrossFit is empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed.

Ep. 23. 02: Understanding CrossFit

Daniel Chaffey, International Director for CrossFit, LLC sits down with Stephane Rochet (CF-L3) to discuss the development and growth of affiliates around the world. Daniel also discusses the roles of CrossFit's Country Managers in the community and how they support CrossFit Affiliates.

Ep. 23.01: The International Community With Daniel Chaffey

Originally published in April 2002, Foundations is one of those articles that CrossFit coaches should read and reread frequently. In many ways, it’s the original “beginner’s guide” to CrossFit, and the nuggets contained within it will help every CrossFit coach articulate the finer points of our program to any athlete. Listen to the article on the CrossFit Podcast.

Ep. 18.51: Pass on the Gastric Bypass – Athena Perez

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