The Stronger Revolution

In our most recent episode of The Stronger Revolution, we sat down with Kaitlyn Yerger. She is an endurance athlete competing in long distance runs that span six (plus) hours. During our conversation, she told us about growing up with outdoor activities and how she got into endurance racing.

Some of us strive to complete a marathon: 26.2 miles of road running. There are industries built around people running marathons and training programs to help people achieve that goal. However, 26.3 miles on the road wasn’t enough for Kaitlyn. She wanted to run more … a lot more. Also, she didn’t want to run more on the nice smooth road, she wanted to do it on trail. An Ultramarathon is defined as any distance over standard marathon. Ultramarathons can be 50 miles, 75 miles, 100 miles, or more. They take hours and hours to complete. Runners have to train themselves to be able to eat during the runs and often have support teams to help get them from start to finish.

For her training, Kaitlyn obviously runs. However, she also attends CrossFit regularly. She needs to build strength in places other than her legs. She also needs to make sure that all of those little support muscles in her ankles and knees are strong. Trail running isn’t easy and can be incredibly taxing on the lower leg. After getting the taste of first place in a recent race, she’s gunning for top stops in upcoming races as well. Hear more about those in the full episode.

The post CrossFit Keeps Her Strong For Long Distance appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Sometimes, you just need someone to tell you what to do and how to do it.

That might seem a little direct, but it is a sentiment we hear from new potential clients and current members all of the time. It even came up recently during our podcast interview with the Athlete of the Month for January 2023: Drew Farrar.

He and his fiancé moved to Pittsburgh shortly after COVID restrictions lifted in 2020. Drew had worked out in the past, but never stuck with a consistent plan. Part of the problem of knowing what to do. He would stick with cardio machines and lifting machines. Then, the other problem would start to creep up, boredom. Because he didn’t know how to use different kinds of exercise equipment, his workouts weren’t varied. He would also run out of workout ideas quickly and end of doing the same thing over and over again.

That’s why, when Drew moved to Pittsburgh and settled down, he decided once and for all to join a fitness program. Knowing about CrossFit from a family member, he search for and found Industrial Athletics. Since joining, he and his fiancé, Brendon, have been coming two to three times each week and he loves the variation in movements, equipment, and workouts. Better yet, he says, there is always someone here so he knows what he is doing is being done correctly and safely.

If you want to hear more about Drew from his interview, check out the podcast episode.

The post Taking the Guessing Game Out of Working Out appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Our past and our experiences form who we are. Only so much of our makeup is nature. The rest is nurture. Hopefully, our upbringing sets us in the right direction with the right outlook on life. However, that’s not always the case and never the case in every given situation. How we approach life is in large part controlled by our internal narratives. The stories we tell ourselves, and the ”facts” we believe, control more than we realize and often more than we’d like to admit.

In the most recent episode of The Stronger Revolution, we sat down with our Athlete of the Year, Ron Pontrelli. The conversation quickly lead to the narratives we tell ourselves. He talked about narratives as an adopted child and as an older member at Industrial Athletics. As the conversation progresses, we talked about how stories from other people find their way into our head and become our reality. We don’t question these narratives and we don’t see how they limit us.

By the end of the conversation, we discussed systems we use to see our narratives and question them. It comes primarily from self awareness. However, how do we increase self awareness? Well, it comes from experience, it comes from learning, it comes from wisdom. We have to challenge ourselves to experience life outside our comfort. Doing that can force us to see which narratives benefit us and which ones need to be abandoned.

Check out the complete conversation in the latest episode.

The post What Narratives Do You Tell Yourself? appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Most of our marketing and advertising is directed toward helping people achieve their fitness goals. That’s what we do. We provide a coaching service. It isn’t enough for us to give someone a general workout even if we think it will improve their fitness. You come to Industrial Athletics because you have a goal in mind. You want to see something change. Even members in our general class receive special attention from us to help achieve a goal.

Dayle Hall was a perfect example of this when she walked into IA for the first time. She came with a specific goal. She wanted to get better at hiking. That’s perfect!!! After all, what is your fitness worth if you can’t express it in your everyday life?

For Dayle, we went to work with her goal in mind. She completed our Fundamentals Program, continued with some one-on-ones, and hit the ground running (perhaps we should say hiking) when she started in our CrossFit class. She stayed focused on her goal. We stayed focused on her goal by helping her improve her fitness through proper form and proper range of motion.

So, did she achieve her goal? Well, you will need to listen to her podcast interview for that answer!

The post She Came With a Goal In Mind appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Through the Stronger Revolution Podcast, we try to demonstrate how to improve your life by 1% percent everyday. It is called the Aggregation of Marginal Gains, and we believe is the best path to reaching your goals. Often times, we set big goals and then try to take too many actions too quickly to reach those goals. The impact on our life is not sustainable. We fall away from our goals, become discouraged, and move on to new goals. These new goals are shiny and exciting. We start the process all over and end up in an endless cycle of never actually getting where we want to be.

However, the Aggregation of Marginal Gains provides us a better path to goal achievement. Instead of focusing on one big goal, like deadlifting 175#, we focus on small steps. We set the goal, but then break it down into small parts that are easily achievable. Then, each day, we focus on taking that small step. One step leads to another and then another and then another. Before we know it, we actually achieved our goal and we are setting a new one.

In the latest episode of the Stronger Revolution, we sat down with our Athlete of the Month for October 2022. We heard in real time how Julia found Industrial Athletics. She wasn’t seeing the results she wanted at her regular gym. She wasn’t reaching her goals. So, she talked with a friend. That was baby step one. Then, she joined Industrial Athletics, a gym dedicated to helping members focus on and achieve goals. That was step two. Next, she embraced the services we have to offer. She started to see progress toward her goals and kept going.

Did Julia ever reach her goals? Well, for that answer, you will have to listen to her interview.

The post She Wanted To Be Stronger appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Our Athlete of the Month for September 2022 was Patrick Reilly. We sat down with him recently for an interview on the Strong Revolution Podcast. What stood out to us most was that Patrick didn’t always have the intensity we now know and respect him for.

Like most people, Patrick started his fitness journey in a big box gym. It was a non-CrossFit gym where he could come and go as he pleased. At the time, it was the most convenient for him. However, over time, he realized he getting to where he wanted to be. He wasn’t reaching his fitness goals. Usually, there are one of two reasons we fail to reach our fitness goals: lack of knowledge or lack of intensity. For Patrick, he knew what to do. He just couldn’t get there on his own.

Then, COVID-19 hit and shut down the world. Patrick no longer had to go into an office and his schedule became a little more flexible. This gave Patrick the ability to join a CrossFit gym. Turns out, that’s all he needed. Once in the supportive and goal focused environment of the CrossFit space, Patrick began to push past his plateaus. Today, he is setting and meeting goals regularly.

This is a story we hear from a lot of new members at Industrial Athletics. They had the motivation to get started with a fitness program on their own. However, a plateau set in and stopped upward progress. They come to Industrial Athletics looking for something new, something different, and something not boring. To hear more about Patrick and his journey, check out the episode.

The post Needed CrossFit to Reach His Goals appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

COVID-19 shut down the world and changed industries, some permanently. We still remember the days when we could not open Industrial Athletics to the public. We had to pivot an entire business model from a Community built on in-person fitness to virtual training at home. In an effort to stay ahead of the changing business model, companies started launching marketing campaigns designed for working out in new ways. We saw companies like Peloton reach new levels of revenue success. Other companies tried to quickly create ways to reach people at home who wanted to stay fit, like the Mirror. However, through the panic, those of us who built a business in brick or mortar know one thing: people want to be together and need a group and accountability to accomplish goals.

In our latest episode of The Stronger Revolution, we sat down with one of our members. He’s been a part of the IA Community for a year, joining after COVID. Before joining IA, he worked out at home with some equipment and a doorway pullup bar. However, he started to find limitations. He just couldn’t reach his goals without professional coaching and a professional facility. So, he reached out for a No Sweat Intro, and he’s been seeing a steady increase in his fitness ever since.

Check out our episode to learn more about Kurt and his dog Pax!

The post From Home Workouts to Gym appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Our Athlete of the Month for July 2022, Pritish, is a doctor. He specializes in cancer and blood diseases. So, he sees people at the worst and often talks to them on the worst day of their life. Why is it the worst day of their life? Because he is often the person who tells them that they have cancer. Sometimes, it’s even a life sentence. Pritish told us in a recent interview that while he loves his job, sometimes he can’t shake the feeling of telling someone such life-altering news.

However, Pritish has some good advice amongst all of this bad news. Get up and get moving.

That’s it! It’s that simple. Unfortunately, this advice makes Pritish an outlier as a doctor. Modern medicine usually gives you a pill and sends you home. However, Pritish has seen, and continues to see, the benefits of simply moving. Humans are built to move. So, whenever a patient comes into his office, part of his prescription is add exercise to your life.

Oh, did you know that anemic people have a desire to eat dirt?

The post He Wants His Patients To Move appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Years ago, our Athlete of the Month for June 2022 joined Industrial Athletics. However, after some failed starts, Mike Hennessy just couldn’t get fitness into the rhythm of his life. Then, COVID shut down the world and Mike found himself stuck at home. It was time to create a new routine.

During the shutdown, we reached out past members to see how we could help. Sure enough, adding fitness into his life was exactly what Mike needed. He had a wonderful at-home setup full of weights and a bow-flex. That’s all we needed. Every week during the mandated shut down, and for a time after, Mike and Coach Matt met over Zoom on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It wasn’t ideal. However, it was just what Mike needed.

Today, Mike is still a private training client at IA. However, now, he’s in person. Three days a week he shows up to put in the work with Coach Leslie.

Want to learn more about Mike? Check out our latest podcast episode on The Stronger Revolution. Did we mention he’s in a band??????

The post From Virtual to In Person Private Training appeared first on Pittsburgh Crossfit | Industrial Athletics.

Our athlete of the month for May 2022 may be the definition of overcoming adversity. In a recent episode of The Stronger Revolution, we sat down with Jared Cave to hear about his journey in CrossFit.

While looking to try something different, a friend suggested that Jared try CrossFit. He joined Industrial Athletics, and has been a member every since. He completed our Fundamentals Program and joined our regular CrossFit class. Things were going well and his fitness was progressing. However, what he didn’t realize was that he had a ticking time bomb growing around his heart. While participating in Memorial Day Murph at Industrial Athletics, that time bomb reached it’s limit. Jared went down from a heart attack.

However, that didn’t stop Jared from pursuing a life of health and fitness. Coming back faster than expected (probably because of his high level of fitness at the time), Jared took it slowly, but again progressed quickly in his fitness.

Determined not to let the heart attack define his future, Jared has worked tirelessly to set himself up for longevity in the future. Today, he still PR’s his max effort lifts and has been progressing through our standardized scaling for daily workouts. Also, did we mention he loves Frisbee Golf?

Learn more about Jared and in journey in the latest episode.

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