Athlete of the Month: October 2016

Greg R.

Nickname: Robin Hood

Member since: January 2013

Windy City: This recognition is long overdue. Greg has been an amazing addition to the Windy City community for some time now. Greg really started catching the coaching staff's attention by making an incredible physical transformation by participating in the 2015 Winter Transformation Challenge. Since then, Greg has been a loyal follower of our group nutrition program (powered by Nova3 labs) and had continued to progress as an athlete. Greg will be the first to tell you that at 47 years young he is in the best shape of his life! Thanks for always bringing a smile to the 5:30am classes Greg, we're proud of you (and your abs)! 

“You’re a guy who has gotten this far in life by being smart and being able to talk a good game. If you don’t start working hard, I’m going to fire your ass.”  — My first boss, giving me the best feedback ever

Greg: Windy City helped me come back from the dead.

In 2011, when I was 41, I began passing out while exercising. Tests revealed that I had a congenital defect that was causing my heart to fail. In September of that year, I had surgery to sew a ring into the middle of my heart. My heart was stopped for 1 hour and 20 minutes while they operated on it, I woke up on an incubator with a belly full of tubes, and for 3 months afterwards I could not lift anything heavier than 5 pounds, while my wired-together sternum tried to heal. I was pretty beat up, physically and emotionally.

While I was lying in bed wondering how I would ever feel better, I saw a replay of the CrossFit Games. That was the first time I had heard of or seen CrossFit, and it looked terrifyingly awesome. At that moment, I decided that I would not stop with my recovery until I was strong enough, fit enough, and agile enough to do what I saw those athletes doing on TV. I looked up CrossFit places in Chicago, and found Windy City near our house. I spent 2012 recovering enough to feel confident to show up at Windy City, but I was still really intimidated to walk in the front door that first time in Jan. of 2013.

I didn’t need to be. Windy City is everything I was hoping for. The coaches and my teammates are incredibly inspiring and supportive; they push me to my limits, but not beyond. The workouts are massively challenging, and I learn new movements, or improve on movements I know, seemingly every day. Unbelievably to me, I am significantly stronger, fitter, and more agile than I was before my surgery. Plus, I’m having more fun than I ever have had working out. 3.5 years later, I can say that Windy City has restored and improved my body and my mindset. I can’t thank the coaches and the community at Windy City enough!

Recent Adventures

I’m really lucky to have a wife, son, and daughter who are total studs, and keep me challenged. In the last couple of years we’ve climbed, rappelled, hiked, mountain biked, and rafted through Moab/Arches; hiked, rafted, swam, surfed, and biked the beaches and rainforest in Costa Rica; biked and hiked the Inca Trail and other parts of Peru; and skied a few spots in Utah. Last year I was honored to win the masters division of a Trodo Games on a team with Keeler, Brenda, and Coach Teri, and I had a ton of fun competing in this year’s Crossfit Open and Murph.

In terms of lifestyle accomplishments, I’m extremely happy with the recent changes to my diet I’ve implemented through the nutrition program at Windy City. I joined the program to see if a change in nutrition would help me feel better and recover more quickly from my workouts, and the results have been better than I could have expected both in terms of my baseline energy level, and in terms of my performance in the gym. I didn’t set out to lose weight, but incredibly, 8 months in, I actually weigh less than I have at any other point in my adult life, including when I was logging a lot of running miles. I drive my family crazy with weighing my foods and tracking everything I eat, but the results have been worth it.

Future Adventures

We’re going to Puerto Rico over Thanksgiving (with guidance from Charles Rubert—thanks, Charles!), and Jackson Hole for the first time over New Year’s to ski.

If time and money were not an object, I’d throw all my energy and resources into creating economic opportunities and civic change in those Chicago neighborhoods with the highest violence rates.

Personal Goals

At the gym: Get much, much better at high rep wall ball workouts. Improve Olympic lifting technique, and lift heavier. Complete all the girl and hero workouts, Rx. Get good at stringing together ring and bar over muscle ups. 60+ foot unbroken handstand walk. Improve my flexibility. Most importantly, continue to have fun!

Professionally: Focus on doing the important, rather than the urgent.

Personal: Spend as much fun time possible with my family during my son’s last year of high school. 

"Every challenge presents an opportunity to do something great." - Words to live by