You don’t have to go far within the walls of I Am CrossFit in Miami to find inspiration and camaraderie.
“I don’t want to answer like everybody else, but I have to: it’s the community. It’s the members,” owner Mike Osuna says of what makes the place special.
Among those members is Cary Garcia, who lost 42 lb. in eight months.
“I went from lifting 45, maybe 75 lb., to putting 125 lb. overhead, which is just crazy. I never thought I could do that,” she says.
“My favorite part of CrossFit is that I have a community of people that’s pretty much there for me all the time,” she says. “If I don’t come here to the box, I get a phone call.”
Javier Sosa, formerly 285 lb., wasn’t able to keep off weight. After CrossFit, Sosa says he has more energy at 42 than he had when he was 20.
“You could become a Ph.D., be a doctor, be whatever, and if you’re unhealthy, what good is it?” he asks.
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Additional reading: My Tribe by Jeremy Striffler, published Feb. 16, 2012.