Tom Hagger & Kirstie Krypner
Congrats to one of our husband and wife teams, Tom Hagger and Kirstie Krypner, on being December’s Athletes of the Month! Please read their stories below.
Kirstie
Age: Recent member to the 30 club!!
Hometown: London
How long have you been CrossFitting? 1 year and 1 month
What is your favorite WOD/Exercise? Kelly (run 400m, box jumps, wall balls) so anything that is more cardio based and involves a sprint. Also, Kelly would probably be the only WOD I could actually say I did “RX”!
What is your least favorite WOD/Exercise? Overhead squats / thrusters come to mind!
What is your previous workout/athletic background? Combination of running, spinning and hot yoga. I only started weight-based training a year before moving to Cayman when I stopped running due to an injury (small collision with an Audi TT on my run to work…!)
What was your first experience at CrossFit Cayman like? After our induction, one of my first sessions ended in the hospital. I was rolling out on the floor before the morning WOD and one of the stacked wooden boxes tumbled and fell onto my forearm. Putting on a brave face, I still did the WOD, but by the end of the session I admitted defeat and went to A&E for an xray. Luckily, it was just a bruised bone.
What results have you seen since CrossFitting? I am getting stronger and slowly working my way towards the RX weights (still a way to go though)! The weight training and mobility exercises have also helped improve my running times. I am faster now than when I was running 5x a week.
What do you do to get yourself through a tough workout (mental thoughts, tips and tricks, etc.)? I would think to myself… “DO NOT LET TOMY DOWN”
What’s your favorite aspect about working out at CrossFit Cayman? The people (both coaches and members). There are no egos (aside from Tom’s…) and so I never feel self-conscious scaling the workouts or struggling on the final reps.
What advice do you have for someone thinking about joining CrossFit Cayman? Try it once (perhaps not in the rain, by an Audi TT or next to a wooden box) and you won’t be able to keep away.
Tom
Age: 31
Hometown: London
How long have you been CrossFitting? 1 year and 1 month
What is your favorite WOD/Exercise? Bench Press – mainly so I can loudly ask people “How much you bench bro?!”
What is your least favorite WOD/Exercise? Burpees. I curse the day that Royal H. Burpee invented the movement as they are pure evil in my eyes. The world record is 851 burpees in one hour which makes me hurt just thinking about it.
What is your previous workout/athletic background? Rugby from the age of 5 up until I was 21. Then a brief attempt to play wide receiver followed by a few years of competitive running and most recently cycling.
What was your first experience at CrossFit Cayman like? Wet. As we arrived to take part in the introduction session it started to rain like it only can in the tropics. This did not stop Matt from making us run laps outside in pouring rain. I wasn’t sure I would come back but I am very glad I did.
What results have you seen since CrossFitting? I used to think it was important to exercise for hours each day in order to improve. What has surprised me the most is that 30 to 40 minutes a day done correctly and consistently has led to strength and fitness gains.
What do you do to get yourself through a tough workout (mental thoughts, tips and tricks, etc.)? As a lot of my background is cardio based I am quite good at switching off and letting my body go into auto-pilot. That works for anything that doesn’t require technique. If I start to struggle during the more technical lifts I break it down into smaller chunks of exercise and note when I have done 5%, 25% etc. I find it really helps.
What’s your favorite aspect about working out at CrossFit Cayman? The people, the place and the sense of community. We go to the 6:30am class and someone in the class will always be able to make a joke to get those of us who are still asleep ready for the workout. If that fails there are always Jodi’s t-shirts…..
What advice do you have for someone thinking about joining CrossFit Cayman? I wouldn’t bother to be honest. Try this place called Anytime Fitness instead…. Only joking! My serious advice would be stop thinking about it and sign-up. It’s brilliant.