Athlete Spotlight | Sam Legrand

AGE: 26 HOMETOWN: Denver, Colorado OCCUPATION: Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue Swimmer
WHEN DID YOU START AT

: March 2017

FAVORITE WOD:
Fight Gone Bad

LEAST FAVORITE WOD:
Diane

SPORTS & FITNESS BACKGROUND:
I grew up plahing soccer, basetball, and baseball. By my sophomore year of high school I began concentrating on competitive swimming. Once high school was over I stopped swimming competitively and mostly skied and lifted weights throughout college. After college I decided to join the Coast Guard with the aspiration of completing the grueling AST "a" school and becoming a helicopter rescue swimmer. Training was six months of extremely mental and physically challenging training but after two attempts I made it. Each day of training consisted of roughly 4 hours of swimming and 2 hours of "The Grinder" which included high intensity running, body weight movements and kettlebells.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES/INTERESTS?
I love exploring new activities and places. One of my favorite things to do is take my bike to a new city with my fiancé or friends and go explore it. A few years ago I started bonsai which has been very relaxing and therapeutic. Archery has also been another form of meditation for me and I hope to begin hunting soon.

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET EXPOSED TO CROSSFIT? Take us back to your first WOD.... what was it, anyhow did it feel?
I was first exposed to CrossFit by my instructors from AST "a" school who participated in CrossFit themselves to maintain their fitness. Looking back on training there are many aspects that draw from CrossFit. I don't remember much about my first WOD but I do remember being a little nervous walking into the gym. I had good endurance but a lot less strength when I first began CrossFit. I was hesitant to learn new movements but with a lot of practice, hard work, and motivation from Frank and Ryan I improved drastically.

" When I began CrossFit a year ago I weighed about 185 pounds. In the first month of CrossFit I put on about 15 pounds of muscle in mostly my lower body. A few months after graduating AST “a” school my classmates and I got back together to do an EMT training course in California and they were shocked to see how much more muscle I had in just a few months since they had last seen me. My endurance has remained about the same but my strength has seen vast improvements, I now weigh 210 pounds and have the same amount of body fat as when I began.
"

HOW HAS CROSSFIT IMPACTED YOUR LIFE?
Crossfit Absecon is completely unlike any gym I have been to because of the social environment. I was not expecting to be joining a diverse community that has fun both inside and outside of the gym. CrossFit translates to so many real world activities that it gives me confidence I can perform not only my job better but any physical activity better.

Please Share with us any CrossFIt / CrossFit Absecon moments.
It’s hard to choose one specific memory because this gym has hands down been my favorite part of being stationed in South Jersey. I love feeding off of other people in the gym, competing with each other to get stronger, blasting music during a tough WOD and actually being friends with the people you work out with. It’s completely different from your typical meat head gym where you plug into your headphones, tune everyone else out and do the same thing day after day. In my mind there is no better way to workout than CrossFit and no better gym to do it at than CrossFit Absecon.

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