Who is in the Spotlight?

This month’s student spotlight is going to Garrett Lovell. Garrett has an inspiring story and a dedicated heart to push on. I am so proud of how far he has come. Over the last three months I have had the honor to coach him and watch him change both physically and even mentally. His movement patterns have improved drastically and because of that his form has seriously improved. And because of his solid form he is now able to load a whole lot more. His results were earned, because he is dedicated to himself and committed to making a change. His wife, (almost) 5 year Get Fit veteran (Becky Lovell) keeps him on his toes and challenges him to lift something heavier each training session. This is what Garrett has to say:

“My wife, Becky, has been a member at Get Fit for over four years.  Knowing that I have struggled to find something I could stick to in order to maintain my “health” (ranging from Weight Watchers to that somewhat questionably “judgment-free zone” we all hear advertised), she had suggested and encouraged me to try Get Fit on multiple occasions.  I would regularly tell her that what I was doing was working ok for me (it wasn’t).  Sometimes I would say that I didn’t have the time or we didn’t have the extra money (I/we did).  Finally one morning I woke up and realized that I am 35 years old, I work for Under Armour, a company whose mission is to make athletes better, and here I was gaining weight, making poor eating choices, and probably in the worst shape I’ve ever been in.  By now I think Becky had given up on me ever considering trying Get Fit (which was largely validated by her reaction when I told her I wanted to try it), but I knew that she enjoyed the classes and had certainly achieved some great results and what I had been doing, or not doing, certainly wasn’t working.

It didn’t take long for me to realize how truly unhealthy I had let myself become.  My initial functional movement screening must have been somewhere between comical and soul-crushing for Coach Meagan to administer.  I quickly dubbed myself “Rainbow Bright” with the colorful collection of four limitation bands I had earned for myself.  That first week of classes was a real ego-bruiser, too.  Exercises that I had been able to do fairly easily a number of years back now seemed a lot like what I imagined were advanced CIA interrogation techniques.  When I filled out my questionnaire before starting my two week trial, I had rated my fitness level as a 2 out of 10 which in hind sight felt like I may have been giving myself a little too much credit.

Monday will mark my third month at Get Fit.  While I’m still not satisfied (and I admit that I’m one of those people that rarely is), I am pleased with the results I’ve been able to achieve with the support of my coaches, classmates, family, and friends.  I’m lifting heavier loads, have increased my flexibility, and have quite a few sweatshirts that are a lot looser fitting than I remembered them being last winter when I wore them last.

The coaching staff at Get Fit and the people in my most regularly attended 7:25am class time have been fantastic and frankly the sole reason I kept coming back at first.  They’ve been patient, supportive, and certainly not judgmental.  Now that I’ve started to see some progress and results (and friends, family, and co-workers have too), I have a whole new source of motivation.  I have a red band that I still have to test out of and I’m not fit enough to take up the mantle of Captain America yet (yes, you read that right, I’m 35 and I still want to be Captain America when I grow up), but I’m working on getting stronger and healthier and figure that I can make at least one of those two things happen in the near future.”

We look forward to the transformation. Whether that be to Get Fit NH’s very own Captain America or Garrett’s best version of himself- we’ll take either one with open arms 🙂

You too can make it happen!

Coach Meagan