About

Thank you for visiting my CrossFit blog!  I started CrossFit in January 2012 and have decided to blog my progress and my thoughts on it as I venture into this radically new fitness routine (new for me, anyway).  I have been an avid gym-goer for around 10 years, focusing mostly on bodybuilding with some general conditioning.

My name is James Marcin.  I am an alumnus of the University of Michigan, where I received both a BS and MS in biomedical engineering.  Late in my freshman year, my friends introduced me to working out.

The worst shape I've ever been in:
In my very first ever visit to a gym in early 2002, I weighed between 135 and 140 lbs and I could barely bench press 85 lbs and I could not do a single pull-up.

The best shape I've ever been in:
Mid-2007.  I could easily run at a 7:00 minute pace for distances up to 10K.  I could lift nearly as much as I ever had before or since.  Twice per week I would attend a "boot camp" class, which I'm convinced did more for my overall conditioning than anything else.

Proudest moments in fitness (to date):
I have one sub-20m 5K under my belt.  I leg-pressed ~1,000 lbs for reps.  I achieved <10% body fat once, for a somewhat short period of time.

Why I chose CrossFit:
This is mostly described in my first post.
As I've gotten older, I'd become been bored and disappointed with typical bodybuilding routines.  Also, as my adult responsibilities grow and crowd out time for working out, I knew that I'd need more compact and more effective workouts to achieve a level of fitness that traditional weightlifting would never give me.  I'd heard of CrossFit several times, but never investigated it much.  A few of my friends had tried it and loved it, and I had seen bits and pieces of the CrossFit Games on television, but I still didn't completely grasp what it was about.  The only way to really understand it was to do it.