May Member of the Month
We'd like to introduce you to the most BMF that this month has to offer. She crushed it in the gym and continued right on crushing it when we took our entire community into the virtual plane. I'd like to welcome Lauren Friedman to the HRA Member of the Month Hall of Fame.
No matter what is going on Lauren always adds so much energy to the room and is always so so so down with helping out any and everybody who needs a hand. Because of this, the coaching staff has selected her as May's MOM.
Check out what Lauren has to stay about HRA and all you awesome peeps who make up our fitfam:
1) What is your favorite thing about Hudson River Athletics?
The community, support and fun in and out of the gym.
I just officially joined in Oct 2019, which wasn't that long ago but I immediately felt at home at HRA. And I was initially scared to even train there - the lighting was too bright, there were mirrors (I'd have to look at myself EEK,) there was no room for me to hide in the back of classes and do my own thing until I felt like I was physically able to join the class. And it was ALL PARTNER WORKOUTS. And it scared the SH*T out of me. Also everyone was super tight and while I'm extremely social and have zero confidence issues in all aspects of my life, when it comes to fitness I have a lot of apprehension.
And I was coming off of a tendinitis injury which SUCKED but I was also so grateful to have the support and resources of HRA to be referred to Jonathan Zaid! Who is a lifesaver!
But Cody basically forced me to join an RPM one day after our personal training, and I couldn't keep up! And felt bad for my first partner, Morgan, who was so nice about it, but the LAST thing I wanted to do was to ruin someone else's workout.
But, I kept coming back and every single person was so kind, supportive and welcoming it made me feel immediately at ease. Gary and Di initially came over to me to introduce themselves - Di saying she was having trouble with the Cardio in RPM. And I just looked at her w confusion as she is RIPPED - so it made no sense to me. But it was equally comforting to know that everyone was striving for more progress each day.
And I remember one day I was in a group of three with Deirdre and Fish and I was nervous to join because they both are BEASTS - and Deirdre said "Lauren, you can join our team anytime!" and it made me feel so welcomed to the tight knit community!
Another threesome that I never thought I'd have was Joe and Gary on a Saturday RPM! It's truly an inclusive, no-judgment zone, everyone is just looking out for each other's best FIT-EREST. ;)
And I think it just speaks volumes of the HRA community especially right now, where there is no physical building but the virtual classes, the classes on-demand, the Zoom calls and just constant engagement make you feel like you're still there with the support, love and friendly faces! It certainly has normalized things for me!
2) What differences have you seen in your body, and health since starting at The Riv?
I've always had endurance from running in HS and swimming competitively since birth, but from 18 - 29 I had a MAJOR problem integrating fitness into my lifestyle in a profound way. And I had gained SO MUCH WEIGHT and felt terrible. I lost 115 lbs through diet and exercise (CKO) in 2013-2014 and kept it off for many years.
And then I gained back about 45 lbs in 2017-2018 after an injury during a workout and never could find something I enjoyed again. I went to Barry's all over the country and CKO and nothing worked.
It wasn't until I started working out with Cody and using weights WHICH I've NEVER lifted anything more than 5-10 lbs in my life and combining that with cardio that I saw my body change.
And it wasn't in the scale at all - it was a completely different transformation. I had goals that I wanted to achieve to become a "big boy" like full GHDs, pull-ups and BOX JUMPS! Which all SCARED THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME. But it also gave me a reason to strive for more progress each day. And with those goals in mind, my body just became more fit, muscular, toned and I could do more each and every day that I showed up.
And that alone blew my own mind!!! I NEVER EVEN WANTED TO DO ALL OF THOSE THINGS, let alone thought I could, until it became realistic. This experience has taught me that it's truly all about hard work and consistency - and showing the F up!!!
And that while I believe you can truly do anything you put your mind to - fitness is something you have complete control over and it's the only thing in this life that it's you against you each day. With the only limit being yourself!
3) Does training at Hudson River Athletics carry over in any way to your personal life?
There aren't enough words to describe how HRA has saved my life - even in the short time period that I've been a member of this amazing community. 2019 was the worst year of my entire life and it carried into the beginning of 2020 - ironically it ended right before all of the COVID stuff started to go down.
And there was a time that I had no job, nowhere to go each day, nothing to look forward to and zero family left to be supportive.
But what I did have was a place to go each day where I could control my own destiny, and feel like I had control of something amidst the chaos and heartbreak happening in my life. And when I walked into the gym each day I knew that while I may have just been crying in my car and could barely get out of bed each day, I was going to feel better after my workout and have a ton of fun.
I never knew what fun was going to be happening when I entered the gym, but I knew that it would be fun.
Walking in to see Dom blasting music like he was at foam party in Ibiza, or Bobby doing something insane and going back to life like it was normal or whatever crazy toy/song/Riddle/Ernie Cody had that day, or the introduction of Jay's drone or whatever funny way Andrew makes remembering how to do the proper form of a movement..it all made me not only look forward to my personal goals, and the chemical changes that happen post-workout, but truly enjoy being there with everyone and working towards a common goal of fitness and health!
I would have never been able to survive that time period. It was the darkest of my life and I hope to not ever be back there again, but that just makes me more motivated to keep the momentum going at home because WE worked so hard to get where we were on 3/14/20 that there's no going back now!
4) What has been your favorite moment at The Riv and what has it meant to you?
I put my 3 goals on the doors on 1/14/20 which alone was a big deal for me because I still was SO far from accomplishing them! Even though it was a 2020 goal that you were supposed to hit by March, I was giving myself until September in my head.
But I ended up getting over my fear of the big wooden box jump (I had only done soft boxes to date, had broke my arm 7x as a kid and am a complete klutz) but I knew that if I wanted to be a fully integrated member of the HRA society, I needed to get over this (no pun intended)
So on 2/11 Cody and I crushed that goal - the combination of the 1:1 personal training AND RPM 6 days a week accelerated my success and goals tenfold. And I got an Apple Watch which I didn't even want, but the offer was too good so I was able to track my calories which I've never done - and it incentivizes me to hit new goals each day.
And then I hit my goal of a full touch-the-floor Bobby style GHD a few days later, so that week in mid-February really became a point of inflection in my fitness goals with 500-lb sleds and 215 lb DL PR!!!!
Then once I got those fears accomplished and under my belt, class became so much easier to navigate, I started using the yellow KB for even American KB Swings and I started to feel incredible in my skin again, which I hadn't felt since 2016!!!
And I had never lifted any weight EVER prior to Fall 2018.
On February 26th during my personal training session, I fell during the BJ and got a pretty gnarly cut on my left shin, but bandaged up and still did the RPM that evening!!!!! And I like the bruises and battle wounds - it makes me feel like I'm leaving it all on the floor!
There's no crying at HRA! And it proves if I could accomplish these things with ZERO natural-born talent, and EVERY SINGLE THING IN LIFE AGAINST ME ALL AT ONCE, anyone can do anything and I can use fitness as the foundation of my life to get through anything and stay focused.
