My name is Samantha Bradley, but everyone knows me as Sam. I am 16 years old (17 next month!) and a junior at the Park School. Aside from CrossFit, I love spending time outdoors hiking, backpacking, biking, or rock climbing. I also love reading, wakeboarding, playing guitar, and doing fun things with my goldendoodle named Indie. I have always been interested in science, math, medicine, and psychology, so I hope to find a major and career that allows me to combine some of those interests.
What led you to try CrossFit?
I have been involved in sports my whole life, ranging from soccer to competitive swimming, to youth triathlon, but I always found myself getting bored of the repetition or frustrated with the toxicity of some sports environments. I learned about CrossFit through a friend and following her stories and excitement for me to try it, I was intrigued and decided to give it a go.
Why do you continue to CrossFit?
There are so many reasons! I continue to do CrossFit because it has had such a positive impact on my life. I have made the most amazing friendships and I love working out alongside these wonderful people, while cheering them on to accomplish super cool things. The variety of CrossFit workouts never leave me bored and my recent interest in Olympic Weightlifting has me wanting to come back and learn more every day. And as a generally anxious person, CrossFit also lets me turn off the overthinking and just have fun for an hour or more because I definitely have to be focusing on the movement rather than whatever I was previously worrying about 🙂 Titan truly has the most supportive and fun members and coaches that make challenging myself to do hard things a great experience!
Describe how your attitude towards health and fitness has evolved since you began your journey
Because so many people in the fitness world are focused on “looking a certain way”, being in those environments led me to have a poor relationship with food, body-image, and exercise, where it became something I wasn’t actually enjoying. CrossFit has shifted my mindset and allowed me to see and appreciate all of the things my body can do, and now my goals focus on getting stronger, lifting more weight, or working to do more RX workouts. I am often very hard on myself and doubt my abilities and I have found that CrossFit has helped me so much with this. If I go into a workout or a lift thinking, “I can’t do this or I won’t make this lift” I am more likely to not perform how I want to, or know I could. But if I go in with positive self-talk, almost all of the time it goes better than I imagined it would. I worry less about failing and I have way more fun with fitness than I ever had before CrossFit.
Share a memorable CrossFit moment that makes you laugh or puts a smile on your face
During last week’s “Steve Rogers” workout of rowing, box jump overs, and thrusters I had a slight mishap that had the entire teens class stopping their workout for a moment and laughing. On the very first round of the workout I had finished my row and went to do my box jump overs when my feet did not quite land on the box right and I slipped and totally banged my shins on the box. Every crossfitter knows this feeling, and it hurts, but all of us were just cracking up because it was literally the first box jump of the workout and of course it was me that did this, because somehow I always seem to have some kind of bruise. Was it a bit painful? Yes. Was it entertaining? Also yes!
What are you proud of and why?
I am proud of myself for continuing to show up to the gym even on those days where sometimes motivation lacks and continuing to work hard to get stronger. I am also proud of how my snatch and clean technique has improved since recently starting to work on oly lifts! It’s so cool to see the work pay off and feel more confident in my lifts.
What’s your advice for other CrossFitters or people looking to start?
My advice would be to believe in yourself! It can be overwhelming at first and you may compare yourself to others, but remember that everyone in the gym was a newbie at one point. Titan members and coaches want to help and see you improve so don’t be afraid to ask questions! Stay consistent, scale when you need to, remember that failure is part of the process, try to have a positive mindset, and you WILL make progress. Also..HAVE FUN!!
Why the coaches chose Sam as Titan of the month
Sam Bradley started off mostly taking teens classes, but has been regularly participating in the general CrossFit classes. She encourages her peers to join along to be in a more challenging environment. She is regularly inquiring about what extra work she can do to get better and get stronger. She recently participated in a small group teens barbell session. Sam is engaged in every class and has become active in our Titan community. Sam cares about others and is very supportive of newer teens that are apprehensive about learning new skills. In the adults classes she is ready to participate and take advice to heart. She pushes herself hard. The trust she has in her coaches is fantastic. She will increase her weights or decrease them at her coaches discretion without a second thought. Sam has a wonderful attitude. All the Titan coaches envision her in the CrossFit world for the long haul. Sam has made an excellent Addition to the Titan community.
