Gary Riccini...in his own words

Submitted by trainermerle on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 13:17

Lately there have been a lot of people writing in talking about there new crossfit life since Relentless has opened. These stories are inspiring and it is great to see people getting so much from this experience. Usually I am not the type of person to write one of these but this morning I felt compelled to share my Crossfit journey with the masses. Once upon a time I was athletic. I played division 1 soccer but somewhere along the line I lost my way when it comes to fitness. Last May I moved home to Connecticut after living away in Philadelphia for a while due to my external sales career. While living in Philadelphia I got caught up in a very unhealthy lifestyle due to my career. Being in an outside sales position I entertained financial advisors morning, noon, and night. I treated these clients to breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hours, etc. All this coupled with my new found habit of eating fast food at various rest stops and being on the road constantly driving everywhere and anywhere from Pennsylvania down to Washington DC I walked into Crossfit USA on a Saturday in May of 2009 tipping the scale at over 260lbs. YES 260LBS!!!!!!! During this time I also got married. While most people are killing themselves to get in shape for the big day I was at my heaviest ever. At this point I had to get back myself back.

Meeting Merle for the first time was an eye opening experience. He lives, eats, and breathes crossfit. His enthusiasm for helping people is something that you can’t find at any globo gym. Merle’s unbridled passion for Crossfit, and helping people is his greatest sales tool. I was sold on trying this after about 30 seconds of meeting Merle and signed up for private sessions. My first workout with Merle is still engrained in my memory. Just going through what was the standard warm up at Crossfit USA almost had me ready to meet Pukie the Clown, but something about it was refreshing. From that point forward I was hooked and became a regular at USA with the 6AM crew and now at relentless. In fact I was the original 6 AM class back at crossfit USA. Nothing about these workouts is easy, but they are satisfying. It is nothing short of hard work. Something about the effort, intensity, and suffering that I endure in these constantly varied workouts has me hooked. Now I am attending rowing certifications, and Olympic Weight Lifting seminars. I am not yet where I ultimately want to be weight wise or strength wise, but my transformation is nothing short of amazing. What prompted this email was this morning my scale read 215lbs. In about 9 months I have dropped 50 lbs. To put this in some context I played collegiate soccer in between 190 – 200lbs. Along with this weight loss my strength has gone way up. Not only has the scale moved in the right direction (and will continue to move in the right direction) but the mental change is equally as amazing. I have regained my athleticism, confidence, and competitive nature that I lost somewhere along the way. To close this up I want to thank Merle and Glen for what they have done for me, the tools they have armed me with, and a new lifestyle. If you are reading this and thinking about going to try Crossfit go see Merle, and Glen. Crossfit is an amazing workout philosophy but more importantly Merle and Glen have created a great community of success at Crossfit Relentless and Crossfit USA.

Thank you,

Gary Riccini