My name is Rafe Grigar and I just turned 30. I have an amazing wife, Jess, and a two year old son, Zeph. Together we run CrossFit Pantego in Arlington, Texas. I come from a very un-athletic background, having been a musician vocationally since I graduated high school. My wife and I met in a group training class at 24 hour fitness (where she was an instructor) and we’ve been together and pursuing fitness to one degree or another ever since.
With my wife’s encouragement I began teaching group formats as well-and we also had our fair share of “infomercial workouts” laying around the house. This was our primary training method for a number of years, and the results were somewhat dismal. I knew that I was missing out on something. I knew that I was putting in a lot of time on the stair-master and doing curls to see so little reward for my efforts.
We had Zeph in August of 2010 and I realized that my time was going to be more precious than ever and the thought of being on the stair master for an hour a day while Zeph was at home made me ill. One day at the bookstore I ran across “Cardio Strength Training” and it really caught my eye. I read the first chapter and walked to the counter to pay for the book. The ideas just made sense. There weren’t any wild promises made; only that this programming would kick your butt and you would reap the benefits.
My first CST session took place at 24 Hour Fitness. I saw the medicine ball 30/30 interval outlined in the timed session chapter and thought “ just a medicine ball? Ha!”. 15 minutes later I was on the floor, in the proverbial pool of sweat, staring at the medicine ball that suddenly demanded my respect. I was finished for the day. You could not have paid me to move. Walking down the stairs was murder. I was HOOKED.
I drove home and signed up for Coachdos.com. Jess thought I was crazy. I sold a guitar and bought a set of kettlebells. I saved my pennies and bought sandbags. Bumper plates. Crazy slosh pipes. Squat racks. Dumbells. Anything I could get my hands on. Between August 19th (Zeph’s birthday) and Thanksgiving I had lost 30 some odd pounds (the scale is my least favorite indicator of fitness or health), but I felt amazing, and I was in by far the best shape of my life. Jess had gained 75 pounds of baby weight, and was below pre baby weight by Christmas.
No longer did I have to carve out an hour and a half (at least!) trip to the gym to feel like I was getting a workout in. There was a 10 minute interval after waking up. A complex while Zeph took a nap. Partner sprints with Zeph in the stroller. We were having A BLAST, and people were asking questions about how we were training and the results we achieved. I can’t tell you how many times I explained that my fitness mentor lived in California and was a strength coach for a college 🙂
In 2012 we got booted from the gym for being too obnoxious. People followed us to our garage gym. Sometimes we would have 15 or so people working out of the garage. It was a blast and people were seeing huge changes. Tom was our first “victim”. Tom lost 40lbs between February and May. His strength and stamina shot through the roof. Jared came along and wanted to lean out and pass the Law Enforcement Physical Fitness Test. 3 months, literally, 3 months into training he was a shredded monster. Elizabeth was one our first clients at CrossFit Pantego. I saw Elizabeth at 5am most days, and she worked her rear end off. These are the results she garnered from her hard work and with the help of your training methodologies. Oh yeah, that was in 2 freaking months.
CrossFit Pantego isn’t like a lot of CrossFit boxes that I’ve seen. We do lots of densities. We do lots of timed sessions. We do lots of circuits. There is a whole lot of DOS going around at our place. People are training smart and hard, and I owe that to dos. We alternate between the methodologies found in both “Power Training” and ” Cardio Strength Training.”
Dos’ philosophies, ideas, creativity, and knowledge are getting passed around here big time. It’s changed my life in more ways than I can explain. From trivial things to feeling comfortable in my own skin, to deadlifting 2.5x my bodyweight, I have for sure been transformed. I am a musician that owns a GYM for crying out loud. We train state high jump champs and 67 year old grandpa’s in the same class. Dos’ methods can be scaled to whatever degree needed.
Thanks Dos for being an inspiration. Thanks for smart training, for helping me to understand keeping myself and my clients safe. Thanks for methods that aren’t only effective, but allow me to be creative and put my own personality into. Thanks for always responding to my messages and thanks for Frankie. I love Frankie too 🙂
OH YEAH, you also inspired me to start studying for my CSCS !
No, Thank YOU Rafe! You inspire ALL of us to DO WORK!
-DOS-