If you’ve followed us for a while now or had a quick binge through our columns, you’ll see that adaptive weightlifting has been a feature here since its first part in 2016. I’ve been to many gyms since then, trying to find a pattern, a routine, an accessible way to develop my body strongly in equal parts.

In Part Two, you’ll have read how I discovered Platform Performance in Manchester – the place where I began to actually find ways to lift adaptively and safely, most of all. I’ve always been rather open about my difference, but it was the place I finally began to feel strength in my hand and build confidence in its capabilities.

However, after over two years with Platform, I felt I needed a change. Through their guidance I had achieved all the goals I felt I could in their gym and was in need of something else – something new - to keep myself focused.

That’s where in March 2020, I found Gritstone CrossFit.

Now, I will openly admit that for the longest time, I gave the sport a lot of shtick. I had the outlook on it that it was just over the top. I even had a few friends who trained in the sport and would rib them about it at any mention of it. Despite having seen the Netflix documentaries, I just didn’t look at it objectively.

I thought a lot about the injuries you’d see and hear of, but then I realised I had been training in just as crazy a sport in MMA for as long as I can remember, where injuries are even more prevalent. Where you climb into a cage with an opponent to punch, kick, knee and choke your adversary. I then realised that those injuries you’d see in both MMA and CrossFit are purely because they are both intense environments and are competition-based sports, so of course they were bound to happen!

With my newfound frame of mind and interest piqued, I spoke to Lee Newburn – a good friend, CrossFit athlete, nutritionist and someone who has been instrumental in my gym life. I was curious to try a class, but weary about how much I’d be able to do with my difference, given the variety of lifts and exercises performed daily.

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Credit: Richard Hill

“If you think about it, Harry, whenever you see those viral clips of people with disabilities online, it’s always in a CrossFit setting,” Lee told me. I’ve been lucky enough to know a lot of people in numerous sports to listen to and learn from, so it wasn’t long after that I tried my first class.

The first class was very different to any kind of intense exercise I’d done previously. Doing full cardio and mixing it with weights adds a whole new dynamic to fitness. I then met with Gritstone’s owner, Richard Hill, an accomplished athlete in himself. The attention, coaching and guidance I’ve received from both Richard and Lee provided me with a lot of confidence to tackle, adapt, experiment and simply find out what I can do and continue to hone it.

That said, with the past 12 months being what they’ve been for everyone, it wasn’t the easiest time to transition to a new form of fitness and manage to get after new goals. However, through support and home workouts, I’ve managed to adapt and take my time in figuring things out.

Despite that, when entering the Gritstone facility, I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish:

- Get bigger, stronger and better

- Get confident on a bar

- Let go of stubbornness

Getting bigger, stronger and better has been one of the key achievements in the past year. I’ve always struggled with weight gain from being constantly active and through doing so much cardio in MMA activity multiple times a week. Feeling bigger and stronger has definitely been a box to tick in the last twelve months of CrossFit. Whether it be a little bit of cheeky COVID quarantine weight hanging in there or from the sessions themselves, the confidence that has come with it to tackle bigger lifts in stronger cleaner fashion has been paramount. Box: ticked.

Letting go of stubbornness has been and still is a work in progress. See, I’ve always been raised to not let my limb-difference stop me and when it causes some prevention of movement in a class, I am always left frustrated. While I may be physically different, I don’t enjoy viewing myself as that. It’s enough for me to know I have to operate differently. It’s not something I use as an out or something to fall back on. I like doing things that, logically speaking, I shouldn’t really be capable of doing. My difference has definitely been accepted by me, something I’ve wrote about many times, but if it means I cannot do what others simply can, it has given me the feeling it’s beaten me and it can quickly leave me feeling so. Mindset is very important. Sometimes, you don’t know better and must trust your coaches. You may know your difference, but your coaches have experience. Trust theirs. It’s also been a fantastic thing to have a fellow limb-different athlete training under the same roof in Charlotte Coburn to run things by and see how she tackles similar circumstances.

It’s still very early on in my time training in CrossFit, but one I’m really glad I changed my outlook on and I’ve been happily proved wrong. It’s provided me the intensity and a saving grace for what I’ve needed in these last twelve months. It’s also been a very eventful time to join the sport, with the changing of leadership at the head of the table with Eric Roza taking over.

The change feels refreshing to many I’ve spoken to and, with Eric progressive mindset, this year’s CrossFit Open will be available to adaptive athletes for the first time. It’s a great feeling to be new to a sport where these doors are just opening and feeling far more awareness and warm-welcoming for people like myself. It’s early days, but who knows what the future holds!

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