Art has been an awesome addition the Beachside family since day one. His dedication to his fitness and recovery is motivating and impressive. If you see Art in class (usually with his best bud Darren) say hi and congratulate him. He’s definitely earned it!
Tell us about yourself:
Raised in Oxnard by my parents who worked as pickers for the local agriculture. They had me try it once, picking strawberries from a field in south Oxnard, and it was a miserable day for me. My functional fitness was very low and I probably had some mobility limitations, so the level of physical discomfort was extreme from the bending over, squatting, and tension in my muscles and joints. That was enough to scare me straight toward academics, so after graduating high school I went to UC Irvine and got my degree in Civil Engineering. My first passion as far as sports was basketball, I’m a big fan of MJ/Kobe, and besides that I enjoy learning about science, technology, philosophy, and history.
What do you do for a job?
I work for the Navy as a civilian Civil/Structural engineer specializing in blast resistant structures.
Tell us something people might not know about you:
After most workouts I do a stretching and mobility routine. The reason that I do that is because I’ve had moderately serious back issues in the past, and I learned the hard way that stretching and mobility is the key to improving quality of movement and promoting healthy function. CrossFit has made that even more glaring because many of the movements require getting into positions that are difficult without full range of motion. At times it has felt like it would take forever to make mobility improvements, but I try to stay patient and remember that a little bit after my workouts will eventually add up to big gains.
What brought you to CrossFit in the first place?
My best friend and training partner, Darren, asked me to try CrossFit. I was hesitant, but he was so confident I’d like it that he offered to pay for half my foundations. He and his wife June were the two fittest people I knew so I figured I’d give it a try. I decided to keep an open mind, give solid effort for 6 months and take it from there. Well he was right, 2+ years in and the benefits and fun I’ve had doing it are priceless.
What was your first impression? How has that changed?
The community at BSCF was warm and inviting from day 1, just an abundance of happy, positive, fit people. The workouts early on were manageable because there’s a ton of scaling options but still very intense. However, seeing some of the members do the more advanced movements was such an impressive sight, like watching superheroes in action. I had no idea whether I could learn those movements, but I knew I wanted to try.
What was your first “bright spot”?
Learning double unders. I practiced for about 3-4 months before they clicked. That was when I got hooked and really bought into the hard work pays off mantra, and ever since I’ve kept adding more to the list of CrossFit movements I strive to learn.
What are you working on now?
There is so much I want to improve, but one of my goals is to get butterfly pull ups this year.
What’s your favorite Beachside Crossfit memory?
It’s hard to choose just one, but one day I asked Nate how I could improve my cardio capacity because I felt like my progress in that area was stalling. The funny thing is we had just done the death row workout (row cals + burpees) the week before, but I dodged it because I wanted to avoid the pain. He promptly called me out on that, and I knew he was right, there are no shortcuts to our goals, so I refocused. Experiencing that kind of accountability made me feel like I was trusting the right people to guide me on my fitness journey, and I was grateful to have something like that because it is a rare thing.
