Sunday, June 19, 2011 – Athlete Profile: Austin Cangelosi

Athlete Profile: Austin Cangelosi

1. In general, what is your background?

I was born and raised in South Florida…Ft. Lauderdale, it is a great place to go on vacation or live if you are a millionaire.  I was an “all-around” high-schooler.  I played baseball, ran track, and was part of all the clubs you could imagine.  I love the beach but people in South Florida are rude and I wanted to make a big change so I went to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  It is a dive of a city, often called the armpit of New York, but I loved it.  My college sports consisted of beer pong and intramural bowling so I gained 30 pounds my freshman year.  You have to love the unlimited meal plans…  Weight has never been a problem for me so I lost the extra weight after I moved off campus.  I got a job straight out of college in the same town as my long time girlfriend, Pittsfield, MA.  We got married and lived there for 3 years.  We said to each other… “Are you bored with Massachusetts?” and we were faced with the decision of having kids or moving.  Everybody else was having kids so we watched the food network and found Charleston and moved instead.  Charleston was halfway between her hometown in CT and mine in FL.  After never being here, we started applying for jobs and picked up our lives and made a change to make ourselves happier.  Since moving to Charleston, we have had a beautiful daughter and we haven’t looked back since.  Charleston is an amazing city and I consider myself lucky to live here.

My hobbies are eating good food, home brewing beer, golfing, snowboarding, fishing, cooking, and enjoying wine.  Most of all, I try to be the best father that I can be to my daughter, Chloe.

2.  Age, Occupation?

29, Sr. Manufacturing Engineer at Robert Bosch.

3.  How did you get to know about CrossFit and why did you start?

My wife, Jenn, heard about CrossFit from a friend in Atlanta.  I started just because she wanted to but the irony is now that she didn’t like it very much and I have found it very fulfilling.  Each day, I get out of bed and get on my phone looking to see what I will be doing at the 6am class.

4.  How has CrossFit changed your life, lifestyle, level of fitness?

It is amazing how much CrossFit has impacted my life.  I was a runner who just did it out of boredom and because it was easier to do than anything else.  But since joining CrossFit, I have been making choices outside of the gym because of how it will impact my performance inside of the gym.  I have never had a workout routine do that to me before.  CrossFit holds second place to my family in importance.  I have been eating better, drinking less, and been more proud of myself since joining CrossFit Integrity.  I have made tremendous progress since starting the program.  My very first day was an intro class where BK put a buddy of mine and me through 12 minutes of “Cindy” as our first workout.  I did three rounds in 12 minutes.  No…I didn’t make a typo.  I have come an insane-long way since then.  My very first class WOD was 75 thrusters without dropping the bar.  I had to use 45 lbs because any more weight than that would have been too much.  I tried 95 lbs and couldn’t do a single thruster.  So I felt bad about myself and then tried 65 lbs and oh my, I didn’t think I could do that either.  So I scaled down to 45 lbs at BK’s suggestion.  It took me 19 minutes to complete the WOD with just the bar.  After the WOD, people were congratulating me because I finished and I had to scale to less weight than what was Rx for the ladies.  Everybody was so cool about it.  No Muscle Head had ever said “Good job on doing that 95lb bench press” at the globo-gym before.  As a comparison, 9 months after joining, this morning, I did “Jackie” which has 50 reps of 45 lb thrusters and I did the thrusters in less than 2 mins.  Serious Changes.

5.  Name one goal and/or personal record you would like to accomplish through CrossFit?

Strength has never been my strong suit so I want to have a CrossFit Total of 750.  I know that this seems like a low number to a lot of people at the gym but my 5RM back squat when I started was 140 lbs.  Now a deadlift of 300lbs, back squat of 275 lbs, and press of 175 lbs doesn’t seem that crazy.  I am getting close, I can probably do 650 right now and I am moving higher. 

I also want to Rx “Annie” since I think that I can do it now and it feels great to Rx the named WODs.

6.  Favorite CrossFit moment so far?

Rx’ing “Murph” was awesome.  Up to that point, I had been using a band for pull-ups.  It was even more awesome because I did it at home alone without the motivation that comes from the team environment of the gym.

7.  What do you like most about Crossfit Integrity?

I enjoy having my workouts established for me.  It is so easy to get stuck in a rut of doing 20 mins on a treadmill and then doing a set of Chest and Tri’s or Back and Biceps or Legs and Shoulders.  If I don’t have somebody else telling me that I can accomplish more than I think that I can, then I won’t accomplish more.  It is as simple as that.  The coaches are awesome.  They always know that I can do more than what I think that I can do and they are always there to improve my performance.

8.  Favorite WOD?

75 Thrusters without putting down the bar.  I think that I could destroy (compared to my last performance) this WOD.  I can probably Rx this workout which is an amazing change from the last time I did it.

9.  Least favorite WOD?

Double-Under Ladder to 50 and back down.  When we did this WOD a month or two ago, it was the mentally hardest WOD I have done.  It was harder than the “Charleston 9” WOD or “Murph” which both took me over an hour.  I only got to 4 consecutive double-unders in 20 mins.  I felt so defeated.

10. Favorite movement?

Pull-ups.  I started CrossFit using a green band and a purple band together and now I have put in consistent effort and can Rx any workout with pull-ups as long as it doesn’t also have a heavy weight movement.

11. Least favorite movement?

Overhead Squats.  This just feels wrong to me.  I have screwy shoulders that made me a great baseball pitcher but they just don’t work with a bar and weight above my head.  I will continue to work on it though because I didn’t think that I could do a muscle-up and got that pretty quickly.

12. Favorite place to eat in Charleston?

I could write a book.  Food and wine are an obsession for me.  For Italian, Al di La, Fulton Five, Wild Olive, or Pane e Vino.  For wine, Bin 152 is great.  For authentic Mexican, La Nortena is the best.  For French, Rue de Jean, La Fourchette, or Fat Hen.  For steak, Oak Steakhouse or Peninsula Grill.  For Fantastic Food all around, FIG is fantastic and Red Drum is good too.  Seriously, my mouth is watering just thinking about where I should go for dinner tonight…yum.

My wife is also a phenominal cook.  We both did stints in fine dining restaurants where I cooked and she worked the floor but that was the beginning of our passion with food.  If you notice, I left any Asian food off of my list.  That is because Jenn can make stir-fry that will make you weep in joy.

CrossFit Integrity, Charleston, SC