Mike’s story is one of quiet perseverance through terrain that has been anything but easy. After years of showing up at IA through different seasons, different coaches, and plenty of life changes, the gym has become more than just a place to train — it has become a steady place to return to. Over the past year, Mike has faced grief, loss, surgery, setbacks, and the kind of emotional weight that would make anyone want to stop moving forward. But through it all, he has continued to show up, often with a smile, ready to do the work in whatever form that day allows. In this post, Mike shares how fitness, coaching, and community have helped him navigate hardship, rebuild confidence, and keep his rover moving across uncertain terrain.
The Gym Is Not What I Thought It Would Be. It’s Better.
Standard orbit. A triumphant brass march fades into mysterious bell tones and woodwind curly cues. We pan down from the stars, through a golden sky, and onto the rusty, crusty, dusty surface of the Red Planet. A rover tilts its camera eyes forward with determination and prepares to drive across the unforgiving Martian landscape. Its axle is the barbell. Its wheels are the plates. How much science can we load onboard and lug across this alien desert? Is our robot strong enough to survive razor sharp rocks, chaotic dust storms, and extreme cold to reach the mountain on the horizon?
The Fitness Frontier
When I started CrossFit, I felt like NASA’s first Mars rover Sojourner: small and sheepish but motivated to explore a new world. Then came Spirit: a community of coaches and friends who helped me endure and stick with it longer than I ever expected. Now I’m somewhere between Opportunity and Curiosity, adding more plates to the bar and imagining how much farther I might go. As a science educator, I love to imagine the sheer grit of the Mars rovers and challenge myself to keep going while adding more plates–bigger rover wheels–to the barbell. If they can handle years on Mars, surely, I can power through the next set of deadlifts for a few minutes.
Across Rugged Terrain
The past few months have been a lot of rugged terrain. I cared for my stepdad for a year, from his first heart attack until his death. CrossFit gave me the physical outlet and the mental fortitude to keep going through a year of living in crisis mode. In the weeks after my stepdad died, I also lost my biological dad. I lost my cat- my sweet little sidekick. I had emergency surgery, followed by a foot problem that put me in a boot and on crutches. I also revisited an old landing site where I spent many years, and the grief for a particular future I had imagined there. Every time I thought my rover was finally moving forward again, something else seemed to get in its way: a razor-sharp rock, a swirling dust storm, another brutally cold Martian night that drains my battery to zero.
As Deep Space Nine’s Captain Sisko learned about grief— “it’s not linear.” Tracing a grief spiral with my rover, I’ve had to pause workouts more than I’d like—but it’s important to me that I keep coming back. Picking up lighter weights after time away is like picking up my clarinet again–It might sound like a duck at first, but if I keep at it, that sweet jazz tone will return.
The Spirit of IA
The coaches at IA have helped me keep my sense of purpose. I’ve spent much of my life teaching, so I recognize what it looks like when someone genuinely cares about helping another person grow. Each morning that starts with Coach Kaela patiently correcting my form, besting my knowledge of deep cut Friends references, and challenging me to do more than I think I can, is a morning that I leave knowing I can handle whatever the day will bring.
Be Curious, Not Judgmental
CrossFit has helped me manage grief this year, but I originally joined for another reason—to overcome shame. Before I went to the gym, I thought it was the place where you went to erase yourself and become someone more acceptable. Growing up, I was the “picked last in gym” kid. I heard messages that I was unathletic, disappointing, and therefore responsible for others’ addictions; that there was something fundamentally garbage about me. So, in my 20’s and 30’s I chased the approval of people who made me feel like I wasn’t quite one of the guys. I thought strength might finally earn that belonging; it was never enough.
But that’s not what I found at IA. I found a community where fitness isn’t something you have to earn permission to participate in. You show up, sweat together, struggle together, laugh together, and sometimes discover that you are capable of more than you thought.
That’s where I think about the rovers.
Sojourner reminds me that starting over is worth it. Spirit reminds me that exploring fitness is better with a community. Opportunity reminds me that joy and possibility can still be there for the taking. Curiosity reminds me to approach myself without judgment. As Ted Lasso says, “Be curious, not judgmental.” Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” I can ask, “What can I learn from this?” And Perseverance reminds me that life isn’t linear.
Dare Mighty Things
I’ve also learned that I don’t come to the gym anymore to prove something to somebody else. I come because I genuinely love it. Deadlifting on Mars. Box jumps where I can pretend I’m Spider-Man leaping between skyscrapers. Fist bumps during partner workouts. Someday I’ll bike up Olympus Mons, the mighty mountain on Mars. No, strike that. Not the bike. Never the damn bike.
There was no grand transformation. I just keep showing up. Eventually, showing up became a habit. Then it became something I missed when I couldn’t do it.
When the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, the parachute contained the message “Dare Mighty Things” hidden in binary code as an orange-and-white fabric patchwork. Being part of IA means I have a parachute—the coaches, the community—to help me stick the landing.
I still struggle with the old mental software sometimes. The code we get installed when we’re young can be stubborn. But IA has become my laboratory for writing a better code.
I don’t know what the next stretch of terrain will look like. There are probably plenty of cliffs, craters, and unexpected obstacles ahead.
Bring them on. The rover is still moving. The gym is not what I thought it would be. It’s better.
