Monthly Member Profile: Jenny Stumler
My last dance with my 30’s was quickly approaching when I started my Crossfit journey:
I’ve always been active. In high school I played volleyball, ran track and believe it or not was a cheerleader for 6 years…..yes my long limbed self HA. I continued on to play volleyball in college at a small Christian school. After I finished college I met and married my husband Sean. We have two children, Christian 19 (he CrossFit’s with me when he has the time) and Alli 16. When the kids were younger, I taught everything from step aerobics to corporate fitness and then onto Jazzercize. When I decided to stop instructing Jazzercise about 5 years ago, I started running and training for races. After about two years of running I realized I missed working out with people. I needed group fitness. I started trying every fitness class on the market. Yoga, spin, Turbo, Pure Barre…you name it and I’ve probably tried it. However, I couldn’t find anything I felt excited about which left me feeling pretty disappointed and concerned about my fitness.
My niece Amber McKain and some of her friends were doing CrossFit. One of her friends had actually been able to lose a substantial amount of weight attending classes. So I thought, “OK I’ll add this to my long list of fitness class disappointments.” Before I knew it I was signed up for the “101” classes. This was one month before my 40th birthday. I remember walking into the 101 class extremely nervous. I took one look at Lindy Barber and wanted to crawl back out the door and go home. Luckily she has a smile that lights up the room so she welcomed me helping me not feel so silly. It was her amazing strong physic that originally helped me be in awe of this sport. Then it was her confidence in her own body that sold me. A chick that didn’t want to be skinny but strong!!! I started my first official month of membership the month I turned 40. The morning of my birthday I sat in the parking lot at Four Barrel and let the tears roll wondering why I was so hell bent to do this CrossFit stuff at 40. That was the reason….I was determined to continue my fitness journey. I decided not to care that a large percentage of the students in class were 20 years younger than me, including most of my coaches. Then to add insult to injury as I walked in the door that morning I saw Cory Neel sitting on the boxes in the back of the room. That was a blessing and a curse all in one. The blessing was I already knew Cory because him and my son wrestled together and were friends…..but that was the curse, HE WAS MY SONS AGE. And here I am trying to fit into his world. I choose to be thankful for a familiar face and continued on.
After joining I immediately began ENJOYING the struggle. However, I wanted everything way too quickly in the beginning which led to frustration, but again I was determined so I persevered. Luckily I had booked a few private lessons early on with Lindy because I was convinced she would give me the keys to the CrossFit kingdom. She did just that by getting me to see the bigger picture. I had to start at the foundation and build up slowly. There was no quick route. I had to put in the work! We worked on nutrition first and started attacking my biggest weakness….my core. Most of my regular CrossFit classes have been with Coach Brock and he encouraged me daily to BE POSITIVE (not to be like Eeyore as he calls me HAHA) and to slowly chip away at the workouts. Before I knew it, I FOUND MY NEW PASSION. I was completely sold out into this crazy CrossFit world. I was extremely fortunate to find a workout buddy along the way, Maddie Richards. It makes a huge difference for me to have someone to hold me accountable. It helps me push harder everyday. We have done a few partner competitions together which are always a blast. She chooses to compete with me in partner events even though she knows it will cost her the 1st place spot. That’s Maddie’s character. We train together, we compete together.
Case and Renee are two of the kindest and most inspiring people I’ve ever met. They are both selfless people that just encourage us to be the best athletes we can be. We don’t have to be #1 to be valued in this place. I’m so fortunate to have found Four Barrel CrossFit on my journey. Cheers to many many more years!