Kyle joined the gym in January 2019. After completion of his first CrossFit Open, he now holds the title of Fittest Accountant in Kingston, and 8th Fittest Accountant in Canada. Kyle has been a regular at evening classes, consistently bringing positive energy into the gym. He has also been very involved in the gym community, frequently organizing social activities outside the gym. Kyle has generously shared his thoughts on his daily life, nutrition, goals and most memorable workout.

How long have you been at CrossFit Queen Street? 
I joined the gym in January 2019. This was also the first time I had done CrossFit. I trained in the normal big box gyms pretty regularly but was looking for something that would push me a little harder and had more of a social aspect. And I got both! I can’t believe it has only been a year, but I’ve learned a tonne and have made lots of friends here too.

How has the gym changed in the time you have been here? 
Well, it hasn’t been a long time since I joined so I can’t say too much has changed (other than the location moving across the street). Other than the location, they gym has been really consistent which is what I like. To be able to go to a place and know you will be encouraged to work a little harder or lift a little heavier than you did the day before goes a long way in keeping me interested in the sport.

How would you characterize your growth as an athlete since joining the gym?
I feel like I’ve been pretty fit in different ways throughout my athletic life. For example, I used to be very into running half-marathons and my endurance cardio was great, but I was super skinny and sacrificed a lot of strength. About a year before joining the gym I began focusing more on building strength and muscle. The gym has definitely helped me grow in those areas and others, like stamina and overall intensity of my workouts.

I’ve definitely seen the biggest improvement in double-unders. It’s funny, I remember one of my first group workouts after the Onramp, which had DU’s in the workout and I could barely get consistent singles. It was quite frustrating as most people in the class made the DU’s look so easy. But now I can pull off the odd 40 DU’s in a row during a workout so I’ve seen huge gains there. Anyone struggling with DU’s out there; they will come, it just takes more practice than you think. I have also significantly improved in areas that I had zero exposure to before joining the gym, like any Olympic lift (I had really only done deadlifts, front squats and back squats), and gymnastic moves like my new favourite, the ring muscle up (big ups to Storm’s drills for my success there).

What does a day-in-the life look like for you these days?
I’m a fan of consistency so most days start the same. I’m up at 6:45 and immediately have a glass of water. That seems to get my body going in the morning. Quickly get dressed and off to work. I usually walk by the gym on my way and hear the loud thumping music or dropping barbells. I don’t think I’ll ever do what the morning crew does.

After a cup of coffee (or two) I have a big mason jar of overnight oats and get the work day going. After work, its usually home for a quick snack, get some errands, grocery shopping and chores done and then off to the gym for the 7:30 crew.

What challenges do you face in your day to day life? How do these affect your ability to train? How do you overcome them?
In my industry as a public accountant, we see long hours for about 6 months of the year (upwards of 60-hour weeks). We have to be able to manage a big workload with tight deadlines and manage the expectations of senior staff and clients. My day feels a lot like what I imagine juggling 20 balls at once feels like, so the biggest challenge is managing the stress that comes along with that workload. That being said, managing stress through exercise has always been something that I have found benefits my mental state. If I go two days in a row without working out, I can actually feel a change in my mental state, so exercise is really important to me. This encourages me to be consistent with working training into my schedule in order to help maintain my overall mental state, benefiting me in all areas.

What do you eat on a typical day? What are your nutrition priorities?
My typical day isn’t all that thrilling. I try to eat as good as I can but I’m no saint. However, my day always starts with the same breakfast – coffee and overnight oats. On Sundays I fill a week’s worth of mason jars with berries, chia, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a date, cinnamon, steel cut oats and cashew milk. It’s not all that exciting, but it’s so easy and pretty tasty.

Lunch is usually the previous night’s dinner if there were leftovers, but that’s not always the case. If I do have to buy a lunch during the week, I’m a fan of the rice bowls at Quesada as they’re cheap and don’t seem terrible for you. I usually get the vege-bowl with all the beans allowed (sorry co-workers) as I find the meat there too salty and I like the veggie options.

My partner and I aren’t great at following recipes so we usually just wing it when if comes to dinner. However, they always seem to turn out great! Our staples, which we usually mix together into some sort of bowl format are:
-Rice or roasted sweet potatoes as a base;
-Cooked veges – onions, garlic, peppers, zucch, cherry tomatoes, kale, swiss chard, bok choy are our favourites;
-Protein – Chicken, tofu, roasted chickpeas, beans

I also have snacks throughout the day. Usually a banana in the morning sometime after breakfast and an apple shortly before hitting the gym. My snack game sucks. I also struggle with refusing poor snacks offered to me. At work there’s often goodies in the lunchroom and I’m a sucker for those as I have a bit of a sweet tooth.

Fridays are always Pizza night for us. It’s important to have a cheat day. Weekends are much of the same as above, but we may make bigger breakfasts like tofu scramble (turmeric, cumin, salt & pepper) with avocado and kimchi on toast which is a favourite. Whenever I feel like my diet slips, my go to meal is steak salad with just a little oil and vinegar, a bunch of spinach and cherry tomatoes. I don’t know why but that meal is so simple but always makes me feel excellent and helps me continue eating healthy.

My biggest priority and biggest challenge is getting enough calories from the right sources. I am too easily tempted to eat the garbage junk food people bring in to work so I really have to make sure I’m full with the good food I bring for lunch. I literally purchased bigger Tupperware containers after joining the gym so I could bring meals that could fill the void in my stomach I can feel the day after a big workout.

What improvements have you made in the past 6 months that you are most proud of?
Double-unders 100%. I feel like so many people at the gym made it look so easy when I started and I was so terrible at even single-unders. But now it’s no big deal when they come up in a workout!

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as an athlete?
Endurance. I think with my running history this make sense, but I do enjoy when running, or long-distance rowing, comes up in a WOD as I feel like I excel at keeping a fast pace going for a long time.

What are your current training goals? What are your current life goals?
I have a couple:
1. For the next 2 months or so I’m trying to get more and more ring muscle ups strung together. I got 3 strung together today actually! This move came up in 20.5 and I had never even attempted one before. After watching a few YouTube how-to videos before the Friday workout, I managed to get 4 singles. Storm gave me a few drills over the weekend to try and I managed to get 21 singles in Monday’s attempt, which surprised me quite a bit. The move reminds me a lot of playing on the playground as a kid for some reason, but I really like it and want to be able to string 8 together.

2. This is more of a continuous goal, but I really would like to get stronger. I’m doing most workouts Rx now, but I still see room for improvement on moves like thrusters and clean and jerks where my intensity or max lift isn’t great.

Do you have a particularly memorable or challenging workout to share?
My most memorable workout was actually one I wasn’t even in. It was in late January 2019, I was fairly new to the gym and a WOD with bar muscle ups came up. When I was getting my shoes on for my class the previous class was warming up for the WOD. Someone got their first muscle up (sorry I can’t recall who) and the whole class exploded with cheers and high-fives and some hugs. For me that was a great intro to the gym and that passionate sense of community hasn’t stopped. Celebrating other people’s wins always stands out to me whenever we get a chance to do it.

How do you see CrossFit fitting into your life long term?
I see CrossFit balancing my fitness throughout my life. Running has been, and always will be something I do for cardiovascular health, but CrossFit will be the other side of the coin to maintain strength and mobility that long-distance running can’t offer.

Is there anything you would like to add?
The best part of the gym has been the community. I moved to Kingston with my partner not knowing anyone in the city, so the gym has been an excellent place to sweat but also to make some new friends.