It started with four wall walks.
The workout called for five. Chris got through four. Couldn’t get up for the fifth. The clock kept moving. Other teams were piling up reps in the hundreds. He was stuck.
“I only did four. I couldn’t get up to the fifth one. So I couldn’t move on. It was the most embarrassing moment ever.”
Two years later, he and his partner Coach Beth won the Team Series.
Effort, stacked.
Chris works as an electrical engineer in renewable energy, specializing in battery storage.
Outside the gym, he travels to places most people avoid. He seeks out countries the news reduces to simple headlines.
“You go out there, you learn that we have more in common than we have different.”
He is curious. Analytical. Introverted, though you would never guess it.
But before he walked into Reason, there was tension.
During COVID, he gained weight he didn’t feel comfortable carrying. He tried a global gym. Hired a trainer. Started lifting. He googled “CrossFit” and thought what many people think.
“It looked cool… but also scary. I heard about all the injuries.”
Then at 2:00 AM, an ad for Reason popped up on his phone.
He filled out a consultation.
He expected was a sales pitch you get when you walk into a commercial gym.
What he got was an one conversation about goals, identity, life, and who he wanted to become.
“I didn’t feel treated like a number or a wallet.”
That was different.
Identity Shift
Chris came in wanting what many do.
“I want to lose weight. I want to get skinny. I want to get muscular. It was all about aesthetic and presentation.”
But that changed quickly.
“It didn’t take very long for me to realize it wasn’t my weight that changed first. It was my approach.”
He surprised himself.
He could squat more than he thought.
Deadlift more than he thought.
Hang from a bar.
Go upside down.
Those wins began stacking.
“Those accomplishments started to mean more than trying to cut a bunch of weight.”
Something deeper was happening…
Stronger Through Insecurity
Chris is honest about who he used to be.
“I didn’t really hold my head high. I was plagued by insecurities.”
He talks about feeling boxed in. Feeling less advantaged. Feeling like he did not belong.
He describes himself as nerdy. Curious. Sometimes out of place in his hobbies and communities.
Fitness changed that.
“Not only did I see myself differently and carry myself differently, but other people approached me differently too.”
There is a strange honesty in that. Strength changes posture. Posture changes perception. Perception changes confidence.
“I used to always view myself as super unathletic… no athletic gift at all.”
Reason became the place he proved that narrative wrong.
The Fracture
Then came the fracture. What he thought was a sprain became permanent damage. “I found out it was a permanent fracture. There was no way of healing it.” There are moments that define you. This was one. He could have stopped.
He didn’t.
He trained legs. He trained one arm. He adjusted holds. He kept momentum.
“I was worried I’d have one arm bigger than the other… and then I thought, why does that matter?”
That sentence says everything.
That is Effort Built.
He learned patience. Acceptance. Adaptation.
“My doctor told me… you might as well do as much as you can with it. Perform to your ability until it hurts. Your body knows best when to stop.”
That lesson carried beyond the gym.
“If things are out of your control… you just have to accept it and make the best of it.”
Stronger through injury.
Chris speaks about comparison often.
“We live in a world where it’s so easy to compare and doom scroll.”
He fights that instinct by reminding others of their progress.
“Six months ago you never touched a jump rope… now you’re on your way to double unders.”
He has learned to celebrate movement, not just milestones.
Outside the gym, something else shifted.
He used to worry about how others judged how he spent his time.
“Why don’t I enjoy going out? I should be enjoying my youth.”
But he did not actually enjoy it.
Now?
“Sorry, I can’t. I’ve got the gym.”
And he means it.
“You make them accept it because that’s who you are. That’s how I choose to live my life.”
That is identity.
Not doing things to please others.
Not minimizing what fills your cup.
Not cutting out what matters.
Effort earns identity.
Home Away from Home
Chris calls himself an introvert.
But Reason became his safe space.
“It’s my comfort zone. My home.”
He makes small talk. Learns stories. Asks about snakes and Russian language partners. Encourages new members. Celebrates their wins.
“It’s hard to make friends as adults.”
Yet he has built real ones here. Past members. Current members. People who moved away and still return.
“That’s just the immediate friend group… the community on a whole feels like I found a home outside of home.”
What Stronger Means
When asked what stronger means, he does not hesitate.
“Finding things along the way that try to stop me, but you keep finding other ways to overcome and get stronger.”
Not just physically.
Mentally.
“Some days I really don’t want to do a 20-minute workout… but you still have to.”
Then he answers the question at the heart of Reason.
“What moves me? The chase of improving. If I’m happy at the baseline, I still want to raise it.”
When you hit the roof. You raise the roof.
Chris did not come in chasing identity.
He came in chasing aesthetics.
But effort reshaped him.
From insecure to confident.
From comparison to encouragement.
From injury to adaptation.
From four wall walks to winning.
This is what Effort Built looks like.
It looks like showing up when you do not want to.
Adapting when something breaks.
Owning how you spend your time.
Choosing what fills your cup.
Chris reminds us that strength is not just how much you lift.
It is how you respond when something tries to stop you.
If you are in a season where something feels out of your control… maybe stronger is not about fixing it.
Maybe it is about raising the roof anyway.
We are Effort Built.
And Chris is proof of that.