In the beginning there was a nerd. This young man was 13 and split his time between two houses which he never took notice of and never settled into. He's too tall for his frame and too uncoordinated for coffee tables and kitchen counters. His favorite clothing store is JC Penny because he can get South Pole, Ecko, G-Unit and Levi’s all in the same place. His interests include Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Baulder’s Gate, Need for Speed and Madden ‘04. Swipe left or right?
He's a wrestler and a football player at school but at home he sleeps until dinner and goes to bed after breakfast. The knees his bean poles connect to are painful; the Doctor says he outgrew his cartilage so he sits on the stairs and presses himself up one at a time. He travels between his mother and father’s houses every year and has yet to spend more than 12 consecutive months in any one place. He gets lonely a lot and hates finishing books because he feels like the characters are his friends and has a collection of “nearly” finished novels. Eminem plays pretty consistently along with Avenged Sevenfold, System of a Down, and Dr. Dre.
Doctor visits for his knees have been largely unhelpful, until his pediatrician suggests weight training to support the joint with muscle. His first exercise? Bench pressing, obviously.
Then he gets a little stronger. His starts noticing shadows in the mirror where before it was soft pudgy stuff that moved like pudding. More bench pressing and shoulder raises are clearly in order. Maybe some curls too. Turn up the Linkin Park.
His pain goes away, he gets the game ball in the last football game of his freshman season, he’s lost weight and people say he has, “broad shoulders”. He’s starting to feel pretty good about himself. Maybe football can be a long term thing. Only 2 catches on the season but he’s a blocking tight end so that’s not a big deal. 2 ½ sacks and a turnover or two as a defensive end aren’t too shabby if you ask him.
Then wrestling starts. Jesus he’s out of shape, he can’t hang through the drills and the conditioning at the end is a slow crawl of misery. He used to fly through this stuff, what the hell? Forget it, football’s the way to go and he’s not built for wrestling. His friends outside of the team like to hang out at the bike trail and smoke. He doesn’t smoke but it’s better than dying on a foam mat for 120 minutes.
He smokes now. School only happens on days when there's nothing better to do. He’s pretty much useless unless it’s for his own gain. Definitely don’t trust him with your valuables. Don’t trust him with your non-valuables either. Just don’t associate with him he’s a shady character. His guidance counselor puts him on the GED track just to get him off her “problem plate”. This is fine with him he’s not cut out for school. Honestly he doesn’t come anyway. Or it was fine, until he found himself in a county facility and his best friend was already there for the exact. Same. Thing.
Shit.
He cleans up a little. For two years he takes summer school and finishes every homework assignment plus the extra credit. He’s way behind but if he can get his completion points he can at least make it through graduation. As it turns out he makes it to graduation and gets accepted to college. Once there his first two stops are the gym and the club wrestling team. Back to bicep curls and leg presses boys and girls, with a vengeance. Bump that Drake, it gets his blood pumping. Keep the Iron Monkey, Meshuggah, Gojira, and Amon Amarth on repeat. He has 3 years of gains to catch up on. Somewhere on YouTube there’s a video of him being used to wipe the mat by VMI. Then comes CrossFit and oh man he drinks the Kool-Aid and mainlines the leftover powder mix.
Let’s be honest, the best part of CrossFit is the barbell work. He foregoes the metconning and starts olympic lifting full time at a gym called The Weight Room in Richmond, Virginia. He’s working full time in a medical research lab now, but he really lives for the 2-4 hours a day he gets to train with his friends. He’s not cut out for a lab. He gets ancy, he can’t sit that long, the walking god complexes with initials after their names who pursued medicine for the money drive him further and further away from the hospital. New plan; physical therapy. He moves home and goes back to school and starts coaching full time. He makes USAW University Nationals. He starts eyeing strongman nationals. He’s nowhere near those weight; yet. He has a purpose. He has a passion that borders on obsession. People tell him to chill out and he thinks that’s funny. Ain’t nobody got time to miss out on opportunities.
It’s nice to meet you. My name is Nathan. I’ve been competing in olympic weightlifting for two years and full time weightlifting for 3. I’m a coach at LoCo CrossFit in Leesburg, Virginia and I would love to see you come check us out. You all have an open invitation just slide into my DM’s and let me know when you’d like to come in.
P.S. I still read Tolkien and do bicep curls sometimes.
Yours in Strength,
Nate Schwartz
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