Carolyn R. Helmly, MD

I grew up on a farm in West Virginia where the value of hard work was instilled in us from a very young age. Whether that was working on the farm or performing well in school, hard work was the the path to success.

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As Vince Lombardi said “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary”. Growing up in a rural setting, gave me my love of the outdoors, I have been a life long cycling and hiking enthusiast.

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I started CrossFit the fall of 2014. In my clinical practice, I would ask patients about their activity level. If they did no formal exercise, I would ask about duties around the house, housekeeping, gardening, etc. It was not uncommon for me to get the answer that these tasks were too difficult, specifically vacuuming. To myself, I always thought “ How can vacuuming be hard”.

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Then one day, in my early 50’s, vacuuming was hard. I realized that despite doing a lot of aerobic exercise (walking, hiking, road bicycling) as well as my own housekeeping and gardening, I was doing no strengthening exercise. My sons had recently started CrossFit so I decided I would give it a try and have never looked back. It has been a life changing journey.

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Mastery of movement. CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that’s methodology is to teach functional movement over multiple modalities with varied intensity that also stresses the importance of eating a well balanced diet and purposeful life. Functional movement is imperative to keep individuals living an independent life safely in their own home over time.

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When I did my intake visit with CrossFit, the owner of the gym stated she started the gym to keep people out of Nursing homes. I knew I was in the right place. As a coach, I want to help in the individuals path of greater movement and then mastery of that movement pattern.

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