Coaches

My Fitness background was not broad, general and inclusive growing up. Although I did very well in many sports, ranging from Soccer to Breakdancing and even Skateboarding. I can practically describe my background in a few words; I practiced “Virtuosity In Movement.” I now coach it. To me, Virtuosity in movement means “unique quality in movement.” I believe quality movement is pivotal when it comes to performing well. It’s my passion for movement that drives me to provide the absolute best service I can as a CrossFit Coach. It was my passion for movement that drove me to seek out mentors such as Josh Everett (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Tactical Athletes Program, Naval Special Warfare Group), and Jason Salyer (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at UCR). In 2007 I had a deep burning passion for CrossFit that was extremely contagious to the people of Riverside. I became a CrossFit Certified Coach in April of 2008 and brought the city of Riverside its very first CrossFit Affiliate. I have attended a dozen CrossFit Seminars since then, including Greg Glassman’s CrossFit 101, Greg Amundson’s Goal Setting and Positive Self-talk, Rob Orlando’s Strongman, Kelly Starrett’s Movement and Mobility, and Mark Bell’s Powerlifting. From all this time spent with experts in their respective fields, I expanded my knowledge base to do what I do best, coach CrossFit. CrossFit Riverside started in a living room with minimal equipment. I used a broken air hockey table for a whiteboard to keep track of our WODs. It has been a blessing to be able to impact so many lives in a positive way. I thrive off of this. Over one thousand CrossFit Riverside WODs later, we are still changing lives for the better . One WOD at a time!

Growing up I was always active. From the age of 5 until 18 I played competitive fast pitch softball. When I graduated from high school I knew I wanted a career in fitness so I put myself through a personal training course and got a job with a local “globo gym.” That’s when I was introduced to CrossFit. I knew from the very first workout it was exactly what I had been missing in my workouts. I loved the intensity of it and feeling like an athlete again. From that very first workout back in 2008 until now I have been extremely dedicated to learning everything I could about CrossFit. I trained with Richard who was CrossFit Certified and high on the “CrossFit Cool-Aid.”  Whatever he taught me I would use to better service my clients. We took that “Globo Gym” by storm, exposing CrossFit to the people of Riverside.

After being at the globo gym for so long I had an opportunity in 2010 to be a part of CrossFit Riverside and I jumped on the opportunity. I got my level 1 cert that same year. I have competed in numerous local competitions against some of the best  in the world. Competing  has taught me so much about being an athlete and a coach.

In early 2011 I got to spend some time training at CrossFit By Overload in Murrieta. There I further  increased my  knowledge by working with a variety of different coaches and athletes with different backgrounds. I feel so blessed to be involved in such a welcoming and fun community.  CrossFit has changed my life for the better in so many different ways. I believe it can do the same for anyone.

For me fitness has been a long and interesting road. Since I was a kid I was always in organized sports whether it was baseball, basketball, soccer, karate, golf, you name it. My two favorite growing up were soccer and baseball. Once I got to high school I needed to make a choice so I stuck with baseball. I liked playing but I never truly understood what hard work was. Stretching, practicing, and working out always seemed like a chore until I got to college. In high school the talent pool was not very big but once college baseball started everyone was as good or better than me so working out and practicing hard were a must if you wanted to play.

In 2005, my freshman year, I attended UCR where the strength and conditioning coach, Josh Everett, introduced me to Crossfit. Let me tell you, I had no idea what I got myself into. I was completely naive to high intensity training at the time, I wanted to curl for the girls and bench for the beach. Little did I know that this would be my future career path. Early on you would think I was allergic to Crossfit, I didn’t like it at all, it hurt too bad and I could never recover due to poor nutrition. After my freshman year I left UCR and went to RCC thinking I would never have to Crossfit again. I didn’t realize until later that I could attribute my gains in the weight room and on the baseball field to the high intensity functional training Josh had me doing. When I first started I remember using the green band to do Angie. Everyone at RCC at the time was training the beach muscles so I was back in my comfort zone, or so I thought. I never improved physically, looking back it was largely because of my training methods, at the time squats were nonexistent in my workouts.

After my 2 years at RCC I transferred to CBU where I began to circuit train because of the small weight room. I chose to pursue my degree in Kinesiology, these two elements were the start of the new me. Some of the research articles we had to read included the benefits of high intensity circuit training, sound familiar? I still struggled to consistently work out due to long practices and poor nutrition, I never had the energy to work out. Smash cut to the end of my baseball career I realized I needed to exercise to maintain general health. That summer my girlfriend was training to get ready for her soccer season at UCR and kept talking about the workouts she was doing. I began reflecting and decided to drink the punch…again. The rest is history.

I am Swedish-American, I was born and raised in Sweden and only recently moved to the United States during summer 2010. Before coming to California to pursue a degree in kinesiology, I have additionally lived in Denmark, Greece, and most importantly Japan as well. The move to Japan inspired me to begin pursing fitness at first in the form of martial arts, including karate, taekwondo, Japanese mixed martial arts and kickboxing. During my senior year of high school, I wanted to expand my base of athletic proficiencies to cover as many domains as possible, so I decided to play for my schools soccer team, and run track and field as well as cross country races.  After graduating from Yokohama International School I was able to spend a year brushing up on my kickboxing moves, to then win two amateur fights in Japan before travelling to Thailand to train Muay Thai for 3 months out of Suwit Muay Thai camp.

From the wide range of exercise activities I strived to improve, the transition to strictly training CrossFit full time in October 2010 came very naturally to me. Within the first few months, I realized the immense value of the program, and decided to attend the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course so that I may coach others. Since then, I have not halted my pursuit of new training methodologies to include in our members WODs.

I am a driven competitor within the sport of CrossFit, always searching for new ways to improve my performance, whether it be from physical or mental stimulus. I am fascinated by the human body and how it moves, how it can create healthy populations and athletes alike. When people begin CrossFitting, aside from the positive physical changes that occur, a stronger “anything is possible” attitude forms as well. As I can only spend so many hours in a day training myself, so spending my remaining time teaching others how to be the best they can be inside and outside the gym suits me perfectly.

When I’m not coaching or killing WODs, I enjoy practicing other forms of movement such as modern dance as well as yoga.  With all the activities we perform during WODs, it’s essential to find time to practice recovery techniques as well. On the side, I am slowly working towards my goal of attaining conversational fluency in 10 languages.

AFPA Personal Fitness Trainer
W.I.T.S. Personal Trainer
CrossFit Level 1
Intrinsic School of Yoga 200-hour Training
Alexander method of SMR

2010
December Next Level Invitational

2011
January OC Throwdown intermediate division
May SoCal Sectional Final
May Next Level invitational intermediate division
September Next Level Invitational intermediate division
November Next Level Invitational intermediate division

December Battle Of The Boxes intermediate division

December Next Level Invitational intermediate division