Maggie Rowland (aka Magatron)

Maggie has a smile and personality that light up the gym. She doesn’t know a stranger and has a way of making everyone feel welcome. Over the past 16 months since Maggie has joined Mudtown, we’ve witnessed her do some pretty amazing things (deadlifting 300 lbs like nobody’s business is one of them). Most recently she won our month long healthy eating challenge and is fast approaching 200 Classes Stronger (2 more classes to go!). To see her confidence grow along with her strength has truly been a joy to watch.

Member since: October 2015

What do you do for a living? I promote an IndyCar race.

How did you hear about CrossFit and what was your first workout? A co-worker all but forced me to try it. I don’t remember what the first workout was, but I remember it being awful.  I bet if I did the same workout today it would almost be easy, but I seriously considered dying to get out of it.

How many days do you CrossFit? What classes do you normally attend? I try to get 3-4 workouts a week, mostly 6pm.

Favorite CrossFit movement/workout? Deadlift fo dayz. It’s the only thing I’m good at.

Least favorite CrossFit movement/workout? Anything that isn’t a deadlift.  Jk. But I’m allergic to wall balls. And that stupid bike.

What motivates you/keeps you coming back to CrossFit Mudtown?  The community that the coaches at CFM have built keeps me coming back every time.  I feel so loved and supported at the gym. As far as the motivation, I have never felt better about myself than I do when I complete a workout.  I love that everything is scalable.  When someone learns that I do CrossFit and their response is “I could never do that.” I always tell them I can’t even do it.  I take the workout and scale it into something that I can do.  It’s not cheating, it’s not taking the easy way out, it’s kicking your own butt in a way that works for you.

Most embarrassing/funniest gym moment? Oh boy.  There are so many.  I’d say the 2016 CrossFit Open.  I had never competed in the Open before and didn’t really understand how hard it would require me to push myself.  Danny was judging/coaching me through a terrible workout that included lots of wall balls. I was crying and kept saying, “Danny I can’t breathe” while I’m working out.  Clearly I’m able to breathe because 1. I can talk 2. I’m still working out.  You probably had to be there, but he kept laughing and laughing because clearly I could do it.  It was all mental.

Favorite thing about Birmingham?  I love the people and the food.

What accomplishment are you most proud of (outside and inside of the gym)?  I am most proud of my family outside of the gym.  I have the coolest family.  They make me proud every day.  You know when you meet someone and they’re just a good person.  That’s my crew.  Inside the gym I’m most proud of my strength.  I’m not fast and I’m not flexible, but I can pick heavy things up and put them back down that’s for sure.

What is your favorite meal?  I cannot answer this without incriminating myself, but I will say I went to Chipotle the other day during the healthy eating challenge and I was worried about getting something I would like that wasn’t covered in cheese and sour cream and the salad I got was better than my normal order.  Seriously.

What are some of your interests outside of CrossFit?  Who has time for a life outside of CrossFit? I have always loved music. I’m the band nerd of CFM.

What is one goal that you are currently working on?  I will do a dang pull-up if it kills me.

Do you have a hidden talent?  I think CrossFit is my hidden talent.  I have never IN MY LIFE been athletic so when people who have known me for a long time find out I do CrossFit they kind look shocked and then giggle.

Tell us a fun/interesting fact not many people know about you.  I once entered a beauty pageant to make my family laugh.  I won.  Miss Dogwood 2008 representtttttt.

By now, you have hopefully seen the CFM Goals Program Introduction email and may have started giving some thought to what initiatives you may roll into your 2017 goals.  If you’re like most people, your previous goals have probably come about by a rather unstructured process.  They likely have involved little thought on what the right goals are, a lack of clarity regarding why you selected the goals, and committing to them without consideration of what is required to truly make a change.  Perhaps it goes something like this:

“It’s January. I guess a need a new goal for this year.

I like snatches…..snatches are awesome.

Wouldn’t it be super cool if I could, like, snatch a whole lot?

Let’s go for a 75# snatch PR this year.  This is going to be awesome.

I will be a snatch monster.”

In the back of your mind, you probably had some vague notion that to reach this goal, you would do some extra snatch work at some time.  Maybe you plan to get pointers on technique.  Maybe you plan to do accessory work.  Buuuuuuttttt…..You probably won’t do it after the WOD, because you’re super tired then.  You also can’t come early before the WOD; there’s just not time for that.  No barbell at home.  Oh well, you’ll plan to get some extra work in sometime.  As the year goes on, snatch days come and no progress is made.  You realize there should be some concerted effort on your part, but now that the initial excitement has faded you realize you really don’t even have the motivation to pursue this goal.  Who needs to have a monster snatch anyway?

The scenario above has played out for me more times than I can count.  That’s because I used to rely on motivation to reach goals.  I usually expected to arrive at my goals without really having a plan on how I wanted to get there.  The CFM Goals Program is designed to help you break out of this pattern and develop a devotion to getting better every day.  Your coaches at Mudtown have a passion for seeing daily improvements in your fitness that result in daily improvements in the quality of your life.  This passion is the reason that promoting a goal-focused mindset is so important.  The program is more than writing a goal on the white board and never thinking about it again.  It’s about critically thinking about your goals, determining what an appropriate goal is, and putting a plan in place to reach it.  If you don’t intentionally pursue your goals, you are depending on reaching them by accident.

We all have a ton of things to focus on.  We can pursue countless efforts.  Let’s be honest, you likely have goals for your career, your family, your finances, and other areas of your self-improvement outside of CrossFit.  That’s why setting quality goals and prioritizing is so important.  As we all have limited time to pursue our fitness goals, we have to make sure the goals are the right one and that we have selected the top priority.

So why only one?  In our daily lives we have many obligations.  At work, it’s not uncommon for me to hear people talk about the top 5 or 10 priorities.  The fact is, until the 1950’s the word “priorities” was basically non-existent.  The only word that existed was “priority,” in the singular form.  Before the current pace of life took over, people seemed to understand that there could only be one highest-level devotion.  There could only be one priority in which you invested all your effort and focus.  Now, it is common for us to chase tons of things we consider priorities, and make a millimeter of progress in a thousand directions.  It’s time to stop.  Do less but better.  Focus on the critical few rather than the trivial many.  Select the single goal that will produce maximum impact on your fitness.  Your coaches and fellow athletes will be there to support you.  We will be there to remind you to put in the extra work.  We will be there to remind you why you’re doing this.

Get after it.