Wed like to share a great success story with everyone. Dave is best known by the 7:30 group. For his first few months he was pretty shy, didnt talk a heck of a lot, and usually took a platform off in the corner. Since the 2014 Open however, he is more outgoing, has been known to slam a bar or two, and even goes shirts off in the WOD from time to time. What happened?! Well let us share with you the unique challenge Dave was faced with during the Open. He would basically have to PR on every workout. Dave is actually quite a strong guy, especially overhead, but has some mobility restrictions that make certain movements rather challenging. Namely jumping and squatting. Challenges he has been willing to take head on. Week 1 - Double Unders. Despite lots of practice, hed never gotten any. He came away with a score of 3, which may not sound like much, but it was a brand new movement added to his arsenal. Week 2 - Overhead Squat. Dave had not been able to hit required depth with an empty bar let alone 95lbs, but by the end of the week he had posted 6 reps. Pretty daunting when the workout starts with a movement more than twice your current max. Week 3 - Deadlift / box jump. Hed be okay here with the early bars but pacing would be the issue. Would he have enough to pull 185 multiple times despite never being over 205? Sure enough he did and then some. 225 x 1. Another PR. Week 4 - toes to what?! He had just gotten his first toes to bar a couple days before 14.4 was announced. We figured a handful would be good. He was only a handful shy of finishing ALL 50! Week 5 - uh oh. He wasnt quite sure what to think when it was announced there would be not time cap. Like a champ he stuck it out for 55 minutes to complete his task. His water bottle took a good beating but he never once thought about quitting. With all of the above taken into account there was really no other candidate for our 2014 Open Heart of a Champion award - which we proudly announce is David Esposto! Here he is smashing a new 100lb PR at 325lbs !!
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 14:20:48 +0000