Paul Barro

To us, a REBORN athlete embodies and portrays what the entire CFRR coaching team believes in as a whole. This is someone that the entire community as a whole looks up to. Not in the way you might be thinking. Being RX and having the fastest “Fran” time are just numbers. To us being truly REBORN is taking what your life was, and literally changing it to what you have always hoped it would be. Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally you are a new person. You see, once you are truly REBORN, the fear of going back to who you once were just doesn’t haunt you like it used to. The new you feels too good, and its just no longer worth it to be afraid of your previous lifestyle. Being in this place takes years of time and consistency. Tons of mistakes and downfalls. Moments where you have your head in your hands and just think you can’t make it, but with full TRUST and FAITH in what #CFRR believes, YOU OVERCOME. That is to us what it means to be #REBORN.

CrossFit began over 10 years ago for me in much the same way it starts for everyone else. I had reached a crossroads in my physical fitness and it was time to make a decision. I could continue along the path on which I had been going with workouts that did little to motivate me or keep my attention (and produced minimal results); or I could find something that would change how I related to exercise in a way that would allow me to adapt my lifestyle for complete and lasting change.

Growing up I was not what you would consider an athlete. In fact, I always struggled with fitness and nutrition throughout my adolescence. I come from an Italian family so food was always a big part of my life. Then to make matters worse (or better depending on how you look at it) my family is the restaurant business – serving up pizza and Italian food. So in the story of maintaining an ideal weight and healthy fitness level, this is what is referred to as the perfect storm. Throughout my teenage years and well into adulthood I worked alongside my family helping to build the business and taste testing as I went along. During these years it was not uncommon for me to eat at least a few slices of pizza every day.

Like most people, I seemed to always have the big box gym membership that mostly went unused.

I dreaded going to the gym and creating my own workouts. I didn’t know how to go about getting the best results and I never had a clear understanding if what I was doing would even work.

Everything changed in 2006 when I started PT sessions with Landon at the gym where I was a member at the time. Immediately, I knew that this experience was different. I began to see results and these results motivated me to take control of my nutrition and stay on course with my workouts. I even began to go to the gym outside of my training sessions, motivating myself to complete my workouts.

When Landon and Adrien opened their gym in Round Rock in 2010, I continued training with Landon at the new gym. During one of my sessions, there was a CrossFit class being held (with one person – Jesse) and I was hooked right from the start. I never looked back.

Today, I am doing CrossFit three times a week and training with Landon once a week. My body fat has dropped more than 17% over the last 10 years but more importantly, I have been able to maintain it! My fitness level is far beyond anything I could have imagined. Seeing how much I have been able to achieve at the age of 54, I can only imagine what I could have done had I started CrossFit in my 20s or 30s. My only regret is that I didn’t start sooner.

Nutrition is still something I have to work hard on every day – I’ve never met a mozzarella I didn’t like – but Landon always makes himself available to offer advice and support. My workouts, however, are better than they’ve ever been. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish and I can honestly say that I owe it to CrossFit.

Thank you Landon and Adrien and I hope to see some of you all in classes MWF at 8:30am!

-Paul