CrossFit Athletic Group

Meghan Murley joined the Champions Club back in the summer of 2011 when we were still in Bishop Foley’s weight room. She quickly drank the Kool-Aid and worked out with fellow Lampherians Marianne (who she brought in), Jay, and Jesse. Meghan Murley was actually the first Kavanaugh we ever had. She was one of those athletes who could be constantly counted on to move safe, and just so happened to move very well. 

Meg was one of those people who we weren’t willing to give up when Foley gave us an ultimatum, so she ended up moving to Jarrod’s and then the new building with us. In fact, she moonlights as a pretty legit artist so the posters that you see hanging around the “lounge” are hers, as are the scopes spray painted on the wall. We unfortunately lost Meghan towards the end of summer 2013, but have no fear! She still CrossFits at CrossFit Devi8 and even coaches. Here's her journey with the Champions Club and what she's been up to since in her own words.

Can you tell us a little bit about your history with the Champions Club?

I started working out with the Champion’s Club in the Summer of 2011, the summer before my senior year of high school, back when the Champion’s Club was in the fieldhouse. I went to the back street boys/new kids on the block concert with Murley (my cousin), Sydni, and Jackie and they kept talking about their CrossFit Club. Natural curiosity led me to want to try it out the next morning. Sure enough, despite the fact that I was always playing sports growing up, I was shown that my fitness was QUITE sub-par... to say the least. Honestly, I was nervous and worried that I was intruding by continuing to come back, but Chris kept saying “We’ll see you tomorrow?” and I figured that was enough of an invitation to stay despite the fact that I was not a Bishop Foley student, but instead was going to good ‘ole Lamphere.
I remember when I found out that we were getting kicked out of the training room. I was heartbroken when we were told that only Foley students could workout. No parents, no Marianne (my Lamphere friend that I had just gotten started at the Champions Club), and basically no working out.  When Jarrod took us in, I had no idea at the time, but that was my first true taste of the CrossFit Community on a larger scale level. One box helping another box (even though we weren’t technically a box yet), that was new to me. I was always used to teams hating on other teams for soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball, tag... There’s was only your team that had to beat the other teams, and paint a smile on your face when you shook hands saying “good game” afterwards. But to you guys, explaining the CrossFit comraderie it is like explaining the taste of water; you know what I mean.

Then the ever so awesome Mrs. Pip found the place the Champion’s club is at now. I feel a ton of nostalgia thinking about how we started with just a strip of concrete surrounded by expensive, can-break-those-easily-with-a-bouncing-barbell cars and a plethora of office chairs of various sizes and shapes..

Having started with that and being there while Chris was trying to get us affiliated makes me appreciate where the Champion’s Club is now and it makes me appreciate the box I am currently at now as well. Some people call my current box small, but they don’t know anything compared to where we started.
I went off to live on campus at Oakland University and basically took a year off of CrossFit I didn’t have a car to drive back and forth and I thought I would need more time to devote to studying. My freshman year was probably my least favorite year in college for that reason. I missed the Champion’s Club so much and would read the site every night wishing that Chris would post more stuff because I had already read what was up four times.. that night..
Then I came back the next summer and basically started from square one. I think we all know that horrible feeling. But it was a great summer, I had to work quite a bit, but getting to workout with the mom’s and dad’s in the evening was always something I looked forward to each day.
I have popped in a handful of times since then, I miss the Champion’s Club. It’s great to see all the progress!!

Can you tell us about the box you’re at now? What the workouts are like, who you’re coaching, all that business.

I workout and coach at CrossFit Deviate in Downtown Rochester.

There’s constantly people walking by doing downtown things like going out to eat or shopping and they walk by and stare in at us, similar to how the Foley students would do when we were in the training room. Funny how people, or “outsiders”, act the same giving weird looks and gawking at the mysterious and extensive power output going on.

Anyways, I have been coaching on-ramp classes (aka Fundamentals) and regular wod classes as well as subbing in coaching the Olympic Lifting Classes. I also subbed a Youth Fitness Class once (I did parkour with them!! smile emoticon ).

The athletes at Deviate range anywhere from 6 years old to about 58 years young. One of the youngest, named Bella (9 years old), has been doing Olympic Lifting for over a year now and even competed at Youth Nationals a couple months ago. She can lift about 40 pounds for a snatch!! Her brother, Elijah (12 years old) has been doing Olympic Lifting for a little longer than her and just recently went to an Olympic Lifting camp that he was invited to in Colorado for the second time. His pr snatch is 54kg/119lbs and clean and jerk is 65kg/143lbs and he weighs 110lbs. Crazy awesome. But that’s just to name a couple athletes, I could go on, but I’ll spare you guys.

As for the programming, it used to be different when CrossFit Deviate North and CrossFit Deviate South were owned by the same people. They had the athletes do either Level 1 or Level 2. Level 2 was technically the RX wod and then level 1 was a scaled version of it. There was really no choosing a hybrid between the two which bummed me out a lot because level 1 stuff was most of the time pretty easy and level 2 was… not.
Now that the ownership is split up and they are independent boxes the programming is much better! We went back to “Program for the best, scale for the rest” methodology that they teach in the Level 1 Cert so there is one rx’d wod and then based off of the goal intensity or approximate time frame that the wod should take, athletes scale. Each warm-up is coach’s choice so whoever the coach is for that session, they choose what they want the class to do. Sometimes we’ll do a game or a group indian run or partner warm-up. Then we either have strength or skill. The strength could be squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, etc for certain rep schemes and the skill will usually be something gymnastics related: muscle ups, pushups, handstands/ handstand pushups, pistols, rope climbs, etc. Sometimes we’ll go through squat cycles that have us squatting to certain percentages and rep schemes 2-3 times a week. And then the second half of the class or the end of class is the wod. Sometimes the wod will take all hour to do, constantly varied blah blah blah, you guys know that whole deal.

Meg explaining the whole deal.
I am very thankful for having started with the Champion’s Club. At my new box I have been complimented on my form numerous times and my efficiency in my movement and that’s just a reflection of the Champion’s Club. I think about you guys all the time and I have incorporated many Champion’s Club inspired coaching queues into my own coaching trying to help the caving-in-knees epidemic one class at a time. I even introduced the hip capsule mobility to a few athletes which made very quick and noticeable impact. One athlete claimed that his knees hurt while he squatted because of “overuse”… he was 22 at the time and CrossFit was his only sport… after doing the hip capsule his knees magically stopped hurting. It was awesome hahha. The hip capsule mobility made another athlete’s squat get three inches deeper after only the minimum recommended two minutes a side. Practically the Mr. Wonsil effect; it was also awesome hahha.

You’ve started to get a little bit more into the competition scene- how does training to compete differ from the training you did at the Champions Club?

Competitions are a completely different beast than regular training or even off season training. I myself haven’t done much to prepare for any specific competition other than just follow Deviate’s programming and then take a rest day (or even two) before the competition. Some people start practicing for competitions, more specifically Lex Artis Competitions (they’re the ones who run basically all the local competitions) up to weeks in advance. In my opinion preparing for competitions like that kind of defeats part of the original CrossFit ideology of being prepared for the unknown, but Lex Artis releases the wods weeks in advance these days so I guess it would be stupid not to utilize the information. I have not been concerned with winning any of the competitions I’ve done so to me it doesn’t matter, but competing has still brought out some pr’s and intensities I didn’t think I had in me. Something about a crowd of people and beastly chicks and guys working out beside you is exhilarating and pr-insisting. It’s a great feeling that is definitely different than the feeling of regular training. It brings back the feeling of “game day” and makes you put your training to the test.

Have you branched outside of CrossFit at all? 

For the last 4 months I have been training only Olympic Lifting (with the exception of a CrossFit wod here and there) and it is such a great experience following a new style of programming and learning about the snatch and the clean and jerk at a new level. I have also been shadowing the Olympic Lifting Coach that coaches me and gives me my programming and trying to pick up on the ques that he gives athletes and how he teaches the movements to beginners.

A typical training session begins with a general warmup then brief mobility if something specific is extra tight, then snatch, then clean and jerk (or just jerk since the jerk part is my weakness with that lift), then squat, then do a few supplemental things like hypers, ab work, strict pullups, etc. It takes about two hours to get through each training session as opposed to the hour that I have been used to for CrossFit.
I have been trying to get my snatch and clean and jerk numbers high enough to go to a meet called University Nationals which will be in Utah in the end of September this year and I just recently hit some numbers that qualified me to go!

So I’m stoked about going to that and watching some good ole Olympic Weightlifting for a whole weekend.

What’s your major in school?

I am going for my Bachelors in Health Sciences with a Concentration in Pre-Physical Therapy and an Exercise Science Minor at Oakland University. I plan to graduate undergrad in the end of the summertime in 2016. I am currently in the process of applying to Graduate School to start in the Fall of 2016.

What’s the ultimate goal (career wise)?

I don’t have an ultimate goal just yet, but for now the relatively short-term goal is to obtain my Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) and figure out what exactly I want to do with it. Most likely I’ll start off working at a local outpatient clinic and build my experience and tweak my style of practice. After doing that for a while I would really like to travel and attend Physical Therapy presentations or seminars around the US. I am still incredibly inspired by the work that Kelly Starrett has done and the way he has reached so many people. Essentially it would be really cool to work out of a CrossFit gym with my practice similar to how Kelly did. One step at a time though; I still have to submit my application to Graduate School.

Thanks for the interview Meghan! We love seeing the success you had at the Champions Club carry through.