CHRIS DIOMEDE

Bio

Fitness was not an important aspect of my life until I was about 20 years
old. At 20 though, I had made the decision to join the Marine Corps, but
was unable to for very silly reasons. I took the next best thing instead
and went to the Navy recruiting office and signed on the dotted line to
become a United States Navy Sailor and eventually became a Corpsman. At the
start of this journey in September of 2011, I knew I had serious work to
do. I remember vividly my first few runs and doing push-ups and not being
able to do pull-ups at this critical juncture of joining the military. I
found Coach Steve and CFI through my cousin Anthony and never looked back
after joining. Ignite had taught me a lot prior to joining the military and
once I was fully into the service I realized a few things: first, barely
anyone truly cared about fitness. Two, workouts were meant to crush and
demoralize people versus building them up and making them see their true
potential.

Between my time in the Navy and CFI, I learned to always step outside my
comfort zone and never accept the bare minimum. I have had the great
fortune to be able to experiment greatly on my fitness journey and there is
no ‘end’ for myself, just different seasons. I truly believe that it is
important for everyone to do what makes them happy. If you like long runs,
bike rides, cross fit wods, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or riding dirt bikes and
motorcycles, good, get outside and do it. Nearly everyone in the gym has
heard me talk about my ridiculous exercise experiences and I have found two
things to be true: 1) Don’t knock it till you try it. 2) Make it
challenging, but don’t make it demoralizing.

Crossfit Ignite has enabled me to find the strength and endurance to
complete a Century bike ride (100 miles), complete half marathons, and play
airsoft with kids 10+ years my juniors. It’s simply incredible

By constantly varying and changing your workouts ‘seasonally’ you can
experience tremendous growth. Be purposeful, be mindful, care about what
you’re doing and why you’re doing it, lift moderate to heavy weight,
prioritize purposeful recover, don’t go two days without working out, and
stress your cardiovascular system.

I began this journey 10 years ago. Stick with it, relish the good days, and
accept the bad days.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who
comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who
at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at
the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.” ~Theodore Roosevelt