Meet the Members – Emma Wendland

This month on ‘Meet the Members’ we’ve got Emma Wendland. Emma is a Mental Health Registered Nurse who rehabilitates servicemen and women who have returned from deployment and dealing with issues such as PTSD, depression and anxiety. After watching the 2017 CrossFit Games, Emma decided to give CrossFit a try and, five months in, has not looked back. She began with a month of the beginner classes, before becoming a regular attendee of the 12 noon class with the infamous lunchtime crew!

The friendliness of the community is what made Emma excited to keep attending and working towards her health and fitness goals. She also appreciates the universal scalability of CrossFit programming, and how each coach would speak with each person to ensure the workout is safe, challenging and fun, regardless of your experience or comfort level.

“CrossFit Torian is not your typical ‘gym.’ The atmosphere is incredible and the members are all so friendly,” Emma says. “My biggest fear when I first joined was that I couldn’t do most movements, but after learning the scaled versions, I’m slowly working my way up to achieving the prescribed workouts.” She’s also quick to point out that CrossFit has helped her think more positively in everyday life.

But Emma’s motivation to walk through the door for the very first time was inspired by an eventful moment on the bathroom scales. “I joined Torian because I was 89.9kg, and I refused to get to 90kg,” Emma reflects. “I could see my weight getting away from me, and I needed to take control. When I joined, I mostly wanted my work pants to fit myself better. But after four months, I’m 16kg down and my work pants are too big!”

When asked about her goals for the next 12 months, Emma’s big focus will be on getting her first pull-up. “I’ve been a member at multiple other gyms, and I always lost interest after a few weeks. I would often find an excuse not to go, or rarely push myself out of my comfort zone. Now, I check the WOD before I go to bed at night, because I am genuinely looking forward to the next work out. Some days I’m really proud myself that I’ve just gotten through the work out, and others I’m trying to hit PB’s.”