Athlete of The Month – Christopher Koller (March 2015)

23
Jun

Athlete of The Month – Christopher Koller (March 2015)

DSC08856Christopher Koller – The man who won’t stop

Congratulations on being selected as our second-ever Athlete of the Month, Chris! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m an African, a South African living in the bubble that is NYC. I have been state side for 3 years and married to my bride for roughly the same amount of time.  We are almost as in love with each other as we are with Salvador, our Greyhound and voted most likely to be the Cross Training BK Fit Mascot of 2015.  We live above the box – which means on the weekends Mike sometimes has to eventually ask me to leave. Hard to pick a favorite food as I live to eat, don’t eat to live – but I feel I have to mention Biltong for all the paleo die-hards reading this.  Imagine Jerky. Now stop imagining jerky.  Biltong is dry-aged beef.  It is cured with spices, is not boiled, is not sweet and it all protein.  I make my own, so let me know if you want to try a South African delicacy.

       Tell us a little about your fitness background, and how you came to Cross Training!

I’ve played most sports throughout in my life, but had a particular passion for rugby, water polo, running, togo and squash. I’ve lifted weights but always done it to be better at the sport I was playing and not to grunt in public, or look at myself curling in the mirror.  My first cross-training experience was at Brick in Chelsea.

What have been some of your favorite moments at the box?

I love the open gym sessions on the weekends.  Its quite social and people get to focus on the things they are not good at – perfecting movements.  BK Fit is pretty social and its a great crowd of people so watching the Open 2015 announcements, supporting Katya’s golden gloves fight, and any of the Bootcamp sessions in Fort green park are all good memories.  I have countless memorable moments when people around me have done something they have never done before, or overcome an obstacle, or watching people become more confident in themselves just because of the things they are achieving in the box – all of these give me huge satisfaction.  Selfishly one of my favorite moments was somewhere through a 2000m erg time-trial and looking over at Salvador lounging on the BK Fit beanbag definitely stands out.

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Do you have any advice for new Cross Trainingters or people on the fence about signing up?

Don’t waste a moment – sign up now. Its scalable which should take any apprehension out of the running.  The reason I love it is its jungle gym for adults – you get to play like a child, and work out like an athlete. Go slow, prioritize form over ego.  It is the perfect all body, all mind, all social environment.  Do it. Do it now.

What are your favorite Cross Training movements? Which do you most struggle with?

Hard to pick one – it is CROSS fit after all, but I do love handstand push-ups and anything on the rings.  The gymnastic component is really exciting for me, couple that with strength and endurance and I honestly love all of the movements.  I struggle with the snatch, the motion of getting the bar above head is hard for me – I think because I am still trying to muscle it up there instead of having my form down and leveraging the energy efficiently throughout my whole body.

What qualities do you think we should look for in the next Athlete of the Month? Thanks so much for participating, Chris, and congratulations again!

Someone who gets up when they get knocked down – someone who contributes to the community that is BK Fit and/or someone who inspires the rest of us to push ourselves further.

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