Member Spotlight: Aimee Arthur

CrossFit makes me proud of my gender. It promotes such a positive attitude towards female fitness. It’s not about being thin, or having a Kardashian bum, its about being a stronger version of your best self.

The first thing I noticed at crossFit Uckfield was the complete lack of judgement in a class setting. I don’t have a particularly sporty physique and work in an industry that often requires me to indulge in too much food and wine! In a normal gym environment, I would often feel very aware of my body, my ability and how I must look to others. However, CrossFit’s attitude to fitness, particularly as a woman, I find immensely refreshing. I don’t feel pressure to be skinny, or to put my makeup on before a workout – it’s about turning up, working hard and finishing with a high five regardless of your fitness levels. I love being able to clearly measure my progress by putting more weight on the bar or RXing workouts.

I lost nearly 10kg in my first 6 months, not by making huge changes just with regular workouts and changing my attitude.

Shortly after getting married, Joe and I were delighted to find out we were expecting our first baby. I felt determined to keep attending CrossFit and after speaking to Krish about 6 weeks into my pregnancy I was given all the info I needed to continue CrossFit safely.
I struggled badly with morning sickness for the first few weeks, but from about week 15 I managed to stick to an almost normal gym routine right up to 29/30 weeks. I’m convinced this contributed towards making my pregnancy super easy and healthy.
We welcomed our daughter, Olive, into the world on 1st May 2018. Becoming a new parent was totally overwhelming, I felt completely unprepared for the emotional and physical battering you go through!

It was really important to me to start feeling good about myself and to get into a new ‘normal’ routine pretty soon after having Olive. So I returned to the gym 7 weeks after birth. I have been immensely lucky in that the entire team at CrossFit Uckfield but particularly Krish, have made my return SO EASY! People said I was mad to even contemplate exercise so soon postpartum, but with so many pairs of willing hands to help it’s been such a pleasure!

Funnily enough, coming back has been far better for my mental health than physical. Going from full time work in a very sociable industry to maternity leave meant I started to miss adult interaction pretty soon after birth. With this in mind, I try to attend open gym 4 times a week, not only for the exercise but more importantly the conversation.

Turning up at 9:30am means I can bring Olive along with me and Krish has gone above and beyond to make my training as easy as possible. Often this means holding Olive for the hour so I can get the WOD done but more recently its putting a playpen in the gym so as soon as Olive is crawling I can leave her safely to potter around.