Member Spotlight: Natalia Frstekova

About seven and a half years ago, I moved to the United States from the Czech Republic. I was twenty-two years old, and the transition was difficult because my entire family stayed in Europe. I had an opportunity to improve my English skills, so I started a new job as an Aupair for a family in Columbus, Ohio. Two years later I became an international student, and I began to study business management at Community State college. After my Associate’s degree, I continued to Bachelor’s, and now I’m pursuing a Master’s degree at Franklin University, where I’m currently studying Business Administration.

Growing up, I was playing sports such as volleyball and floorball – which is similar to field hockey but is played indoors. We use different equipment and rules are quite different as well. Besides doing only a few other sports, I played piano and took singing lessons for several years as a kid. I briefly continued to play floorball for my high school. I had a variety of hobbies, but I was never serious about training nor into doing any additional sports activities. I thought that I’m not an athletic type of person, but I continued to do some workouts sometimes.

A couple of months in the US, and after being a little more comfortable living in a new country, I started to be bored and wanted to do something active. Weeks in of occasional training, I began to train regularly, going to a gym at least 4-5 times per week. I started to love working out, and it became my routine, along with some spinning classes and running. I did my first half marathon, which I have never thought I could ever accomplish. I started to feel a difference in my lifestyle, which also automatically changed my eating habits, and I loved the way my body started to change. I felt very good, and I knew I’m on the right health path.

While I was just starting to be in decent shape, I had an accident that required surgery of my left arm. In August 2016, I went on a vacation in Montana, and on the first day of my trip, I’ve got bucked off a horse. My horse got spooked and run off the path, and when I tried to stop him, he threw me off. I was in terrible pain and was immediately transported by an ambulance to the nearest hospital in Missoula, Montana. I broke my humerus bone and had a surgery where it was necessary to put a titanium rod and screws through my shoulder all along the broken bone. I have never felt in such a pain, it was an awful experience, but the staff in the hospital was amazing. I was in a hospital for about a week, but a few days after the surgery, I needed to start to move around a little and had to do some exercises with my arm. My radial nerve was not active, and I couldn’t move with the majority of my fingers on my left arm. I was fortunate that I didn’t break any other parts of my body that would cause immobility or more severe damages, but I was still worried that my arm wouldn’t be fully functional again. About four months after the surgery and doing regular home exercises, my radial nerve woke up, and I could start moving with all my fingers again.

My doctor said that it’s a huge improvement because some people have to wait much longer – or in some cases, the nerve will never wake up again. I realized that by being pretty active and eating healthy before my accident was probably a reason why my recovery was so successful. I started to be more motivated about my healing process and continued regular physical therapy sessions later combined with massage therapy to improve the healing of my arm. Once the pain and swelling decreased, I started to run again and going to a gym. I began to train and finished another half marathon, and I finally started to feel much better.

About a year and a half after my surgery, I noticed a sign that there’s a new gym in the Bexley area, just about 5 minutes from my home. When I found out that it is going to be a CrossFit gym, I was thinking about whether it would be a good idea to become a member. I was still questioning myself whether my arm is ready for such a “hardcore” sport – people who don’t know much about CrossFit think that it is just brutal and not for everyone. I wanted a new challenge in my life, so I was curious and sent an email to the gym and signed up for the orientation. My first coach was Coleman, and I told him about my injury. We did a couple of exercises, and he told me that I could scale anything in CrossFit. He said that if I don’t feel comfortable doing specific arm exercises, we can always change the weight, or not use a weight at all. I can customize the exercise to avoid any pain, whether it means to change the entire movement to different muscle groups or do an entirely different exercise. I was very interested to hear more about the benefits, and I became a new founding member of CrossFit Bexley. More and more members started to join in, and I made many new friends. I was conscientious doing all of the exercises, but I felt so good accomplishing each WOD with such a fun group of individuals. Slowly, the exercises involving my left arm, I was able to switch from just using the training bar to the regular bar, and overall increased the weight of my movements. Only a few months in CrossFit, I started to feel a big difference in my body. I began to be much fitter and stronger. I also noticed that I became a happier person. My coaches do a great job, and they are always there for me to answer all of my questions. Coach Coleman was extremely helpful, as well as Brian, Patrick, and my coach Amy – who I recently started to call my squat fairy because she is always there for me to fix my inefficient squat position! All of the CrossFit Bexley staff is amazing, and I love each one of them.

Two years into CrossFit, I have to say that my arm is almost back to normal. While being a member of such a great community, I loved the way how I feel after every workout — that feeling of complete exhaustion combined with being super relaxed and happy after each training session is fantastic. The overall culture in our CrossFit gym is pretty amazing, and starting CrossFit was one of the best decisions in my life.