Member Spotlight: Sydney’s weightlifting journey

The right recommendation, the right introduction, and the right tribe can change your life.
That’s what happened to Sydney! Sydney’s CrossFit journey was really the gateway to something more.

Sydney

Sydney at her first meet

Q: How did you get started at CrossFit 1904?

A: I initially tried out CF 1904 during a Bring a Friend Week back in 2024 (thank you, Amanda!) and remember enjoying the workouts. After a few months of having an frustratingly inconsistent workout schedule, I decided to officially join 1904 in April of 2025! My goal in joining was to have a more consistent exercise schedule and to improve my health and fitness. The community in 1904 made it really easy to stay committed, and I’ve improved my health to a point where I can now afford to focus on performance goals, specifically with olympic weightlifting.

Q: What got you interested in Olympic Lifting in the first place?

A: One of the first few Saturday Barbell Classes I attended had max attempts for clean and jerks programmed, where I partnered with (and met for the first time) Habibi Sarah! She was so good at lifting, and combined with how supportive and encouraging she was, I was instantly motivated to want to improve in the olympic lifts. I’ve been hooked ever since, and one of the greatest gifts has been the genuine friendships I’ve built with Habibi Sarah and Morgan! I really miss Habibi Sarah being at CrossFit 1904.

Q: What are your favorite things about Olympic Lifting?

A: Split jerks. Just kidding (no i’m not). The part I really enjoy about olympic weightlifting is that you know you’re only going to get better with time. Some training days may not go 100% to plan, but at least you’re 1% better for showing up and training. Those %’s will add up quickly before you know it, and you’ll be a much better lifter than you did 6 months ago. Seriously, comparing my old lifting videos from last year to today is like night and day. It just makes me more excited to see where I’ll be 6 months from today!

Sydney hitting a PR clean!

Q: If you could tell something to a totally new person in the sport, what would you tell them?

A: Expect to have highs and lows, that’s just the nature of a heavily technical sport. You’ll have days where you’ve slept the recommended 8 hours all week, you’re well-hydrated and fueled, but you’ll have the worst day with your technique or the bar just feels heavy. Sometimes this can last a day or a week or more, but keeping in mind that this is just a phase that you will get through and come out stronger will have the greatest impact on your mental and physical strength. 

Q: How has working with a dedicated coach improved your experience as an oly lifter?

A: I’ve seen a lot more progress in my strength and technique since working with a coach! I’ve gained over 18kg total in both of my lifts since starting under Coach Vince 8 months ago, made massive improvements in my technique, and gained a lot more confidence under the bar. I’ve also been fortunate to become part of the barbell community, which is full of supportive, passionate, and incredibly strong lifters. Having a knowledgeable coach and a strong community has kept me committed to the process and motivates me to show up and push harder each session.

Q: Why should people have Vince as their olympic lifting coach?

A: #1 reason is because he’s a fun coach to have! No matter how frustrating of a lifting day it is, you’ll always have fun when he’s around. He brings years of experience and knowledge, and has an incredible ability to notice the smallest details in a lift and quickly identify what’s causing the problem. After each session, he always comes back with a plan to correct the root issue. All of the adjustments he’s had me make over the past 8 months has built towards long-term improvement in the sport, rather than just providing a temporary fix.

Sydney training and Roy being… Roy

Q: What would you tell a new person about your experience with a coach? Has it made a difference for you? How so?

A: I would tell a new person to get started with a coach as soon as possible. Honestly, I wish I had started a lot sooner! Olympic Weightlifting is like learning a new language, where your body has to adapt to positions that can feel awkward or uncomfortable, and to add on to the difficulty,  there’s a lot of specific terminology with the sport, as well. In my experience, the sooner I understood the essential positions and the language, the faster I progressed. When you add on having a dedicated coach to that, that trajectory is MUCH faster.

“Olympic weightlifting is incredibly empowering! Lifting a heavy barbell overhead and standing up a weight you once thought was impossible is such a powerful feeling. One of the things I love most about the sport is how powerful it makes me feel, even on the bad days. It’s a real sense of accomplishment when you get closer to mastering a technical lift and build strength through steady, consistent effort. This process hasn’t just added numbers to my lifts, but it's built confidence, resilience, and a deeper appreciation of what my body is capable of. I would encourage anyone to join CrossFit 1904 and try out olympic weightlifting, and I hope more people discover the same sense of strength and empowerment that this sport has given me.”
-Sydney

Vince

Olympic Weightlifting is a very tough sport and very unforgiving if you don't approach the lifts correctly, but that's what I love most about coaching. I coach because I'm just tired of seeing everyone pull with their arms too early hahaha. In all seriousness, I just love helping people hit PRs and be their strongest self.

I love helping people understand the intricacies of all the different positions and how they all work together to make a good lift. When I work with an athlete and they are really intentional in putting everything together it's almost like a work of art seeing the before and after differences. 

I've been working with Sydney for almost a year now and she is a fantastic athlete. She came very eager to learn and with a huge drive to succeed. We learned quickly that she is very receptive to coaching and can incorporate new cues quickly. She is an intentional lifter incorporating the day's focus on every lift. A testament to her dedication is how great her technique is now in such a short period of time.

If you want to be proficient in the sport and have a good time doing it - I'm your guy. Come see me at the gym. I’m here 4 nights a week and Saturday mornings.

Will CrossFit Make Me Big or Bulky?

We’ve all seen those silly internet videos where a woman jokes about “looking like a man” after touching a barbell with a cheeky cut to a man wearing her outfit. But is that really true? The shortest possible answer to that question - no. CrossFit alone does not automatically equal a big bulky physique.

Well, this makes for a REALLY short blog post if I leave it there. So, let’s get into it!

Between these two pics? 10 YEARS and about 40 lbs

There are 3 main components when it comes to building muscle. Fuel, Time, and Consistency.

Fuel

How well does your car work if you’ve got no gas in it? It doesn’t matter how hard you push the pedal - that car isn’t moving when there is no fuel in it. Your muscles are very similar! You can train your ever-loving butt off, but with no fuel, we’re not going to be able to really build muscle mass. Also, you will feel like absolute crap while working out. Doesn’t sound like any fun at all, does it?

Time

How long does it take to build muscle? Science says 3 - 6 months to build noticeable muscle on a high protein diet with a consistent training schedule. This does not mean you will have to buy an entirely new wardrobe after 3 - 6 months of CrossFit because your biceps just cannot be reined in. It also doesn’t mean that you have to go nuts on protein to get any benefits. It is absolutely possible to strengthen the muscle fibers you have without a lot of noticeable growth, but the key? That protein, baby!

Consistent Training

Muscle is a use-it-or-lose-it kind of diva. I mean, how dramatic. I give you a vacation and you atrophy? Rude. Thankfully, atrophy isn’t instant. It takes a few weeks for muscles to feel “softer” because of reduced glycogen stores, but a few months to actually decrease muscle size if you’re really not using those muscles at all. 

Getting in the gym consistently can look different for different people. The sweet spot is typically 3-4x per week, but recovery is a big factor here. Especially as we age (helloooo over 30 club), we can do more with less volume. That does not mean you cannot come in 5x per week, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a heavy volume day every day in the gym. Just like trying to run a car on empty, your muscle cars won’t work well if they feel like they’ve been in a head-on collision. 

Looking to build muscle?
Fuel up, be patient, and stick to your training schedule!

At CrossFit 1904, we run a Committed Club  - check in to at least 12 coached classes per month to join the club! CrossFit at 1904 is more than just working out - a membership is a fast pass to a community that cares about you and your goals, and an expert coaching staff to help you along the way!

See? PRs with friends are the best

Squats to build those leg muscles!

Crossfitting for life and travel

Coach Art hiking in Odda, Norway

Hi, Coach Art here. I'd like to share with you why I do CrossFit.

CrossFit is my main form of exercise because it helps me build the kind of fitness that carries over into the things I actually enjoy doing outside of the gym. My goal isn’t just to be strong or fit for the sake of working out—it's to be capable and ready for the experiences I want to have in life.

I enjoy traveling, and I want to be able to spend entire days exploring new cities and countries without feeling limited by my fitness.

Coach Art hiking in Trolltunga, Norway

I want to be able to hike challenging trails, climb mountains for incredible views, and experience nature in different parts of the world. I also enjoy trying local foods when I travel, and having a healthy, active lifestyle allows me to enjoy those experiences without feeling like I need to constantly restrict myself.

Another big reason I train is because I love snowboarding. I want to be able to travel to different resorts and ride for multiple days in a row without my body breaking down halfway through the trip.

CrossFit helps me build strength, endurance, mobility, and overall resilience that supports all of these activities. That said, these are my personal reasons for exercising, and I don’t think anyone needs a goal that sounds this big to stay motivated.

Coach Art snowboarding in Niseko Japan with a view of Mount Yotei

Your reason could be wanting to perform better in a sport you love, staying healthy and active for your family, improving your confidence, or simply feeling better day to day. The best reason to exercise is the one that matters to you and helps you live the life you want to live.

Whatever your goals may be, having the right support system can make all the difference. At CrossFit 1904, we're here to help you build the fitness needed to pursue the life you want—one workout at a time. Train for life, not just the gym, and let us help you achieve your goals.

Challenged Athlete Foundation x CrossFit 1904 Adaptive Strength Clinics

Our CAF Partnership - Built for Every Athlete

A snapshot from a CAF x CrossFit 1904 Strength Clinic

For the past year, we've partnered with the Challenged Athletes Foundation to offer a free strength clinic to the adaptive community. CAF didn't have an existing strength offering, and we had the coaches, expertise, and equipment to fill that gap.

In one year, 30+ adaptive athletes discovered what we've always believed: they belong here, and they are strong.

CrossFit 1904 has been adaptive-friendly since day one. We offer equipment for seated athletes, athletes with prostheses, and coaches trained to work with visible and invisible disabilities.

Join Us!
If you're an adaptive athlete or know one get started HERE

I’ve worked with a wide range of adaptive athletes for six years.

Working with adaptive athletes has made me a better coach for all abilities. In order to truly adapt, you need to understand human movement in depth.

Strength training is for everyone of all ages and abilities. It’s never too late to get started, and there is nothing we cannot adapt to any individual. CAF has created a partnership with us at CrossFit 1904 to bring strength training to an incredible community.

Penny being Penny - she is the most fun!

Gavin competing in the 2026 CrossFit Open

Action shot from a 2026 strength clinic

A huge Highlight from
This Year

One of our original CAF clinic participants has been a member of the gym for about a year, Gavin Sippel. He completed in his first CrossFit Open in 2026, and wanted to try to qualify for the Wheel WOD Games.

Early June Gavin found out he is GAMES BOUND and will be competing in San Jose July 21–26th, 2026. We couldn't be more proud of the growth, strength, and confidence we have seen from Gavin over the past year - even though Coach Shawna is convinced she needs to wrap him in bubble wrap sometimes!

Coach Lizzie, Gavin, and Coach Shawna

Upcoming Events

Our next scheduled adaptive clinic is September 27th, 2026 12:00pm-2:00pm PST.
Want to participate? Click the button to drop us a message!

Your Watch Is Watching, But Are You Listening?

Ray wearing his Morpheus during a workout

Picture this: It's 5:30 AM. The gym is filling up. Before the whiteboard is even explained, watches are beeping, rings are syncing, and bands are buzzing. Someone shouts across the room: "If you didn't start it on your watch, does it even count?"

We laugh, but there's actually a lot of truth buried in that joke.

The gym floor is packed with members wearing some of the most sophisticated biometric technology ever created for consumers. Oura rings, Whoop bands, Apple Watches, Garmin forerunners - you name it, someone's wearing it. But here's the thing: when I ask people what they're actually doing with the data, about 95% go quiet. They can tell me their HRV score from this morning. They can't tell me what it means, what changed it, or what to do differently because of it.

That gap, between collecting data and actually using it, is where I live. And it's where the best conversations happen: post-WOD, on the foam rollers, lacrosse balls rolling under tired hips, heart rates finally coming down.

I'm a board-certified health and wellness coach specializing in precision medicine. At the core of that work is one simple belief: data is only powerful when it changes behavior. Wearables are one of the best tools we have to uncover what habits, patterns, and lifestyle choices are actually affecting you — not the average person in a research study, but you specifically.

So let's talk about what these devices are really tracking, how they do it, and most importantly: what you should be looking for during and after your workout.

Not All Wearables Are Created Equal

There are dozens of devices on the market now. The three I've personally used, tested, and recommend are the Oura Ring, the Whoop Band, and Morpheus. Each has a distinct purpose, and right now I run two of them simultaneously: Morpheus for exercise readiness and heart rate tracking, and Oura for everything else — sleep, recovery, and nervous system trends.

Here's why the distinction matters:

Oura & Whoop: Great for What They're Designed For

Both the Oura Ring and Whoop Band use PPG sensors (photoplethysmography). This technology shines a light source against your skin and measures changes in blood volume beneath the surface to estimate your heart rate and HRV. It's elegant, passive, and comfortable enough to wear 24/7- which is exactly the point.

These devices genuinely shine at sleep tracking and stress monitoring. They calculate your readiness score using overnight HRV averages, passively collected while you sleep. For lifestyle trends, that's valuable data.

But here's the limitation worth knowing, and the research backs this up pretty clearly. In calm, controlled conditions, PPG devices are reasonably accurate. The moment you start moving intensely, that accuracy drops. During high-intensity, full-body movements, (think burpees, thrusters, wall balls), the agreement between wrist-based PPG and a chest strap ECG can fall so low that the readings become genuinely unreliable. At peak effort, we're talking about heart rate errors of 10 to 15 beats per minute or more in some studies. For a CrossFit workout full of movement, transitions, and intensity spikes, that margin of error matters. You might think you spent 12 minutes in Zone 4 when you were actually in Zone 3, or vice versa. Over time, those miscalculations can quietly skew your readiness scores and your understanding of your own fitness.

Morpheus: Built for the Way We Train

Morpheus takes a different approach. It uses ECG technology, electrical signals of the heart, which is the gold standard for measuring heart rate and HRV. The research community has long recommended ECG-based chest straps for monitoring heart rate during exercise specifically because accuracy is so much better when things get intense and wrists are flying around. That's exactly what Morpheus uses.

Beyond the hardware, Morpheus does something else that matters: it uses a morning active HRV check. It’s a brief, intentional measurement you take right after waking up. This is how HRV is actually studied in sports science research. Studies in professional athletes have found that morning readings are less affected by daily stressors and give a more accurate picture of your readiness than passive overnight readings, which can be skewed by sleep quality, what happened the day before, and the natural ups and downs of your sleep stages. The science community's current best practice for athletes is short morning measurements upon waking. That's exactly what Morpheus is built around.

What I love most about Morpheus is what it does with that morning data: it adjusts your aerobic and anaerobic thresholds daily based on your readiness score, then gives you a time target for each heart rate zone. It’s telling you whether today is a day to push hard, recover smart, or land somewhere in between.

The results speak for themselves. Using Morpheus consistently, I improved my VO2 max from 47.3 to 56.3 in just eight months. That number isn't just a fitness milestone. It's one of the most meaningful health metrics you can move.

Why VO2 Max Actually Matters

VO2 max is a measure of how much oxygen your body can use during maximum effort. It's often called the gold standard of cardiorespiratory fitness. The science behind why it matters for longevity is genuinely hard to overstate.

Here's the short version: your cardiorespiratory fitness level is a stronger predictor of how long you'll live than smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes. That's from an American Heart Association scientific statement published in one of the top cardiology journals. They actually recommended that doctors start treating low fitness as a clinical risk factor alongside those traditional ones.

The numbers get even more interesting when you look at what improving it does. Research shows that for roughly every 3.5 mL/kg/min increase in VO2 max, which is one metabolic equivalent, or MET, your risk of dying from any cause drops by about 11 to 17 percent. A large overview of studies covering over 20 million observations found that people with high cardiorespiratory fitness had roughly 45% to 53% lower all-cause mortality risk compared to those with low fitness. In people already living with cardiovascular disease, the gap was even wider - up to 73% lower cardiovascular mortality risk.

And it's not just the heart. A study that followed over 2,000 men for an average of 22 years found that those with low VO2 max had nearly double the risk of developing dementia compared to their fit peers. That's not a small signal. That's the kind of finding that should change how we think about showing up to the gym.

That's a powerful reason to care about how you're training, not just that you're training.

Using Your Wearable During the WOD

Here's where it gets practical.

The coaches at CrossFit 1904 do something really valuable: they explain the intended stimulus of each workout. When a coach says "This one should have you at 90% or above during the intervals" or "Stay in Zone 2 today - don't go out too hot," that's not just coaching preference. That's programming rooted in physiology. Your wearable is the tool that tells you whether you're actually executing the plan or just feeling like you are.

The primary metric you're watching during a workout is heart rate. But seeing a number on your screen is just the beginning. What you really need to know is what zone that number puts you in.

If you've had a VO2 max test, you'll have your actual aerobic and anaerobic thresholds — the most accurate way to set your zones. If you haven't, most wearables will estimate your zones for you using the standard formula of 220 minus your age to approximate your max heart rate. It's a decent starting point, but it's just an estimate. And honestly, individual variation is huge. A true VO2 max test gives you a personalized snapshot of your aerobic fitness that no formula can replicate. And as we covered above, the data is worth having for reasons that go well beyond the gym.

Heart Rate Recovery: The Number You Might Be Ignoring

One of the most underrated metrics your wearable can show you is heart rate recovery (HRR) - how fast your heart rate drops in the first minute after a hard effort ends.

When you stop a hard workout, your parasympathetic nervous system, the "rest and digest" side, rushes back in to slow your heart rate down. How quickly it does that is a window into how well your autonomic nervous system is functioning. The faster your heart rate drops, the more efficiently your nervous system is doing its job.

The research here is striking. A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine followed over 2,400 adults and found that those whose heart rate dropped 12 beats per minute or less in the first minute after exercise had a fourfold higher unadjusted risk of death. Even after controlling for age, medications, cardiac risk factors, and how hard they'd worked out, the risk was still doubled. A large meta-analysis published years later confirmed it: a sluggish heart rate recovery was associated with a 68% higher risk of all-cause mortality.

The benchmark to shoot for: a drop of more than 12 beats per minute in that first minute is considered the line between normal and abnormal by the American Heart Association. Once you're consistently dropping 20 beats or more, you're in solid territory. It's one of those numbers that improves quietly and steadily with consistent aerobic training, and watching it climb over months is genuinely satisfying.

You can track this right now with any device that shows real-time heart rate. Note your peak HR at the end of a hard interval or at the end of the WOD. Check it exactly 60 seconds later. That difference is your HRR. Simple as that.

The Bigger Picture

Wearables are not magic. An Oura Ring doesn't make you healthier. A Whoop band doesn't optimize your recovery by itself. What these tools do is give you signals. Signals that, when understood and acted on, help you train smarter, recover better, and build the kind of long-term fitness that actually adds years to your life.

In a future post, we'll get into lifestyle tracking - how sleep quality, alcohol, stress, and nutrition all show up in your data in ways that might surprise you. Because what happens between the workouts matters just as much as the workouts themselves.

For now, the next time you tap that button to start your workout, ask yourself: Do I know what I'm looking for? If the answer is no — come find me on the foam rollers. That's my favorite office.