Jamey Gallegos

I grew up in Long Beach, California, and tried many sports that just didn’t stick.  Growing up near the water, I was fortunate enough to live a few blocks from a boathouse and in 7th grade, I learned to row. I rowed on a junior crew club team and fought injuries off and on and had to stop rowing. I picked rowing back up when I attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I rowed for four years and had the opportunity to race all over the country. My boat won silver at nationals my junior year and a national championship in the Women’s 4+ my senior year of college. I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education and Child Studies.

After graduating, I felt lost without the structure of practice and being on the water six days a week. My friend convinced me to try a gym with her and I gave in. It was a functional fitness/ HIIT gym and I fell in love with the structure. A couple of years later I got my hands on a barbell for the first time and fell in love. When gyms started reopening after COVID, I joined a CrossFit gym and continued to dive in. I love the predictable unpredictability of CrossFit and the ability to compete against myself every day.

I taught 1st and 2nd grade for 6 years and am now an elementary special education teacher. I love to learn and after finishing my Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis, I decided to pursue my CrossFit Level 1 certification. I figured that I spend enough time in the gym and training, that I wanted to really learn and understand more about what I am doing every day. I am excited to have the opportunity to put my learning into practice as a coach at 2020!

I was the kid who was awful at sports. I cried at basketball practice and was asked to stop playing volleyball in middle school. For as long as I can remember, I have been concerned with size and not looking like other girls. Rowing was my first taste of being an athlete and using my body for sports and it didn’t stick until college. After college, I struggled with the lack of structure and was working out to be small again. The gym I joined did a New Year nutrition challenge and put me on a steep cut that I stayed on for over a year. I developed unhealthy eating habits and took pride in being smaller. I was still working out and enjoyed fitness, but my satisfaction came from working out and being small while doing it.
It wasn’t until I stepped foot in a CrossFit gym that I learned that small wasn’t the goal and I had a lot to gain from fueling my body and eating for performance and health. I still struggle with this mindset from time to time, but seeing myself as an athlete has helped change my mindset to fitness for growth and empowerment, rather than to be small. I have shifted my goals to strength and performance in the gym and learned that proper nutrition is a step to reach those goals. I still struggle with nutrition and the mindset behind it, however spending time in a gym that celebrates strength, growth, and competing with yourself has helped me focus on the athlete in me and fuel for my best self.