Featured Athlete – Betty Troyer

I have finally found a workout that I absolutely love and look forward to doing everyday – CrossFit. I’m a 54 year old mother of 4 and grandmother of 9. I work for the Office of Injured Employee Counsel as an Ombudsman Supervisor for over 5 offices, all in different cities, including the Beaumont office.

For the most part, I have always done something to try to stay in shape.  In my early 30s I was a runner. After running my first 10 K and clenching the win in my age category, I was hooked. I ran for 12 years. As I got older, however, I realized that I needed to do more.  My brother is a trainer and he taught me so much about weight training and lifting techniques.  For several years I would get up at 4:00 AM and spend 2 to 3 hours in the gym lifting.  As long as I did this I was able to stay in good shape.  Last year I was working mostly out of town. Everyday one of my employees would come into the office talking about a wonderful workout called CrossFit that her and her husband were addicted to. I listened, but I didn’t believe that the workout she was going on and on about could be any better than the hours of extensive weight training I was doing every morning.

In October of last year, the CrossFit gym in that area was offering two weeks of On Ramp so I decided to go and check it out.  I enjoyed it, but since it was not the full-scale class, I wasn’t sure whether or not this was something I really wanted to do. In November, they offered one week of WODs free so again, I decided to go.  After this, I too was hooked.  I decided to officially join in January.  I began working out and did so for four months.  I was surprised at how much I could do.  Because of my competitive nature, CrossFit was perfect for me.  Daren was my favorite trainer. He would always push us and challenge us.  He always told us we could do more and encouraged us to do so. While I loved working out, I noticed that I was having problems with my right knee.  Every time I ran or did a lot of squats my knee would swell and be painful. I would have to ice it and keep it elevated. Walking down stairs became a chore.  I realized there was something seriously wrong.

I returned to Tyler in June, and that was a month of vacations, mission trips, and traveling to conferences for work. While I was home I decided I needed to go see an Orthopedic doctor to find out what was going on with my knee.  I had an MRI and X-rays done. I happened to be wearing my CrossFit t-shirt the day I had my consultation with my doctor, so he began asking me about CrossFit and where I was working out.  He commented on how good I looked especially for being my age.  After looking at my films, he said my knees looked like those of a 26 year old and that I still had a lot of my cushion between my joints.  He then told me I had a small torn lateral meniscus. He said I would not be able to do CrossFit until I got the meniscus repaired.  We went ahead and scheduled surgery for December 21, 2011.  In August, I decided to go ahead and join CrossFit Beaumont and see how my knee felt. I told Neal about my knee and he started me out nice and slow.  Neal was very conscious of my knee problem and made sure I had proper form.  As time has passed I have continued to do all the workouts and even add and increase weight. And guess what? I have not had any problems with my knee. I give Neal all the credit for making sure that my form was right and thus preventing any additional injury to my knee. In fact, my knee is actually doing so well, my surgery for December has actually been canceled!

CrossFit is my passion. I plan my weekdays around my workouts. I tell anyone who will listen how this is a workout like no other. I’m 54, almost 55, and look at me! CrossFit is definitely a huge reason for my success.