One of the most determined women you'll meet!

Meet Cathy Hawcroft... 

Paul had been coaching Cathy for over ten years, so naturally when he moved from the Wellness Centre and opened up his own gym she followed!

Over the ten years that Paul has been working with Cathy he’s noticed her consistency, drive to always challenge herself, and her willingness to do new things without hesitation. Who wouldn’t want to work with an athlete like that?

“In the beginning I have to admit that I was getting very frustrated with Crossfit because I couldn’t squat!” Cathy says. “I found out it was because my back was too tight! I have been stretching religiously since then and slowly but surely it's getting better. At first I couldn't even do a front or back squat because I would fall backwards, now I'm doing okay with them. I still am trying to master the squat snatch, can't do that yet but I'm not giving up!”

At Starke we usually have two workout options, the CrossFit workout of the day and a fitness workout option. Cathy had been consistently choosing the fitness option due to her frustration with her mobility. But, because she’s Cathy, she started putting in a lot of consistent effort and would do at least 20 minutes of mobility exercises at home each night. She started to see more gains, started squatting deeper, she had better positioning, and her Olympic lifts were getting better! This was not a quick process, it came slowly but over past year she has made the most amount of gains. Paul shares, “the look on Cathy’s face after she does a challenging CrossFit workout is amazing! Before she wasn’t able to do a number of the movements and now she can. It’s rewarding because of all her time and effort she put in to it. She’s also mentioned that she’ll be on a cloud all weekend because of a CrossFit workout on Friday she was able to accomplish. That makes me proud!”

Paul and Starke have helped to give her the strength she feels she needs as she gets older. She’s in better shape now than when she was in her twenties! “That makes me feel good,” she continues, “even though my kids are adults, I feel it's important to set an example for them, to look after your bodies so we can enjoy life.”