Justin Walker

I grew up climbing trees and hopping fences in Alabama. Since my schools didn’t have sports programs, I played community roller hockey and joined a competitive water-ski show team in high school. We built pyramids, did tricks over the jump, skied barefoot, and performed stunts on backwards slalom skis.

In college, I picked up rugby and discovered kettlebell training (yeah buddy). I found CrossFit in 2010 while training to become a Pararescue Jumper (PJ) in the Air Force. CrossFit was wild back then—but so was I. I was doing two-a-days with swimming or running every day. After 18 months of training, I passed the PAST Test (the PJ entry program), but during medical processing I found out I’m partially colorblind. I was devastated. I walked away from all things fitness for nearly two years and turned to classroom teaching.

Fast forward: I taught in Detroit, did some grad school in Atlanta, got married, and moved to Florida. My wife convinced me to try yoga at a local brewery. Her instructor invited us to a CrossFit class, and I was immediately reminded how much I loved the workouts and community. At the time, I needed a change and decided to pivot into coaching CrossFit and personal training full time.

We moved to Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, and I coached there for over five years. Getting to good hiking trails took over an hour, which wasn’t ideal—especially with our blind husky puppy who needed time in nature (and so did we). With a push from friends up north, we moved to Vermont in the summer of 2024. I joined the team at Waterbury Functional Fitness and continued coaching.

I’ve since scaled back to part-time coaching after becoming a teacher-mentor at a local youth treatment facility. We now have a second dog and love getting them out on the local trails. One of our favorite things about Vermont is how nature is always in your face—and the weather will change whether you're ready or not. So we gear up and get outside.

I wish I could point to a single watershed moment that transformed my outlook on fitness. But the truth is, there have been ups and downs—times that reminded me how much I need movement in my life, and times that pulled me away from it. Injuries happen. Schedules change. Gyms close. Pandemics hit. And then there are the everyday excuses: skipping a run, leaving the bike in the garage, putting off sleep, or talking ourselves out of going to class—even when we know how good it is for us.

We say things like “you never regret a workout” or “you’ll feel better afterward”—and often it’s true. But is that enough to inspire us to eat in a way that supports tomorrow’s workout? To put down the phone and get enough rest? To check the ego and scale movements appropriately? For me, not always. So, rather than fixating on a number on the bathroom scale or the whiteboard, I have to find a balance of internal and external motivations on my way to wellness.

I’m not motivated enough to do on my own the kinds of workouts we do at Waterbury Functional Fitness. They’re hard—but doing them together makes them better--and makes us better. What helped me change or become who I am today cannot be pinned to any single workout; it’s losing count of them. That's where the community makes the difference.

Reaching a life-changing number of workouts takes much more grace than pride. And when I catch myself comparing my workout to others—glancing at someone else’s barbell or tracking their pace—I try to return to my breath. It’s just me and the bar. That’s when I can do the kind of work I’m proud of. That’s when I can be inspired by others instead of envious. We will all have times when we want to quit. We will all have times when we are the last person to finish. That's when cheering on the others around us and waiting until everyone is finished shows us how awesome we can be. We've all done something we weren't sure we would be able to do. We completed something great and terrible. And as bad as the workout was, we're going to return to the gym the next day and do it again.