I’m Matt Bathgate (some call me BathMatt… long story). I was born in 1982 and I’m a 6’2″, 215# CrossFitter with a positive outlook and the determination to see things through to the end. In university, I worked hard to receive a couple of degrees that have about as little to do with physical training and excercise as you can get (Engineering Physics and Computer Science). I currently work as a Embedded Systems Developer for a local electronic communications company and spend most of my work hours staring at computer code… but that’s just a day job, not a passion. Prior to CrossFit, I had always been active in multiple sports and most recently found a home on the Rugby pitch. When envisioning the future, my ideal lifestyle always included rigourous training which encompassed the constant pursuit of physical *and* mental excellence. My education and career do pretty well for the later of those two, but it wasn’t until I found CrossFit and Synergy that my choice of physical activity really lived up to my expectations for both sides of the coin.
The first time I heard of CrossFit was around March of 2008 when a Rugby buddy mass-emailed a link to the team for www.CrossFit.com with a subject line something like “Check this crazy stuff out!1!1!”. I took a look, thought it was interesting, and bookmarked the page for some other time. About a month later, I decided to actually try it out. My first WOD: 21-15-9 of DB Squat Cleans, Pull-Ups. I can’t even remember what weight I used and I know I couldn’t do legit pull-ups, and I couldn’t straighten my arms for 3 days… it didn’t matter, I was totally hooked. It wasn’t long before I brought my wife into the fold and we were following the WOD together at our local “GloboGym”. Not long after, we heard that Chad and Ian were starting the gym that would grow into what Synergy Strength and Conditioning is today. After meeting them, we knew that there was the potential for something great to go on within those walls, so we instantly dropped the Globo-membership and signed up. In those days, the gym didn’t even have showers, they were just holes in the cement. But soon Courtney and I both decided we wanted to contribute more than we could just being active participants. After numerous hours of certifications, practice, guidance from Chad on movement, training, and nutrition, we joined the training team and made Synergy a cornerstone of our life. CrossFit is our sport and the Synergy community is our life.
Through CrossFit and the community that we’ve help Chad and Ian to build, I’ve found a satisfying outlet to exercise my body, mind, and force of will day-in and day-out with the friends that have grown to become my family. Sharing in this experience and reaching more like-minded folks everyday is what drives me to be a better trainer and athlete. The fact that I have the opportunity to share this experience with my lovely and impressive wife is just the low glycemic icing on the Paleolithic Cake!
-Matt
