Josie Hanson

I have loved being active my entire life! I grew up on the side of a mountain where I spent most of my time riding horses, hiking, and playing outside. But the first sport I officially decided to compete in was triathlon. I was immediately hooked as soon as I gave triathlon a try and quickly became very competitive. I participated in the sport for 6 years competing in draft-legal races with my last race being in 2017 when I competed on Team USA at the Triathlon World Championships in the Netherlands.
In 2018 I gave CrossFit a try since I loved all of triathlon's off-season strength and conditioning. Once again, I have hooked right away and decided to do CrossFit as my sport. As I continued to learn more about CrossFit I developed an interest in coaching which led me to get both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Exercise Science as well as become a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer. I started coaching at CFL in 2022 and it has been such a blessing as I've made incredible friends and been able to grow within the community as I develop my coaching skills.

‍

Even though I was a competitive triathlete for 6 years, I never fit the traditional distance athlete body type. I was always bigger and stronger than the other gals and I had to work SO HARD to develop my endurance capacity. The sport simply did not come naturally to me and I had to put in the work in order to improve. My favorite part of the year was the off-season when we did more strength training and I loved to sprint (This probably should have been my first sign that I wasn't in the right sport).
After 6 years I began to feel burned out as I wasn't improving very much even though I was working so hard. My parents suggested I try CrossFit as it seemed like it would combine my love of high-intensity work with strength training. I was immediately obsessed. I was so excited to learn how to do all the movements and see how much I could lift. CrossFit is a place where I can feel proud of my strength. CrossFit has helped me to have a healthier view of my body and how to train and fuel it properly. In turn, this has allowed me the opportunity to help other people feel proud of their strong accomplishments!

‍

My purpose for coaching is to help people challenge themselves to reach goals they once thought unattainable. I also love to help women learn how to lift weights with the goal of getting stronger!

‍