Thomas Broderick

Growing up I wasn’t very athletic just an average kid who liked to ride his bike, shoot hoops and play kickball and wiffle ball whenever I could. It wasn’t until my junior year in high school was I introduced to weight lifting. I did track and field and tried out for football but football wasn’t for me. Senior year I had a lot of personal things happen and didn’t continue with sports or athletics until a few years after high school graduation when couple friends from the church I was now attending invited me. I didn’t discover CrossFit until I randomly wanted to challenge myself to do a half marathon and looked up gyms that offered coaching. That’s when I walked into CrossFit box for the first time in 2012 with no idea what I was getting myself into. Really loved it and it helped me get ready for my half marathon that I’m proud I finished only a couple months of training at the CrossFit gym.

My time at a CrossFit gym was short but when I moved to Idaho to attend college at BYU-Idaho I did a hybrid of bodybuilding and CrossFit but mostly bodybuilding for a couple years and then a new CrossFit gym opened up and I began training there doing CrossFit again. Life brought me back out east after I got my bachelors degree in Recreational Management. I yo-yo dieted many years until June 2021 I walked back into a CrossFit gym and have been training CrossFit since. I was able to convince my wife to do CrossFit and she began for her first time in December 2021. When CrossFit Fairfield was announced to be opening my wife and I knew that’s where we wanted to train. We both had a special feeling this gym would really help us reach our goals. Within a couple months Keith asked me to coach and get my L1. It was a dream come true something I’d been wanting to do for years just never had the opportunity. My wife Tess and I have been meeting our goals, losing body fat, gaining muscle,  our internal health markers are down such as resting heart rate, blood pressure etc. Playing and running around with our kids is easier. It has transformed our health and wellbeing completely. I now have my Level 2 Coaching certificate and I absolutely love CrossFit and coaching it so others can have the life changing benefits I’ve had and seen so many others now have also.

I have 3 major turning points in my life with my first being when I was baptized in 2012 at age 22. My belief in God was something I had many years prior but getting baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and understanding his gospel and eternal plan for me and my family was pivotal for me to be the man, husband and father he knows I can be and the man, husband and father I want to be and that I am today. My second major turning point was the birth of my first child. Becoming a father was and is the greatest blessing. Each of my now 4 children have taught me different lessons in life. My sons and daughters have given me a great purpose and ability to love so deep and powerfully to the core of every fiber of my being that they are the strength within me whenever I’m presented with a challenge.

My third turning point was in college at BYU-Idaho I studied Recreational Management where I learned how to take recreational activities and make them into life learning experiences with both psychological and physical benefits. As a young man I had many fears and very little confidence. I climbed the rock wall as someone who was afraid of heights and was still learning to trust others to support me if I fell. I learned to survive in the wilderness on camping adventures and outdoor trips. I learned how to encourage people through positive words and reminding them of challenges they faced before they’ve overcome. The ability to be empathetic yet give that supportive push needed to keep climbing, keep moving forward and before you know it you’ve climbed to the top, reached your goal and can be proud of the hard thing you accomplished. I was taught these things and skills and it brings me great joy to use them to help and coach people to reach their goals.