TOM PARRY

OWNER & HEAD COACH

CrossFit can be humbling. My first WOD was a long chipper that started with what seemed like a million deadlifts. Even though I came from an athletic background and had worked as a college strength and conditioning coach, I was not prepared for what CrossFit had in store for me. I had to pull out of the workout before completing it. I was immediately hooked.

Chicago Strength is full of people that rise to a challenge. We experience failure, in some capacity, on a daily basis. Even when we triumph over an old defeat, we immediately strive for the next impossibility. This requires the abandonment of ego and acceptance of slow, incremental improvement. These small gains become massive over a large enough time scale, and can absolute change your life. It changed mine.

I am extremely lucky to be able to witness these transformations — physical, mental, social — in the community that we have built at our 3 locations. It is my favorite part of the gig, and, thankfully, there is plenty of opportunity to experience it.

CERTIFICATIONS:

MS Exercise Physiology and Sports Nutrition – LIU
POSTBAC Pre Physical Therapy Studies – Northwestern University
CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) – NSCA
PES (Performance Enhancement Specialist) – NASM
CES (Corrective Exercise Specialist) – NASM
CPT (Certified Personal Trainer) – NASM
CrossFit Level 1
CrossFit Gymnastics | CrossFit Football

TIM BURGESS

HEAD CROSSFIT COACH

CrossFit L1
CrossFit L2
CrossFit Strongman
CrossFit Gymnastics
CrossFit Kids
CrossFit Olympic Lifting

LANE LOGAN

REGISTERED DIETITIAN & COACH

Lane started his fitness journey as an athlete, playing many sports through grade school some of which include baseball, football, wrestling, and gymnastics in his earlier years. As he progressed through grade school, Lane’s focus shifted to education and he went off to college at Indiana University, leaving his athletic career behind. He spent his time in school as many do, partying and not paying too much attention to his health, until he noticed the toll it was taking. Lane decided to switch his major from business to dietetics and never looked back. He is now a Registered Dietitian and Coach, of which aspires to break down the barriers of exercise and diet culture to help create a healthy, sustainable relationship with food and exercise for all of his clients. Although Lane’s main position is running the Nutrition Membership at Chicago Strength, he also loves to coach. He loves the energy that the Chicago Strength community brings and has a true passion for helping every individual who walks through the door.

CERTIFICATIONS:

RD, NASM-CPT

SAMMY BASAR

Hi, I am Coach Sammy! I am 4’9 and yes, technically a legal midget. Since I am shorter than literally the rest of the entire world, I had a hard time fitting in with sports. I was a gymnast at a young age, but since my family moved quite a bit when I was younger, it was hard staying consistent. I found volleyball in middle school and never looked back. I constantly had people tell me I was wasting my time due to my size. It quickly became my motivation to prove not only everyone, but myself that I was capable of doing “the impossible”. It became my “Why”. I played volleyball through high school and was recruited to play in college. I received many accolades over the years, including being an All-American at 16.  After my volleyball career ended, I didn’t have a “why” anymore. Insert CrossFit. After college, I started working at Chicago Strength as an admin. I instantly fell in love with the ideology of Crossfit – community, work ethic, grit, and growth. CrossFit instanously gave me a “why” again. It challenged me, provided a fun competitive environment I could tap into my feisty side, it allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone, and it also introduced me to my best friends.

My favorite part about coaching is connecting with my athletes and finding their “why”. Whether that’s mastering a skill or starting their fitness journey for the first time. Your “why” may change over the course of your fitness journey, and that’s okay! My fitness goals are much different now from when I started CrossFit. I want to be able to move my body consistently, safley, and effectively no matter my age.

My instagram handle is Sammybasar. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you’re in search of your “Why”. Or you’d like to see various content regarding my pitbull/chihuahua mix, Dobbs.

CERTIFICATIONS:

NASM – PES, CrossFit Level-1 , CrossFit WeightLifting, and TRX

CURBY MARSHALL

Hey! I’m Curby. I’ve been involved in CrossFit for 2.5 years but in the fitness industry for 7. I attended NIU where I majored in Exercise Science and played for the Club Men’s Soccer team. My interest in fitness developed in college and since then I’ve attended various courses and seminars to expand on that. What drew me into CrossFit was the complexity of it all. I wanted a new challenge, and after watching the CrossFit Games a few times, I knew it was something that I’d enjoy. One of my first goals in CrossFit was completing my first muscle up. CrossFit overall has taught me the importance of unity and community. Whether you’re participating in or coaching a class, those people are your family. If one falls, we all fall, so we lift each other up. I’d say my favorite part of coaching is getting to know the members in my class. Everyone has a different personality and it’s always refreshing seeing new faces. Currently, I’m working on improving my overhead balance and stability for a bigger snatch and a bigger front squat max because why not?! Moving forward, I plan to expand on my current knowledge of technique and execution and I will continue to share that with others!

CERTIFICATIONS:

CSCS, CF-L1, ACE PT, ACE Fitness & Nutrition Specialist, FMS Level 1, CPR/AED

CAREY MAGNUS

From a young age, movement has always played an important role in my life. From team sports (specifically cross country and soccer) into coaching, it is a way for me to integrate a social element into my daily routine. I am an apparel designer by trade, but was inspired to start my coaching journey in 2017 for two reasons. The first was to become a better designer and understand how people interact with their clothes while they workout. The second was to educate myself on the complexities of the human body so that I could help train people to move and feel better. With that quest, one of my proudest moments was working with two colleagues to get The 357 course up and running. It is a course for trainers that demystifies the complexities of movement education by directing foundational strength patterns and using the nervous system as a metric for programming. I found that once I understood these foundational principles, I could listen to my body better, warm up appropriately, and tackle challenging workouts. I was drawn to Crossfit almost 10 years ago because I was looking for an efficient workout that could challenge me both mentally and physically as a form of stress relief after work! Prior to Crossfit, I did very little in terms of true strength training. One of my proudest moments was mastering the skill and strength to complete a pull up (strict and kipping) and doing my first Murph WOD without having to scale! One of my favorite things as a coach is helping people identify their goals and working with them to correct limiting factors in range of motion while developing an appropriate progressive training program. Although I love moving the barbell around, my passion lies in kettlebells as a form of strength training. When Im not at the gym, you can usually find me on a Mega-reformer teaching pilates or on my computer sketching.

CERTIFICATIONS:

JORDAN COUGHLIN

My name is Jordan, I’m 28 years old, originally from Texas. Previously, my only sports or fitness background was starting P90X in my childhood bedroom the summer before college.  I started following some online programming and lifting weights for a couple of years on my own, then started CrossFit through a 6-week challenge in the summer of 2017.
I was a heavy social drinker and former cigarette smoker of about a decade, I quit the same year I started CrossFit. Since starting that challenge, I’ve shown up to classes consistently 5-6x per week. CrossFit definitely changed my physique, has made me stronger, more pain-free in my back, knees, and wrist, and has changed my life with regards to my relationship with food and my body. One of my favorite things to talk about within my health and fitness journey is nutrition. I love sharing the fact that when I started my nutrition journey, I tripled my food intake and it felt like I was force feeding myself at first. I had to overcome huge psychological disconnects with how I thought about food and get out of the fad diet culture mindset.
Ultimately, I gained 2lbs in that challenge but I dropped down to 19% body fat and saw not only my body composition change more dramatically than it ever had before, but I also saw my happiness and overall health begin to dramatically increase.

Over the last 4 years, I’ve become the healthiest, happiest, and strongest version of myself inside the gym but more importantly, in my everyday life.

I love that CrossFit is for everyone, and that I always have something to work towards and improve on. I also love the gym family that I get to do those things with and all the amazing people I’ve met and friends I’ve made along the way..
If you sign up for a 6 or 7am weekday class, I’ll be there to say hello!

CERTIFICATIONS

CrossFIt Level 1 Trainer

JOHN MORALES

I’ve loved sports all my life but due to obesity, I struggled to excel. I played almost every sport growing up but at 6 feet 300lb, I was built for football. After a career ending injury in college, I found myself lost and needing a competitive outlet. My long struggle with obesity finally came to end when I found CrossFit and a community that understood fitness from a holistic point of view. I was quickly drawn the the competitiveness and camaraderie that CrossFit offered. I have never looked back.

The first WOD I did was back in 2014. It was a couplet of slam balls and a 100m run. It nearly killed me but I fell in love with the grind. After that, my first fitness goal was just to be able to Rx some workouts. I took the challenge seriously and naturally dropped in body fat and gained so much strength and skill. CrossFit has done a number of changes in my life but the greatest is that it has kept exercise fun and enjoyable for me. If it’s not fun for you, it becomes more like a chore. There are hard days but I try to enjoy every moment. I struggle most with the gymnastics movements, I still have a long way to go but my proudest CrossFit moment was the day I mastered the strict pull up!

I am currently working towards being well balanced in workouts. I’ll be honest, sometimes I opt out of workouts when there is a skill I am not good at. My goals is to work on my weaknesses.

CERTIFICATIONS:

BA Sports Management

CrossFit L1

NFPT Certified

ALEX DIRIENZO

Alex is a former competitive gymnast turned competitive powerlifter. Throughout his coaching tenure Alex has been a gymnastics coach, a high school and collegiate strength & conditioning coach, and a health and wellness coach. He received his degree in Health & Human Physiology. Needless to say, he is our go to gymnastics expert, and we are all jealous of his planche.

CERTIFICATIONS

CrossFit Level 1, CSCS, USAW: Sports Performance Coach