JD Sanford

I was always involved in athletics as a kid and through high school. I was named all- district football player my Junior year in high school, a decent baseball pitcher, and hold a purple belt in Shotokan Karate and I traditionally worked out in a “globo-gym” throughout high school and college. However, I started making excuses not to work out through law school and after I started practicing law in 2013, blaming my “busy” schedule and mental fatigue. I started CrossFit in 2019 in order to make a much-needed change in my health. I had one child and another on the way. I wanted to be able to be an active father and my health had not been a priority for me until this point. When I found CrossFit, I found that the methodology, the 1-hour class times, and the preprogrammed workouts helped me to get the work in before I started my day. I started embracing the “suck” of grueling workouts and the results followed. CrossFit got me in the best shape of my life and back to my “fighting weight” (from 240 pounds down to 180 in two years). I obtained my L1 certification in May of 2021 and have been coaching ever since. I enjoy coaching others in the hope that they will discover the life-saving benefits of constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity across broad times and modal domains.

My enemy in my fitness journey was (is) procrastination, poor nutrition, and excuses. I leaned into my vices prior to joining a CrossFit gym and got used to not moving my body and not fueling my body like I should. I still participated in physical activity such as hiking, church recreation, and community recreational sports (adult kickball/softball), but all my health markers were going in the wrong direction. I made excuses as to why I couldn’t make time to workout and never stuck to any “diet” that I started. All of that changed when I stepped foot in a CrossFit affiliate. I loved the feeling of euphoria as I laid on the floor from exhaustion after an 8-minute AMRAP of burpees and wallballs. It revigorated my passion for fitness and taught me how to utilize core to extremity to move external weight. As I saw tracked my times and lifts in the gym, along with the number on the scale and body fat numbers, I was highly motivated to adjust my nutrition to translate to more success in the CrossFit box. I decided that I would start at the 5:00 a.m. class so that nothing interfered with my workout time and I could not make an excuse of anywhere else to be. The routine that I began fed into consistency, which generated results that were unfathomable prior to starting CrossFit.

My passion is to pass down the methodology of CrossFit to new members and to see them fall in love with the process and the inevitable results that follow. I love to see others meet and surpass their fitness goals, and to find a community of other people at Comeback who motivate them to keep showing up, no matter what.