Annika Van Kessel

Never did any sports super competitively but did a bunch of random stuff like dance and figure skating as a kid, then soccer and rock climbing as a young adult. Held lots of active field jobs when I first started my career as a geologist which made me want to get strong and stay in shape! When I started working rotations at a mine I got really bored in the evenings so I always made a point of working out. As I got more into CrossFit, I always enjoyed the lifting portion of class or when the whole class was just lifting. During COVID I only had access to a friend's garage gym, with very limited space and equipment, so I started shifting to just lifting and it stuck! But I do love a nice long CrossFit workout just to make sure I haven't fallen wildly out of shape.

I've always been pretty stubborn but not particularly confident in my abilities. I have found doing things in sport that scare me helps me realize I'm capable of so much more than I think I am. Learning to have positive self talk and to cultivate an aggressive mindset for a task at hand has been the biggest turning point for me and is something I'm always working on!

I love coaching/helping others in their fitness journey because I took a long, convoluted road to get where I am and I now see it was actually pretty simple. There's so much information to be overwhelmed by today and it would make me so happy if I could make the path to a healthy and fit lifestyle much easier/clearer for someone! It's always great to see people accomplish things they didn't think they could, or see a new movement click for somebody for the first time!