Meet Coach Nick, who has been on our coaching staff over 5 years now. He is a Ohio native who can usually be seen cheering for the Browns or Cavs on the weekends, but you can also catch him coaching at CFH most Monday and Wednesday evenings! Coach Nick has also qualified for the online Masters qualifiers for the CrossFit Games Masters division, placing as high as 26th in the world in the past!

Name: Nick Maiorana

Born (where): Youngstown, Ohio

Job: Technology Manager for Wells Fargo

What are your hobbies and interests and/or talents outside of CrossFit?  Studying artificial intelligence, learning to play drums, playing poker with my friends and in tournaments in Vegas. The best are the WSOP events.

Favorite WOD/type of Movements:  I like a longer duration WOD that includes heavy weights. Something with a heavy squat clean, deadlift or snatch. Couple it with some sort of gymnastics/endurance movements and make it around 20-40 minutes long.

Least Favorite WOD/type of Movements:  Wall Balls…definitely wall balls.

How/Why did you start CrossFit?  I was entering obstacle course races and one of them had a month long calendar of daily workouts. When I found out that it came from a site called CrossFit it did not take me long to start doing the WODs and following the workouts cycles from mainsite. I did it for a year on my own and my olympic lifts were terrible. Once I walked into CFH, my entire world changed and I learned a lot about proper movement.

Take us back to your first day in CrossFit….  It was in the old building for CFH. I had purchased a month of workouts from Groupon or something. I was nervous for sure, yet anxious to see how I compared to other people doing the sport. After the month, I was hooked. I mean like addicted hooked. You know the first rule of CrossFit? (“Tell everyone about CrossFit”) Well I lived up to it. The atmosphere was super encouraging and I loved the close-knit relationships that made up CFH.

What kind of changes have you seen in your body, health and fitness since starting CrossFit?  I think I’m the strongest I have ever been. I don’t remember lifting this much weight in my 20s. My endurance is so much better (but I think running really helps with that). And my fear of trying things which look so impossible on paper has greatly diminished. Like the first time I saw “Filthy Fifty”, I said there is no way anyone can do that much work. Then I did it and I felt so accomplished. Yeah, besides jumping out of planes, not much scares me these days.

Have you experienced any changes in your life since beginning CrossFit that have been totally unexpected?  Becoming a coach. When Frankie asked me if I was interested I was so flattered. I always enjoyed teaching people and this was something I was totally interested in.

Please share your favorite CrossFit Harrisburg moment(s):  Wow. There are so many. I think that every time I see someone do something they never thought possible and they get that “kid at Christmas” look on their face. There are so many of those and I love it every time it happens.

Any advice for those just getting started?  Like I tell everyone that says they are interested. Just start. Everyone thinks they need to be in shape. I explain that it takes time to get CrossFit shape, but none of us really started that way. I encourage them to give it a shot, they can always stop if they don’t like it. But waiting to get into shape first is not the best way to go about it.

Favorite coaching moment?  Like I said earlier, anytime I see someone accomplish what they thought was an impossible goal. But thinking back over the short term I think it might have been giving Jon Anderson a couple of pointers before seeing him do his first bar muscle up.

Why did you begin coaching?  Frankie asked me if I was interested. That was quite a compliment for him to ask. It showed me he had confidence and trust in me with his athletes and his business. I kinda love this stuff, so making the decision was easy.

What does it mean to be a Masters CrossFit athlete?  It’s fun. I get nervous as heck when the Open comes around. But I enjoy every moment. Competing against the top 200 is a real eye opener. These guys are good and they seem to be getting better every year. I still have aspirations of making it to the games someday. I need to dedicate more time than I have in the past to make it happen. It will be interesting for the 2020 games when they make us go head-to-head in local competitions instead of online qualifying. I think I do better when they guys I’m going against are in the room.