Matt Fouzie has always been an athletic person, but since starting CrossFit, he’ll be the first to tell you that he has made fast improvements in his fitness. Matt trains with the 4:30pm or noon classes 5 times a week, and can also be caught most days working hard at making a mini-swimming pool of sweat in the extra work area. Matt has a great attitude towards his training: he is hungry for progress, works hard, and is always humble. Read below to learn about recent improvements Matt has made in his nutrition, his approach toward competition, and what he tells himself when things get tough in a workout.

What does an average day-in-the-life look like for you? (food, training, work, recovery, leisure time, etc.)

My day usually gets rolling at 7am when I wake up and do my initial Instagram scroll. Once I've dished out "likes" appropriately I get up and hit the shower and eat breakfast, which is always 1 cup of oatmeal with blueberries, raspberries and some kind of nut butter in it (almond butter has been the favourite lately) + 3 hard boiled eggs with the yolks taken out. I have no idea if egg yolks are good for you but I think they're yucky so I'm good thanks.
Out of the house around 8am to be a desk jockey at Queen's for a few hours usually with a 10:30am Greek yogurt with granola snack. I head to the gym at 1pm during my lunch break to get all my extra work done. I usually skip the shower and head back to work a little moist, a responsible decision to get back to work on time I think. I drive my lunch into my locker on the car ride back to work which is a sandwich with chicken/turkey, cheese and lettuce, carrots and hummus once I get back to my desk.
At 4:15pm I'm out of the office and back to the gym for the 4:30pm class to sweat all over the place. After class, I'll do some mobility (usually), any extra work I didn't get to at lunch and drink my protein drink, which includes beta-alanine and creatine because thickness is quickness. Once I'm home I usually start making dinner right away which includes some kind of meat (chicken, fish, or ground turkey are the fan favourites), a vegetable like asparagus or broccoli, and quinoa which I've recently learned to love. After dinner, I'll make breakfast and lunch for the next day, hangout with my roommates and FaceTime my girlfriend while she's away at school. I'm asleep between 10pm and 10:30pm before I wake up and do it all over again.

Have you changed the way you eat since you began CrossFit, If so, how?

Oh buddy you have no idea. Throughout my entire athletic career my diet has always been my weak-point. I've always been consistent, I've always worked hard but my diet used to be atrocious. Back when I was doing track I was just trying to get calories in by any means necessary so an entire frozen pizza for dinner was a weekly occurrence.. at least. 
I was kind of getting away with it appearance-wise because I was running so much but during the 6-month period between track and CrossFit I was starting to look pretty sloppy. The big change was when my friend/landlord's girlfriend moved in with us (next level healthy eater) and she basically shamed me into eating better. While I could've gone without the verbal abuse while I was neck deep in a stuffed crust pizza, it's pretty wild how much better I feel since I've sorted out my diet so thanks I guess.

How does training/CrossFit fit into your life? 

CrossFit is a huge part of my life. Once I "retired" from track I thought I was ready to stop doing anything competitive but I quickly realized that playing beer league sports and casually lifting weights just wasn't enough. I've always tried to be a versatile athlete and what's more versatile than CrossFit? That's right, nothing.
I know I spend a lot of time at the gym but it's because I love being there and that's what I want to be doing so it doesn't feel like an obligation when I'm rushing there from work, it's what gets my juices flowing.

What reasons did you have to train when you started CrossFit? Have those reasons changed? If so, how? 

In July 2018 I stumbled across one of the CrossFit documentaries on Netflix and was immediately like "Well.. I'm gonna need this in my life immediately." A week later Sean was showing me around the gym explaining how things worked and a few days after that I was diving into my On-Ramp with Jackson.
I originally started doing CrossFit because I wanted to be super competitive and qualify for big competitions and all of that. I knew I was fit from doing track all those years but I quickly realized that CrossFit is a different kind of fitness so I was humbled many, many...MANY times.
I'm still competitive, I still chase fast workout times, and I would still love to start competing, but now it's okay if I don't end up being some big CrossFit hotshot. I love the community I've stumbled into, I love working on and getting better at so many different things, and I love that our community gives me the opportunity to do this every day (except for Sundays… I nap on Sundays).

What improvements have you made in the past 6 months that you are most proud of? 

Other than my diet improvements I'm pretty proud of the mobility improvements that I've made over the last year. I've always gone through this cycle of being really serious about stretching for a couple weeks and then forgetting about it for a couple weeks but I've finally found some consistency in my routine so I don't squat like a question mark anymore.
I still have a long way to go but during my On-Ramp I literally couldn't do an overhead squat so we're on the right track.

Do you currently have a main focus or goal(s) with your training?  

Like I said before I would still love to start competing. I purposely didn't seek out any competitions this summer because I wanted to spend more time learning, but we're past the 1 year mark now so I think I'm almost ready to dip my toes in the water.
When it comes to actually working out I still have some unchecked boxes that need to be tended to. I need to learn how to handstand walk, do butterfly pull-ups (maybe start with Husky McCluskey moth pull-ups), and I'm always trying to get back to my bar, kettlebell, ball or anything faster once I put it down… I have a bit of a staring problem when it comes to barbells on the ground.

What would you consider to be your greatest strength as an athlete? 

Not afraid to sacrifice the body. I kind of look forward to hurting during a workout or being sore afterwards, it shows me I'm working hard and getting better.
Sometimes this bites me in the butt when I get a little too ambitious at the start of the workout but that's show biz baby.

What is one thing that you do every day that you feel is essential in contributing to your success in the gym? 

Taking the little things seriously. I HATE warming up (probably because I start sweating as soon as I walk in the gym) but I get how important it is so I really try to understand the purpose of each movement we do during class warm-ups. 
Working on my ongoing mobility issues is pretty huge too. I don't think there's anything more frustrating than being strong enough to do something but not being able to do it because you can't get yourself in the right positions, so if you're reading this and you have mobility issues I am BEGGING you, please start working on it.

If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you started CrossFit, what would it be? 

Three very important pieces of advice.
1. Start working on the things you're scared of. No one is going to laugh at you for messing up and they're really fun once you figure out how to do them.
2. Get your mobility sorted out, especially your hips and shoulders, your push jerks look horrible you big dummy.
3. Buy some sweatbands you sweaty, sweaty freak. You're going to fly off a pull-up bar one of these days.

Do you have a go-to self-pep talk? (i.e. something you tell yourself when things get hard with training or during a workout) 

"You're alright, let's keep going"
I'm usually very much not alright when I start telling myself this but my body appreciates my mind's effort. The point is to remind myself that I'm just tired/out of breath/in a little bit of pain, it's not like I'm dying or anything so I can keep going.

Is there anything you would like to add?  

This place is special. When we're all on the verge of tears in the middle of a workout I feel like we're all in it together and everyone truly wants to see everyone at their best. I appreciate that more than I could ever explain.