K-Moodz got serious bar skills!

Hello everyone! Time for another installment of “Athlete of the week!” It’s my pleasure to announce this week’s selection, Kumuda Pradhan!! 

Kumuda tops the leader-board every week but there is more to this girl than pistols and heavy cleans. We got to interview Kumuda on why she chooses to train CrossFit, how her students motivate her workouts, and the friends she has recruited to our gym along the way!

Foundry: What makes The Foundry important to you?

Kumuda Pradhan: This is my first year as a Teach for America teacher. This past semester my life felt as if it was in complete disarray. There were limitations to how much I could/can control a multitude of things– the extreme hardships my kids face at home or [worrying about how they will] perform on potentially life altering assessments. It has been so easy to feel discouraged when what I’m trying to do with my students holds so much gravity. Failure in any sense felt like I was failing my kids, my deficiencies didn’t have repercussions just for me, but also had some sort of implication towards the options my kids are able to access in their lives.

If it weren’t for the gym I don’t think I would have been able to shoulder what I feel and do on a daily basis. At the gym I am the master of my own fate, I can be as good as I want to be. If I want to push harder, then I can, whereas with my kids that isn’t always the case. When I’m here I can see progress, and that progress sustains my sanity as well as the faith that my students and I can and will make gains.

Secondly, I think it’s important for women to be strong. Consider what we measure here— our time on a workout, the plates on the bar not the size of our waists, pounds we weigh or calories consumed. CrossFit creates a space where people can gain self-worth in functionality and rather than some less productive standards.

F: Why did you want to share crossfit with Jess and Wayne?

K-Moodz: CrossFit offers you longevity, that’s the ultimate win. To live a longer, better, healthier, happier and more adventurous life. Not sharing CrossFit seems a bit of a crime. To me CrossFit embodies self-betterment in the truest sense. That’s something I really value, and think that my friends could benefit from. There are few places where you can genuinely say, I markedly did something to make myself better today.

F: What are some of the goals you are working on?

K-Moodz: Those oh-so-elusive double unders and the gymnastics bar stuff.

F: What’s something we don’t know about you?

K-Moodz: I was once charged by a bull. And survived.

Thanks to Kumuda for sharing this with us and be sure to congratulate this fabulous girl! See you next week and continue to WOD hard!